A cheerful blockbuster in which Star Wars meets Ziggy Stardust...

For much of its 122 minutes, Gunn's grab-bag of quirky characters, genre ribbing, and incongruent '70s pop tunes goes over like gangbusters. The trouble is, it's only irreverent to a point.

If Guardians of the Galaxy is an origin story, it is also a satire of the origin story, one that emphasizes the power of the "We" over that of the "Chosen One."

In 1977, George Lucas gifted the world 'Star Wars.' In 2014, James Gunn gifted the world 'Guardians of the Galaxy', in all its strange glory.