These movies continue to surprise me. Of, course before the first one I had no idea who the GotG were. I believe I asked my friend if they were in the Star Wars universe when he broached the idea of seeing them (yes, my comic book friends have learned to put up with astounding amounts of aggravation when it comes to their nerd literature) but I found that first movie quite enjoyable. Then 2 came along and completely ignored the inverse square law of diminishing returns for the quality of sequels. It had good character interaction (for the most part), perfectly placed humor, and a fairly untried plot.
There were a few amateurish mistakes in the writing. For instance, it made no sense for Ayesha (Queen of the Golden Glittery People) to ramble on about the sociopolitical qualities of their culture, particularly when they clearly thought less of any outsiders (read: country bumpkin) than Tony Stark would of Ugh the Caveman, inventor of the wheel. Nor did it seem particularly in character for Quill to hit on her given a) her attitude towards them and b) that Gamora (part 2 of the chip-on-the-shoulder sisters) was present. His later statement that he'd finally found his family also seemed forced.
Most of the times such faux pas occur are the result of skipping from point a to point c in an interaction and could have been the result of editing. And they were fairly minor issues spread throughout the movie. I was also not happy with some of the music choices (why soup?) in this film.
However it did a marvelous job of tracking three separate arcs and weaving them together seamlessly at the end. The writer did a fantastic job of making us really care for Yondu (a.k.a. Marry Poppins) before his moment of heroism. The humor was crisp and appropriate for the characters. Their interactions were well done, and there were enough backstory hints to allow us to start guessing about where they might be going with the team in the future. All and all, this movie left me with a great feeling and had my roommates and I arguing about which song would be danced to (and by whom) at the beginning of the next. I gave this movie a grade of 87%