Expectations play a huge role in how any person eventually comes to judge the quality of a film. Typically when you go into a film wanting something and leave without getting it, you perceive it to be poor.

But what happens when you don’t know much about the story of the movie you’re about to see?

That’s the case with the latest installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Guardians of the Galaxy. The film is based on the comic about the titular group of superheroes, which unless you’re pretty into comics, you probably haven’t heard of. It’s a gamble really on the studio’s part to try and break the mold of producing movies about the Avengers and go with something different.

Image courtesy of IMDb.com

And it works, but only if you go in with the right expectations.

If you step back and look at the genre of superhero movies, two camps exist. On one side there’s the dark and gritty take on comic book characters that errs on the side of realism. On the other is comedic and fantastical take. You’ll be able to place superhero movies somewhere on this spectrum (i.e. the Nolan Batman films fall under the dark and gritty side; the rebooted Spider-Man franchise falls closer to the other).

You should go into Guardians of the Galaxy with the expectation that you are going to get a comedic and fantastical take on superheroes. Because that’s exactly what it is, and it exceeds at doing it in a way that its predecessors haven’t.

For the uninitiated—which I imagine is most people out there (me included)—Guardians of the Galaxy follows a band of outlaws led by Peter Quill (Chris Pratt), aka Star-Lord, in an odyssey that involves preventing the genocide of an entire planet. Sounds like heavy stuff, right? It very well could be, except that among the members of this rag tag team are a humanoid tree and talking raccoon (voiced by Vin Diesel and Bradley Cooper, respectively), in addition to a pair of aliens.

So with that in mind, Guardians of the Galaxy never tries to take itself too seriously, which is what you should with it too. It plays with the team dynamic audiences watched (and enjoyed) in The Avengers, but chooses to take an even more comedic take on the trope.

Not all of the performances are memorable, but there are certainly a few standouts. Bradley Cooper’s voiceover work as Rocket (the talking raccoon) is perhaps the best of the ensemble cast. You may not have noticed this as much as a child, but the key to animation is to match good animation with good voiceover work. Without it, the character can fall flat. Cooper’s work enlivens what could have been a very odd cinematic interpretation with sharp wit and some tangible emotions. Vin Diesel too, as the the tree-creature Groot, performs some excellent voiceover work, despite only uttering variations of the phrase “I am Groot”. This isn’t Diesels first time behind the mic either. Fans might remember him in another taciturn role as the Iron Giant.

Aside from performances, the movie’s tone is developed through a choice of classic songs from the 1970s and 80s. The film is dotted with appearances of songs by David Bowie, Marvin Gaye and Tami Terrell, as well as the song that you probably heard from the trailer, “Hooked on a Feeling”. Known in the film as “Awesome Mix 1+”, these songs help tie Peter Quill back to his Earthly background as well as giving the audience pop culture references to laugh at.

Guardians of the Galaxy is a good time, which is all it’s trying to be. Set your expectations and you’re bound to have just that. And if you like it enough, you’ll get a second helping in 2017. The film is rated PG-13 and has a run time of 121 minutes. Final grade: B.