So, what did you guys think?
I enjoyed the movie quite a bit, though there were some things that could be improved I would rank it pretty highly in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It didn't take itself too seriously, and proved that Disney/Marvel can do good by the Sci-Fi Genre. It was a big risk in a lot of ways, being based on a not-super-well-known characters, taking place light years from Earth, with a director who hasn't really done high budget films before.
Spoilers! Though the plot was, at it's core, a "get the macguffin before the bad guy" the effort to give back stories and real emotion to the characters helped leaven that. The cameo at the very end of the credits was something that I knew was going to happen, but was still surprised to see. The film bogs down a bit when the exposition on who's who and who wants to do what to who is happening, but fortunately those scenes aren't that frequent.
It was also nice to see a superhero-ish movie that tried to minimize civilian casualties.
The music really tied the film together, both honoring Star Lord's 1970s origins and establishing the through-line of his connection to his mom and the planet she was from. It grounds the film while getting away from generic action movie music for important scenes.