via BuzzFeed

Marvel’s oddball adaptation is one of its more obscure properties, but it turns out to be an incredibly good time.

Marvel Studio

Guardians Of The Galaxy, based on a comic book most civilians have never heard of, is set almost entirely in space and features a talking raccoon and a sentient tree. In short, it's easily the most bizarre superhero movie you'll see this summer.

It's goofy, self-aware, and, even though it's also about larger-than-life characters saving the universe, it feels nothing like its fellow Marvel films. And that turns out to be a good thing — Guardians Of The Galaxy, which opens this Friday, Aug. 1, is a giddy blast of fresh air, an exercise in unfettered glee that leaves behind all the angst and self-seriousness to revel in just how freakin' cool the adventures it's chronicling are.

Here's why it works so well.