Guardians of the Galaxy has been widely well received. At the time of this post:
IMDb - 8.7 / 10
Metacritic - 76 / 100
Rotten Tomatoes -
- Critics 92% positive (7.7 / 10)
- Viewers 96% positive (4.5 / 5)
And US domestic box office gross over $200M (worldwide over $400M)
I felt like Star-Lord was very aware of how absurd the situations were, as he is originally from Earth. The humor in the movie seemed to add to the characters, as you are given very little time to establish them in the film.
I am not at all surprised Dsell didn't care for Guardians; most Nolan fans hate the Marvel Studios MCU films. The Dark Knight trilogy put a lot of focus on the villians and their motives, while the MCU films focus on the heroes and give a sense of something bigger happening outside what you see on the screen.
In fact, considering superhero movies a genre at this point is misleading. Guardians was clearly more space-opera. Winter Soldier was more espionage-thriller. Very few superhero films are following superhero standards. Even the Dark Knight was a crime-drama.