Brian Tyler is the composer most associated with what is known as the Marvel Cinematic Universe and his scores are just right and quite enjoyable.

Bates has the same knack for propulsive action cues—and you generally need a lot of those for these movies—but, it seems to me, brings a stronger gift for melody and greater depth of feeling to his work on Guardians.

"To the Stars", for instance, is similar to Brian Tyler's Thor: The Dark World theme (which itself is very similar to Hans Zimmer's main title theme for The Contender) but has a delicacy and poignancy that Tyler eschews for a more direct and powerful approach.

But the music that everybody remembers from Guardians of the Galaxy isn't Bates's work but the collection of pop songs that Peter "Starlord" Quill listens to on his Walkman.

The tape is Awesome Mix Vol. 1 and it actually is pretty awesome

"Escape (The Piña Colada Song) also has a spotlight moment in the movie. Other favorites of mine include The Raspberries' "Go All the Way"—and I actually got a Raspberries CD to see if they had any other songs that were as good, which they don't—and Elvin Bishop's "Fooled Around and Fell in Love".

DC wants you to take everything very, very seriously, which is how we ended up with those absurd, leaden, bloated Christopher Nolan Batman movies. Marvel, on the other hand, is recreating a tradition of adventure movies, followng a trail that leads from Errol Flynn's Robin Hood through Raiders of the Lost Ark.