Anybody remember this:

‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ Will Be a Flop By Marvel Standards

As of one week in, BoxOfficeMojo.com sez…

Total Lifetime Grosses
Domestic: $126,759,442 57.8%
+ Foreign: $92,500,000 42.2%
= Worldwide: $219,259,442

On a budget of $170M. So it has made it’s money back in less than a week, and it’s still roaring along.

Look, before GotG came out, my reaction to it was “Huh? Wuzzat?” I’m not a big comic book guy in the first place, but I knew who Iron Man and Thor and Hulk were. GotG? Not a clue. It would not have surprised me at the time if it did turn out to be a financial fizzle. But then, earlier this week I actually saw it at the cheapo theater (I laugh at you schmoes who complain about having to plunk down $15 for a ticket; I pay $5.50 for first run, and just a couple bucks at the second-run theater), and my reaction was thus:

(To be honest, my reaction was actually a bit more like THIS)

For what it was, GotG was prit near perfect. Did it make complete sense? Were the villains fully realized characters with depth? Was the science even remotely accurate? A big fat *no* to all. But what it was was entertaining.

One of the complaints about GotG was that the movie going public didn’t know who the characters were going in, unlike Bat Man or Iron Man. But I seem to recall a little movie that came out when I was seven that also had a bunch of characters I didn’t have pre-existing knowledge of. “Ben Kennobi? Darth Vader? R2-D2? Never heard of ’em. Doomed to failure.”

GotG ranks up there with Star Wars and Raiders of the Lost Ark in being just an entertaining good time. Hell, it’s the first time I recall seeing a “dance-off” that didn’t make me want to change the channel.

GotG is, as has been reported elsewhere many, many times, good old fashioned space opera. It is not realistic, scientifically, but it’s beautifully rendered and it just looks like the sort of universe you *want* to exist. It is not a horribly depressing dystopian view; yes, there’s badguys, yes, there are evil empires; but they can be defeated by the joint efforts not only of organized military but also armed civilians just out looking to make a buck.

Plus, racoons with machine guns.