Guardians of the Galaxy is easily my favorite movie of the year. It’s not perfect, but it was entertaining enough that I saw it three times in a theater and I’d likely see it a few times more if I could, but it is no longer playing anywhere nearby. It doesn’t come out on DVD/video/streaming for another month (I already pre-ordered it on AppleTV), and what I find really strange is that after searching the farthest reaches of the darknets, I can’t find anything remotely watchable in terms of bootleg copies of it. High quality leaks a month before release happen regularly, so this is unique.

Other summer comedies that aren’t destined for video release for another month or two are easily available in 1080p blu-ray quality, but even after several months, there’s just one awful camcorder copy of Guardians. The film is beloved by geeks everywhere and got both critical and popular acclaim, and yet, there aren’t any R5 russian bootlegs in decent quality and no early DVD rip releases, which seems pretty uncharacteristic for such a popular movie.