I caved...sort of...

I bought Man of Steel on Blu-ray Tuesday, which is significant.

When DVD's started replacing VHS, I was extremely skeptical of that "newfangled technology". So when we finally caved and got a DVD player, I began my investigations into determining which films were worthy of the upgrade. The biggest factors were Bells-and-Whistles, the extra stuff not available on VHS, and the personal impact certain films had on my life. 

Then this "newfangled Blu-ray technology" came out, and once again I scrutinized over every purchase. Yeah, they look better than their DVD counterparts, but are the upgrades worth the $20-$40?

They are...to the point that I'll never buy a DVD again...but my magnifying glass has gotten a whole lot bigger.

That being said, I was thinking about this particular Blu-ray a lot. I don't even have Superman: The Movie on Blu-ray - yet. But I eventually caved for two reasons:

* It was cheaper to get it now, which makes no sense.

* It is (supposedly) the first movie of the DC Movie Universe (which I will forevermore call the DCMU).

When Iron Man came out, I only had the DVD player, so I got the DVD. I just bought the Blu-ray version this year. Way better. But I'm such a fan of the MMU that I'm hooked for life anyway.

DC, in general, has always been a mixed bag. Their animation has always been better, and they've been regularly successful on television for decades. Film not so much. Say what you want, but if they're gonna be introducing Batman to the screen for the third time, they've got problems. But more than that, their comics have been uneven for decades. Crisis on Infinite Earths I understood. But rebooting their books twice since then? 

Ridiculous.

So why buy the Blu-ray?

Mostly because I want to see where the DCMU goes. I've given up on their comics (except for the stuff of my youth and before) and liked the Nolan/Bat-verse, - why they couldn't bring Superman into that we'll never know - but this film was meant to be Film One. Intentionally and deliberately. 

And I'm curious...

What's this?...WHAT'S THIS!?!

HOW COOL IS THIS?

This...is the individually packaged Indiana Jones Blu-rays!

On sale in December...

the day before my Birthday!!!

(ahem)...hey Hon?

Oh...Honey!...

I just don't get it man...

I spent the day with Adorkette in South Portland at PortConMaine, and I bought a used Blu-ray of The Princess Bride for about $10. (I know, it's not anime, but I've mentioned before that it's really not my thing)

I've gotten into the habit of buying movies and music second hand to help save money and to make sure I want what I buy.

Anyway, my problem wasn't with buying Princess, my problem was finding out after the fact that the case was damaged.

This wasn't the first time I had an issue with damaged cases, the same thing's happened with CD's and DVD's, but for some reason, Blu-ray cases are hard to come by.

So when I came across a 10-pack for $15 at Best Buy, I got them...but there went the rest of my money.

WTF?

James Bond...and Walmart?

So, James Bond has a new movie coming out, so they re-released the Blu-rays.

I am looking to upgrade my Octopussy DVD to Blu-ray, and Walmart's offering a single-disc copy for under $10.00...

...but for some reason, this feels a little off to me.

Why would Walmart have exclusive releases of each of the Bond films on Blu-ray?

Shouldn't they be available to all retailers?

I just don't want to pay the $10 and take it home only to find out that "new and improved" Blu-ray releases are coming out next month.

As for the Bond box-sets, and Blu-ray box sets in general, I don't like them.

They usually throw in films no one wants Crystal Skull , or use include versions no one wants Return of the Jedi .

The one exception to this is the Lord of the Rings sets.

We bought the extended DVD set and love it. As I make the rounds in the stores, I see they're including everything in the Blu-ray version...which is awesome...but at close to $100, we'll have to wait until the price goes down.

So...in Blu-ray release news...

It's about damn time...

'course now I have to wait a couple more weeks until I can afford it...

So here's the official ad for the Phase One Set...

It looks cool...but I'm not sure I'll get it.

I mean, it's the size of a freakin' suitcase!

The retro disc covers are pretty, but I'll just look at the pics online.

As for the motion-sensitive Tesseract, again - cool to look at, but if I ever decide to go Cosplay as the Red Skull, I'll use the styrofoam cube I already have...in case I lose it (or DROP it heaven forbid...).

The single S.H.I.E.L.D. disc looks like all the One-Shots and Extras from all the Blu-rays in one, which works...but I like having them spread out over the separate films.

The "extra-goodies" like newspaper clippings and such would have been a huge draw...when I was in college twenty years ago.

My biggest interest lies in the "classified" file. I want to know more about what it is once the set is released. For now though, I'll settle for the 2-Disc Blu-ray/DVD combo.

In Marvel Studios I Trust...

So...Indy's coming to Blu-ray September 18th...

So we can finally see the fly crawl into Belloq's mouth in High-Def!

Awesomeness!

So this is what the Avengers blu-ray box set will look like...

I'd like to see how the discs fit into this, but more importantly...what's in all those files?

So I bought a Blu-ray player...

...and it is awesome! You may wonder why I waited so long to get one, and it's because I have what's known as an "addictive behavior". What this means is that when I get interested in something, I tend to obsess over it to the point of ridiculousness...



This first manifested in middle school, when I had my first real obsession...

By staying quite far behind the technology curve, I greatly reduce my chances of running out and buying every Blu-ray version of every movie I want as quickly as possible...

...which is of great concern to my family, since they'd rather do things like buy appliances, food and clothing and such.

Now - the one issue I have regarding this home-movie experience upgrade doesn't have anything to do with the obscene prices of Blu-ray products...

 

...or the insane modifications of same.

It has to do with the conniving sales practices involved.

Back in the days of VCR's, other than having to choose between VHS or Beta, consumers of such merchandise were provided with everything they needed to do what is now known as"plug and play". Meaning that all the necessary connecting pieces were included.

This was a scam in its own way because not everyone had the same type of television, or access to cable, which meant that not everyone had the proper pieces necessary to connect their brand new equipment to their television - resulting in many a trip to get the necessary adapters...

 

...which we as a buying public accepted because it was understood that not all players were made for all screens...at least not without a little tweaking.

But nowadays, technology is advanced. Upgraded television viewing paraphernalia has become universal in terms of ports and jacks and plugs...

So why don't Blu-ray players come with the goddamn HDMI cable necessary to make it work?

Mine came with audio cables, which is fine, but I have many extras of those already thanks to all the Playstations, DVD players, and VCR's I've bought over the years. I didn't even need to open those.

It even came with batteries for the remote, which is wonderful since I grew up with many a toy where "batteries were not included".

So follow me here - I buy an item that is made for the purpose of watching a movie on my television, and said television is made to work with a Blu-ray player in terms of definition, dimension, ports and jacks. 

Using the included items, I can listen to said movies...

and control which part(s) of the movies I want to watch remotely...

but I can't view the damn thing without shelling out another $19 for the frak'in cable?

W...T...F?