Rainy Day Blues

Summer is always a very busy time at work, and it looks like this is going to be the last weekend to myself for a while, so I decided to head on into the city for the day. Wasn't really sure why...didn't have any goals to accomplish. All I know is, sometimes, it's nice to get away for a day.

Of course, one of my first stops was Best Buy. When I finally got my Internet connection at home, I was fascinated to see that my wireless router had a USB port on the back. According to the instruction manual, this is so you can plug in a frequently shared device -- such as a printer -- or a flash drive or external hard drive so it can serve as network storage. So, naturally, I wanted to get a cheap little flash drive to try this out. I've been finding that Best Buy seems to be the best place for cheap flash drives. Picked up a 4G for $10, which will serve me well for my experiments.

But yeah. It's all plugged into the wireless router and I have network storage. The question now is what to store on it.

And of course, off to go shopping for Blu-Rays. I've been depressed that past few times I've returned from the city without any new DVDs or Blu-Rays. In the long run, that's probably good, because it means I'm saving money. But still, it's a tough habit to break.

The Superman Motion Picture Anthology: 1978 - 2006 is something that came out last week, and I would love to get it.  This contains every Superman movie made...the Christopher Reeve ones and Bryan Singer's reboot from '06.  AND for the first two, you get both the original theatrical editions and the Richard Donner cuts.  As awesome as this would be in my DVD library, I'm still a little gunshy at $110 SRP.  Amazon.ca has it for $85, but still, dude, that's a lot of money.

But I was still able to get my DVD fix.  One of the first DVDs I ever bought was the Terminator 2: Ultimate Edition, and it always felt like there was a hole in my collection without The Terminator.  However, there are no super-special editions for The Terminator.  The only one came out in 2001, was a limited edition, and is long out of print.  However, I discovered that it was released on Blu-Ray just last week, in one of those conversation piece "book editions."  That should be pretty self-explanatory...the package is actually a nice little book about the movie.  I saw that and figured it was worthy of my collection.

I also picked up Apollo 13 on Blu-Ray.  I was blogging about a month ago that I discovered that my Apollo 13 DVD had fallen victim to disc rot, and is no longer playable in my Blu-Ray player.  I snatched my Apollo 13 DVD out of a discount bin for $10, so when I saw the Apollo 13 Blu-Ray in a discount bin for $12, I figured, "Yeah...I can buy a replacement." 

And to cap things off, I snatched up Wallace and Gromit: The Complete Collection.  This contains every Wallace and Gromit short film ever made!  Again, I originally had this on DVD.  However, though, between the release of the DVD and the invention of Blu-Ray, they made a fourth Wallace and Gromit short, entitled A Matter of Loaf and Death.  I figured the release of another Wallace and Gromit short made this worthy of the double-dip.  And hey, discount bin for just $15. 

And I guess I did have a goal in mind on this trip...I wanted to see Green Lantern.  You know me, I'm a sucker for superhero films.  And Green Lantern...well, it's not as bad as most of the critics are making it out to be.  It's just...meh. 

You know, it's long been said that the difference between Marvel and DC can be summed up in the old saying, "Some are born into greatness, others have it thrust upon them."  DC heroes are born into greatness, Marvel heroes have it thrust upon then.  So with Green Lantern, they changed Hal Jordan to a guy who has it thrust upon him, and as such, he spends too much time on Earth moping about whether he should be a hero or not.  It just...didn't work for me. 

And I actually burst out laughing at the film's climax.  One of my most hated cliches of superhero films reared its ugly head, and when I saw it, especially given the cosmic powers of our hero and villain, I just couldn't help but chuckle at how absurd it was. 

So, yeah.  Ultimately Green Lantern reminded me of the Fantastic Four films...they barely scratched the surface of this very rich comic book universe, instead giving us something that seems slapped together and phoned in in order to cash in on the current superhero trends. 

Look for a complete review over on the main page in the next day or so.