That really says it all. I'm really not historically a big spender when it comes to media, typically adopting new standards late in the game, but with Blu-Ray (apparently officially abbreviated "BD", even though I hate that) I find I'm suddenly drawn to rabid consumerism with a level of ferocity not wholly apparent with any other medium in the past. Since buying a BD-ROM drive for my computer and thus correspondingly acquiring my first BD movie player, I've been hitting the format hard, getting every film available for it I most desire. Since I got the drive in late-April, I've purchased about 17 movies (I say "about" because The Ultimate Matrix Collection has The Animatrix and feature-length Matrix Revisted which could practically count as movies on their own), which may not sound like much since I'm quickly approaching the two-month-mark but given my lowly income and the fact that I felt the need during that intervening time to upgrade my monitor almost solely to accommodate the demanding BD image quality, I find it to be an astounding pace for someone like me.
I guess what captivates me the most about Blu-Ray is the sheer joy I get in collecting only the most interesting or favored movies available. In other words, movies I enjoy watching that especially warrant the fantastic quality on offer. I even have a consolodated list of my collection available for viewing here (note: the Rambo set I got mostly because it was cheap).
And while much has been said about the quality of Blu-Ray, I can't help but mention that both audibly and visually I've been swept away by what I've seen. My screen (even having been upgraded) isn't much to write home about compared to more expensive HDTVs these days, but the image, not just the detail afforded by a higher resolution, but the color and depth makes some older DVDs unwatchable by comparison. I certainly wasn't expecting the audio to be such a jump in quality either. With a quality set of speakers (in my case, some rather expensive headphones and high-grade sound card), you can hear a fullness and richness in the sound that doesn't so much reveal itself with increased detail over older formats, but more as a lessening of the brittle digital harshness, where the icy, flat trebly sound is replaced with a balance that gives greater weight to all other sound ranges and extends further from top to bottom, and with greater dynamics. The separation is downright amazing, too. Even though I don't actually have a surround-sound system with a speaker to dedicate to each channel, the Dolby Headphone simulation does an excellent job of revealing just how much greater utilization and effect is achieved with surround sound on Blu-Ray.
I was gonna stop at 17 for a while and focus on buying other things, but I find I'm still craving more. I wanna start getting some of the kung fu movies on my wishlist, and begin diving into some of the Bond movies. There are a few other movies that I put off before because they weren't ones I held in the highest regard, but now I'm wanting them just because I know I'll enjoy them more on Blu-Ray than I ever did before. I'm really looking forward to the LOTR trilogy, and eagerly await word of Back to the Future releases, plus tons of other favorites too numerous to name here. It's all been way too much fun.
On a completely unrelated note, it seems to me that the Bioshock movie is the first video game to cinema transition that truly has a chance at greatness. Hell I'll settle for just being good.
