The first time I heard about Blu-rays it was two years ago in a film class. We were talking about VHS tapes winning out over Betamax, and how DVDs easily replaced videotapes without trouble at all. Then came the Blu-Ray v. HD-DVD war, which I soon learned would be decided by the porn industry. Apparently once porn began being pumped out on VHS, it was curtains for Beta. I shudder to think of high-definition porno. What would that even look like?

Really, I didn’t care who won between Blu-rays or HD-DVDs, because I still had my DVDs. I was giving high-definition movies the finger before I even gave them a chance. Now my foot is in my mouth.

I got my first Blu-ray after I bought my Playstation 3, just because it played them, and I don’t do a whole lot of gaming. I picked up “The Departed” for like $40, which seemed like a lot of cash for a movie I could just go out and buy on DVD. Yeah, it looked pretty good, but was it worth paying double for?

I didn’t buy another Blu-ray for more than a year, because I still thought it was a stupid idea. I thought they were too expensive, and not too much of an improvement over my beloved DVDs. I thought they’d just fail like those little mini disc players that everyone thought were super sweet back in middle school. I never fell for those, either.

Then came “WALL-E.” Everyone said it was the best movie ever, even better than “Toy Story.” I gave in and bought it on Blu-ray. As much as I hated the movie (I know, that’s basically like saying I hate sunshine and happiness), I was floored by how awesome it looked on our TV. You could see every little detail of that sad, little robot. I wanted more.

After that I never looked back. I bought everything from “Ratatouille” to “Troy” to “Independence Day.” Blu-rays make great movies even better, and watching old movies like watching them for the first time.

I finally and totally embraced that which is the Blu-ray disc and am pretty much obsessed with them now. I even traded in most of my DVDs for like a total of five Blu-rays. That got me thinking, what happens when something else comes along? Maybe there will be things where it’ll feel like you’re actually IN the movie (hopefully, the porn industry will pick up on that one). Guess I’ll have to do it all over again.

Man, what was the deal with laser discs? I bet when DVDs came along, people who got suckered into those happily traded them all in. I mean, seriously, who bought those? It’s like if you had to bring a couple movies over to a friend’s house, you had to carry them in a giant bag or use two hands just to hold onto one. “Yo, dude! Brought over a couple of discs!”

That’s actually like reverse technology, since they were so freaking huge. Why aren’t Blu-rays smaller than DVDs? That’s what I want to know. And why haven’t they put the best movies on Blu-ray, like “Jurassic Park” or another one of my favorite movie of all time, “Mortal Kombat?” I want to see high-definition dinos spitting on that fat guy from “Seinfeld.” Is that too much to ask?

-Russ Aaron

Entertainment Editor