Rip Off

I was at the mall late this afternoon planning to buy dinner for us because it's another F1 weekend. I indulged myself a bit by going to the record store, checking out possible videos that I'm planning to buy in either VCD or DVD format once I have my finances back in order (meaning, once I get a job). I came upon the DVD of Avatar that costs PHP750. Usually, that would be an okay price for me since a lot of good DVDs (like Star Trek and New Moon) costs around the same price. But unlike those DVDs where there are special features like commentary from the actors and directors, the behind the scenes footage, deleted scenes, etc., Avatar just have the movie. And to me that's a total rip off.

Movies like Dune, Children of Dune, and Dinotopia were sold for PHP350 here in the Philippines. Those Hallmark mini-series were 4-discs DVD that only showcases the movie and maybe one trailer. Passion of the Christ here is PHP299 and that's only the movie with a special feature of choices of French, Spanish, Mandarin and English for subtitles. And these movies were really good. If I had made a review for these movies in my review blog, they would have had 4-5 tumbling babies. Granted that Avatar was a very good movie to me mainly because of the special effects, PHP750 for a DVD is just plain rip off.

Twilight special DVD cost PHP750. The DVD consists of the movie in one disc and the additional discs has a lot of contents, from behind the scenes, commentaries of the directors and actors, a mini-concert of Edward and many more that I can't remember. The Harry Potter movies costs around the same and those have about 12 deleted scenes, commentaries, and games. Star Trek also costs PHP750 and has all the features that I mentioned plus the added bonus of getting Spock Ears. Batman: Dark Knight (the one with Heath Ledger...I'm not sure if I got the title right) also costs PHP750 and you get Batman's mask along with the other features that I had mentioned earlier.

It's just plain annoying. Yes, I had agreed that Avatar was a great movie especially the 3D effects but honestly, I would be crazy if I'm going to get ripped off like that.

A lot of questions are tumbling in my head right now like: "Is the price like that because the DVD is in 3D as well and I get special 3D glasses when I purchase the DVD?" or "Maybe I'm just jumping to conclusions just because I didn't see anything at the back of the DVD where the contents of the disc is usually placed." and even "Maybe once I purchase the DVD, they will give me the real thing with all the special features and stuff." or "Maybe DVDs don't have those special features anymore and I have to buy Blue ray disc now to get a movie with special features...but still why will a DVD costs PHP750?"

I once promised myself that I would buy the DVD version of Avatar when it hit the stores because I really liked the movie. But like I said, if I purchase that DVD I would feel so annoyed with myself because I had let myself get ripped off. I think I still have a small bit of common sense left in me to know when I'm getting the short end of the stick here. It's not worth PHP750 even if the movie was really great!