Megastore at the movies: daytime edition.

Yesterday, I took the train downtown to see Hancock with Dr. Write. We were supposed to eat soup, but the soup people were taking most of the month of August off for "renovation," like that's a good excuse for depriving people of their soup. When I saw their hand-lettered sign, I thought it said "rejuvenation," which is even worse. You can rejuvenate in shifts, people. Where's my gazpacho?

However, and as usual, I digress, since the main point, the thrust, the gist, the wherefore of today's post is that I have been trying, and as of today, I have succeeded in completing the superhero sweep, to wit:

• Iron Man;
• Incredible Hulk (Edward Norton version);
• The Dark Knight;
• Hancock; and, as of today, alone in the dark at Brewvies,
• Hellboy II: The Golden Army.

Here is my report:

When Hancock was over, I said to Dr. Write, "I thought that was good!" because the way I read the reviews, it sounded kind of lame, but I didn't find it lame, not lame at all. Sure, it could have been a little better--maybe more character development or something--but I sure enjoyed myself. And, as Dr. Write noted, "What's not to like?" Also, and maybe I just wasn't paying attention, but there was a plot development that made me turn to Dr. Write to say, "Wow, I didn't see that coming," whereupon she replied, "You didn't?" Which either is another piece of evidence that you can pull anything over on me, or else I was seriously underprepared for viewing the film. Having not read the relevant comic books or whatnot. Anyway: Will Smith is cute, Jason Bateman is even cuter. A completely passable way to spend a couple of hours.

Today, I took the train to Brewvies, which meant getting off at a stop I've never gotten off at before, which meant walking a couple of blocks in a slightly depressed area of our fair city, which was informative. There's an interesting church there, for instance. And a beauty salon that is open every day except Sunday and Monday, but which had a big closed sign in the window, and also large murals of exotically made up women on the side of the building. All told, a little slice of Salt I hadn't seen much of or known about. I consider that a bonus.

My experience as a lone woman in the brewpub theater did not disappoint. (A) I ate a swiss and shroom burger with the gardenburger pattie. Awesome. With fries, also awesome. And root beer. (B) I got to see the preview to Death Race, the ludicrousness of which looks even more grandiose than I could ever have conjured up. Staggering. (C) Also the full preview of Hamlet 2, which could be a nightmare, but the previews? Genius. (D) Hellboy was pretty awesome in and of itself. Excellent visual trope, when Selma Blair bursts into flame; the little creepy fairies were, well, creepy; the giant gears where Hellboy and Prince Nuada have their fight--wow. Danny Elfman's score--nice.

I left before the credits were over, which I almost never do, because I needed to catch the train to be on time for an appointment. The historian and I were meeting with a retirement guy. I continued my streak of barely missing the train by a whisker, so was a few minutes late. I'll tell you this--I'm not anxious to have lots more conversations, with an insurance guy or anyone else, wherein the sentence, "Of course, I'm assuming that you'll die first," is uttered--or some variation thereof--as many times as it was in the meeting today. It's hard for a sentence like that not to take the shine off your day.

On the other hand, the meeting did make me want to leave the meeting and do something wonderful and ordinary with my beloved. Like have dinner, or talk about stuff, or take the dog for a walk, just as we're about to do, right . . . now.