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As Yoda would say, such a melancholic time of year this is. Shorter days. Cooler nights. Yellow school buses frequenting the roads – I haven't been to grade school in nearly a decade, but the sight of those things still makes me want to run and hide. But of course, the most telling sign that summer is at its end is the horror sequel/remake that debuts on or around Labor Day, serving as a proverbial fat lady signaling the end of summer movie season. Now that Rob Zombie had his chance to speak, we trudge home from the beach with no explosions waiting to greet us, no spaceships, no superheroes. From here, it's action films starring Nicholas Cage and Josh Hartnett, which will then give way to the invasion of biopics and strippers with hearts of gold.

But now is not the time for mourning. Instead of wallowing in tentpole withdrawl, let's take a look back on the Summer that was while we're still drunk on convoluted plots and our bellies stuffed with excessive CGI. I give you the five things about the Summer of 2009 that made it one to remember.

5) No love for Terminator Salvation

Back in April, if you had asked anyone on the street to list their top three anticipated movies of the summer, Terminator Salvation would no doubt have made the cut. Oh, what a difference a season makes.

The runaway winner in the Biggest Bomb of the Summer contest on just about all fronts, Terminator 4 did the equivalent of shooting, dousing in gasoline, setting on fire, driving over with a Mack truck, reversing, and driving over again James Cameron's once legendary franchise.

An absolute travesty from start to finish, complete with an inanely and insultingly dull finale of Matrix Revolutions-like proportions, the film - made by the inexplicably still working McG - grossed $125 domestically against a $200 million budget. In comparison, GI Joe has made $132 million to date. Yeeeah.

This correlation of poor quality and poor box office performance was one of summer's more uplifting stories. It proved to bigwigs everywhere that the collective film-going public has a nose for garbage, or in this case recycled scrap metal.

4) Joseph Gordon Levitt's dreams come true

No, no it's not because the Mummy replaced Keira Knightly's dad from Pirates of the Carribean as the president. (If you didn't understand that reference, I applaud you for not intimately knowing the plot of all three films I just referenced. You are a far better person than I.) (500) Days of Summer, one of the season's modest breakouts, was billed as an anti-romantic comedy, which found I misleading. I would call Requiem for a Dream an anti-romance but hey, to each his own.

With a hefty helping of cuteness and more than a dollop of hipster quirk, (500) Days of SUmemr still managed to put a new spin on the Hollywood romance by showing some of the more painful but universally experienced sides of love.

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