Zack Snyder's Justice League

I've seen a lot of ads for Zack Snyder's Justice League which premiered lasst March 18. You can only watch it on HBO GO. I still have Sky Cable and apparently you can subscribe to HBO GO through Sky Cable so that's what I did. I am now one of the many people who have seen Zack Snyder's Justice League.

Funny and stupid thing: I actually thought this movie was a sequel to the Justice League movie that came out in 2017. Apparently, this is more like a director's cut that would allow Zack Snyder to present the film in the way he envisioned it (he was unable to complete his work on the 2017 film because of the death of his daughter so Joss Whedon took over as director). This means the story remains mostly the same so not a lot of suprises.

SPOILER ALERT: stop watching if you don't want any spoilers (it's pretty much the same story but I will be talking about some differences that could spoil you if you plan to watch the Snyder cut).

The first major change: the length of the film. Zack Snyder's Justice League is almost 4 hours long! I started watching it at 1030pm on March 18 and I had to stop watching and just continue the next day after work.

Another change is the tone. It feels darker, with characters being more serious and somber for the most part and having less funny banter with each other. However, it also feels less angry. I mean, in the 2017 film, Cyborg seemed to be angry at his father while in the Snyder cut, he isn't (or not as much) and they seem to have somewhat of a positive relationship. I also kinda felt there was less friction among the superheroes here which I appreciated.

Finally, we get to see a few more characters in this film, the most important of whom is Darkseid. Justice League was supposed to be the first of a trilogy and Darkseid was meant to be the supervillain in them but he wasn't in the 2017 version. We also get to see Martian Manhunter in a couple of scenes, including one where he talks to Batman about joining Justice League.

Sadly, it seems that Zack Snyder is not interested in making more Justice League movies anymore, which is a shame because the Snyder Cut sets things up quite well for what would have been future installments. Hopefully, these future films can still be made (and made well).

Quarantine Stories Part 9

The number of Covid cases has increased significantly in the last week or so, with new cases in the Philippines exceeding 7000 per day. I wonder if it's because people have gotten a bit more complacent given that we have now been in some form of quarantine for a little more than a year (we were placed under ECQ on March 17, 2020). That, or people have just gotten tired of being cooped up at home. Just a few hours ago, an announcement was made that additional restrictions are going to be implemented to hopefully reduce or better manage the number of new cases. While I wouldn't say I've gotten complacent or that I'm feeling an extreme urge to spend time outside my living area, a couple of weeks ago, I did get a haircut for the first time in about a year. I haven't had a haircut since quarantine started but in the last couple of months, my long hair had become increasingly annoying. I scheduled an appointment at the salon next door during a one-week leave that I took and I requested for the first slot at 9am on a Monday. I figured that there would be few to no other customers during that time plus the fact that being the first appointment meant that no other customers would have been serviced yet. My assumption proved to be correct since I was the only customer during my slot. Cool!

My first haircut in a year

Another benefit of me being on leave for a week was that I was able to have my broken Samsung phone battery replaced. Not only was my phone discharging very quickly - a full charge would only last a few hours - but if I was actively using any apps, my phone would immediately die even if the battery was still at 50%. The closest Samsung service center was in Megamall and as it turned out, I had to go there twice because I was told during my first visit that a battery replacement wasn't available and they still had to order it. Thankfully, it arrived while I was still on leave. The problem was that I had to wait about 3-4 hours because the technicians still had to observe the new battery and ensure it was working properly. Thankfully, it was a Friday afternoon so most people were at work and the mall wasn't packed. I had a late lunch in Pizza Express since only two other tables were occupied when I got there. I was hoping to just stay there the entire afternoon but they didn't have any coffee so after lunch, I moved to French Baker (there were maybe 2 or 3 other tables occupied and French Baker had really good dividers between tables and even seats so it felt quite safe). Thankfully, my phone battery now works.

I also started using my the Save Money service of GCash. My friends who work at GCash and Globe told me that the interest rate was 4% so I thought it would a good place to save some of my money. As it turns out, the interest rate has gone down to 2.6% now. Still, it's much better than what most other savings accounts offer.

Finally, I am now exercising again. Since the start of the month, I've probably exercised 6 to 7 times. I still want to work out a bit more frequently than that - maybe 4-5 times a week - but at least I'm not sedentary anymore and I get to break into a sweat every now and then. What I discovered is that a 15-minute HIIT workout followed by a 15-minute yoga session with my Down Dog apps is the best, at least at my current level of fitness. Hopefully I can keep at it and lengthen my exercise sessions or make them more difficult in the near future.