Samurai Equine

  Hello there, my crowd! Welcome to my Weekly Musings: Red Edition. 

[I ❤ JAPAN] -- [I ❤ THE COLOR RED] -- [I ❤ CELESTIA]

   Feel free to leave a song request. Your song will eventually be featured in a future Weekly Musings entry!   

Sorry this update is a day late, my crowd.  My weekend was so full of activity, I ran out of time to post this. 

 Let's see if I can give a quick rundown of all the things that happened over the weekend... I downloaded a video game, I did a lot of Christmas shopping (and I'm still not done), got a Christmas tree & decorated it, I got together with my family for lunch on Sunday as usual, made plans for one of my uncle's birthday, got groceries, and watched two movies. Basically, all my free time was used up.  I don't regret any of it, though! All of it was a fun journey, so I don't feel like I wasted a weekend. Rather, I made the most of it.

 Buying the Christmas tree was quite the journey too.  I went to three places looking for a deal. Thankfully, I scored BIG on the third place I went to, otherwise I'd have to go back to one of the previous stores and make a purchase. With a 6 ft. tree purchased at super cheap, I had more than enough money to buy decorations, and I put it up on the same day too. Finish the day with some online Christmas gift shopping, and my Saturday was done. I could go into more detail about this journey, suffice it to say that networking and knowing people who have done the shopping ahead of time really does help out in the long run.

 [ 1 / 2 ] MOVIE TIME! I saw... SUPERMAN: Man Of Tomorrow!  Despite all the advertising that might lead you to believe otherwise, this movie is a mixed bag. They did do a lot of things rights, so they were mostly in the right direction, but they also could have done some things better. Some might argue introducing the Martian Manhunter and Superman at the same time is too much, but I can totally see them being a dynamic duo of their own. I like how visually clear they made it that Superman is solar powered and it heals his wounds too, but not instantaneously. I didn't like that there was a lot of death, yet only one character's death seem to weigh on Superman's heart. It just needed some tweaking to make it a better story element; we don't even know if the victims zapped of life force came back to life or not. Worst of all is we had a scene where Superman was in his fighting evil in his birthday suit (How is it he is finding out as an adult that his regular clothes aren't indestructible like he is?!). How you feel about that might depend on your mileage, but they missed a GOLDEN opportunity! They missed out on a chance to have Superman joke about his outfit, maybe say “I wore my underwear this time, as you can see.” Instead, Supes gave a speech to the world that was a bit too preachy, and he picked a bad time for it. Lots of nitpicks that basically kept this story from really reaching its potential. I'd say overall, it's average or just meh.

 [ 2 / 2 ] I also saw... JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK: Apokolips War.  Wow. What amazing irony. I expected the Superman 'solo' movie above to be the good one, and yet I ended up liking this more. Ironic because I wasn't fully invested in this animated movie verse, to be honest. Some titles were good, others fell a little flat. Still, this one went out with a bang, and with a callback to one of the best entries in the series. Is it dark? Very. Darkest one in the series. And because of that, I can't recommend it to everyone. Not unless you are okay with seeing major DC characters dying left and right, and unless you are willing to wait it out 'til the end to find out how they reverse this nightmare from ever happening. The entire story is practically a What-If story based on one of the worst case scenarios with these heroes, and yet along the way are moments that are very rewarding if you like these characters and the journey you went on with them. Next time, I'll be watching Tokusatsu movies. Yes, movies, plural. I'll probably make it another double feature.

 Zenkaiger 37: Dai-Kon't Believe It!  All I can say is, I hope this is the last filler episode before we start getting more plot. Everything remotely interesting was ultimately defeated before anything could happen, like making the evil minions stronger or almost summoning Kikai World. And this episode definitely did not get my hungry for radish, but those Japanese dishes at the end made me curious. Of course, even a next-episode preview can be misleading.

 Revice 04: The Ends Justified!  Well, this was a rather interesting mix of things. I am glad that Ikki/Revi's brother held him to higher standard, and a talk with his mom helped him grow up a little. This week's new form is based on Faiz, which also sort-of had a family theme in a small way. We got to see the super bike, and it's oddly meta to see the Fenix scientist has Kamen Rider toys. Sadly, the bike was mostly used for a big CGI mess of scene, but at least the CGI was used to display an action scene not easily replicated with practical effects, and it doesn't outlive its stay. But the best part of this episode is how the MOTW's host resolves her family issues. There is something so strongly human and moving about this plot. Every time Kamen Rider tried to attempt this with buddy monsters, this is what I wanted to see. Amazing how Revice actually got it right.

That's all for now, my crowd.  Take care, and get the wrapping paper ready.

I had been hearing some kind of techno remix song that samples one line over and over, "Call on me...". Somehow, I knew I had heard this song before! Proof of how old I am; when I can recognize the samples being used to make new songs. Turns out, this is a song that came out in the 80's, pretty close to my birth year too! So hear it is; tell me if this sounds familiar to you as well. This is the song "Valerie" by Steve Winwood.