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#Post#: 41414--------------------------------------------------
Power Rangers (2017)
By: Chiprocks1 Date: February 3, 2018, 4:07 pm
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[center]Power Rangers (2017)
2 Stars out of 5
Trailer
HTML https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kIe6UZHSXw
[/center]
I will be the first to admit that I don't know anything about
the original TV series. Sure, I knew who and what they were back
in the day because their image was all over the place. But
because of its inherent campiness, this wasn't for me. So, going
into Power Rangers (2017), I think I had a much easier go of
just watching the movie for the sake of whatever this turned out
to be. I wasn't going in as a die-hard fan that would be over
analyzing everything compared to the series. So with no
knowledge of the mythology....I was free to just let the movie
play. Based on what the end product was and is....this was bad.
Yes, the movie had a big budget with lots of FX up on the
screen....but FX is not a movie make. Even with the FX on the
screen...it still looked very amateurish by comparison to the
typical blockbuster in this day and age.
One problem I had with the movie was I found it to be incredibly
uneven. It kept alternating between being (or trying to be) a
movie that wants to be taken seriously and then jumping
immediately into one that was trying to be a comedy. As I said,
I've never seen the show and maybe this is something they did.
But it was just too much in the film. Movies that are serious
always need some form of levity to break up the tension. But
here...it was a sign that the Director didn't know what he
wanted this movie to be. The other thing I had major issues with
were the characters. Where do I start? Well, it's no surprise
that none of the characters had anything remotely close to a
backstory. The two girls were interchangeable. I honestly didn't
know where one began and the other ended. The Jock was the
weakest depiction of a "hero" I've ever seen. He's suppose to be
this all-American Sports God and yet he comes across as a wuss.
As the movie wore on, he became less and less of an actual
leader. The Asian guy....jeeze. Has there ever been a more
undeserving person to get chosen to become a Ranger? There was
no arc. He starts off as a douche and more or less ends the same
way.
I know this movie wasn't made with me in mind, but I'm just
telling it like it is. Was not fun to watch at all. I was bored
and unimpressed with everything that was on the screen. I do
however find it telling that the best thing about the movie was
Alpha 5 and Bryan Cranstons's character. It says a lot that the
Robot / Alpha 5 has more human characteristics and emotion than
the actual humans / actors playing their respective roles. This
is a Skip for me.
#Post#: 41416--------------------------------------------------
Re: Power Rangers (2017)
By: Neumatic Date: February 4, 2018, 12:08 am
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So much to say regarding the Power Rangers movie.
You know I'm a fan of the show... I have a soft spot for it, but
I recognize its weaknesses. And this is the movie I would love
to have had a crack at, because there are so many different ways
to approach it. I'm not surprised they went with the
Transformers route, but I'm still disappointed. The vibe I keep
getting from the movie is they felt like none of the original
stuff worked, so they would just add sh*t on until it did. The
suits are a great example of this: messy, convoluted, and hard
to tell what you're looking at.
I agree with you that the characters were weak. I do have a
soft spot for Trini, but mostly because she's insanely similar
to a character I was writing for my high school movie, a sort of
Bender/Allison hybrid. I know you didn't care for Zach (I keep
wanting to call him "Adam" after, you know, the actual Asian
Black Ranger from season 2), but Billy was the worst for me
because he was just whiny and needy, a sort of caricature of
someone on the spectrum.
It's also funny you mention the girls because in real life,
they're opposite personalities. Kimberly is more like Trini and
Trini is more like Kimberly. Also, I have to point out that
Naomi Scott was in this movie called Lemonade Mouth which is
somehow MORE of a Power Rangers movie than the Power Rangers
movie, it's about five different kids all stuck in DETENTION,
again, somehow, who form a band and it's terrible, but I just
thought it was a weird coincidence how similar that movie was.
The teens.. what sucks about the teens is that they're adorable
AF in real life. I loved watching all those bts interviews and
everything they did on the promo tour, I wanted to see THEM in
the movie. I'm all for them having moods and all, but they
didn't look like they were having fun on screen.
I'm all for the idea of them being... not "evil" versions of
themselves, but flawed mirror versions of that (I joked back in
the day about Kazan from Cube as Billy), but I didn't see that
much of the originals in them. It was sort of like the reboot
of Star Trek, one trait becomes magnified and becomes the whole
character. Sulu fenced ONCE and now he's got the ninja moves,
Kirk had some romances and now he's just bangin' every alien in
sight (the the BEASTIE BOYS!?) That's what it felt like.
Rita... see, the thing is that Elizabeth Banks could play the TV
version of Rita amazingly. The best way to think of Rita is
Hocus Pocus, that's what you want. Goofy, over-the-top, but
actually dangerous. She's just an evil witch from space with
weird monsters (a warrior, a tinkerer, a jester, an advisor, and
an army of putties), she doesn't need to be edgy, she just needs
to be effective enough and fun to watch. Elizabeth Banks
didn't have anyone to play off of for most of her scenes.
I'm still amazed that they got Bryan Cranston in this, it still
doesn't compute. It's a weird choice, for sure, the character
was always kind of Wizard Of Oz/Gandalf-y, a proper wizard with
a modern twist. Bryan Cranston is just a guy, it's interesting
because it kind of undercuts your expectations, but it's just a
little strange. Maybe if Alpha was played more like his frantic
original self, that contrast might have worked better, I dunno.
Having two guys in that setting feels... odd. It doesn't seem
like there's enough contrast.
The fight sequences were cool enough, I guess, but you know what
the big issue is, and that's been plaguing every attempt at a
Power Rangers movie? The plots don't scale that high.
A typical Power Rangers episode is only 20 minutes long and it
goes by at a quick clip (which is also why it can get away with
being uneven or nonsensical, you don't have time to think about
it). Basically, a Ranger has a problem, Rita creates a plan
centered around that problem, the Rangers try to solve the
problem but can't, they get some words of wisdom from Zordon or
maybe take what they learned to form a plan, they fight again
and are successful, the monster grows, there's the robot fight,
and then the Rangers ride that momentum to fix the problem in
their personal lives. It's quick, efficient, and it works. It
also means that you have maybe a third of the episode using
stock footage of spandex suits and robot suits and so on. With
the movies, you get the same amount of time but that takes the
chunk of time in the story to about 7-10% of the movie which is
NOT enough to be satisfying. Really, you want an action
sequence every 20 pages, think T2, The Matrix, or even The Raid.
And also, this is a big issue: the movie is basically a big toy
commercial ... but the toys are f*cking ugly. The suits, the
robots... a kid can't draw that, it's too complex to form an
emotional attachment to in the short time we spend with it.
Trasnformers had this problem too. Another issue is that the
Ranger toy market was straight up oversaturated, there were the
retro 93 toys for the old-school fans, the toys based on the
current show for the new fans, and now these expensive ugly-*ss
new ones? That's no good. Now, I know Star Wars has this issue
as well, but it's not to that insane degree.
Before the movie came out, Twitch did a live-stream of the old
show (it took something like 21 DAYS to show every episode since
1993) ... and it was a LOT of fun and it's more or less what the
audience WANTED. The movie was trying to be dark and edgy and
new (or not new, since it was so similar to all these other YA
properties), the movie they should have been emulating was The
Brady Bunch Movie! Embrace the cheese, stick with the old
visual motif, but be self-aware, embrace the corniness, do a
highlight reel of the best moments and memories of the show, and
then just do the action stuff as great action stuff and I think
that would have been enough.
I especially think this would have been the way to go after that
insane Joseph Khan R-rated Power Rangers "parody" that came out
a few years ago. Any "dark, edgy/serious" take would just pale
in comparison, so just go whole hog, embrace the roots. It's
cheesy and silly and that's okay, doubly so in a world FULL of
superhero movies. I know it's a bit of a tough sell, but a big
reason Lionsgate pulled the trigger on the movie was because
people were buying so many of the old DVDs, there was a demand
for that, so why would you make something so far off the mark
from that? It's something I don't understand about nostalgia
filmmaking, upgrades and polishes are one thing, but what's the
point of turning it into something it's not? It's like being
hungry for spaghetti and someone gives you meatloaf instead and
insists that it's spaghetti. That's what the remake of Star
Trek and Ninja Turtles and Transformers and way too many of
these movies feel like.
That's why I'm digging the Boom! Studios Power Ranger comic, it
IS the right kind of upgrade and it is something that's
accessible to a modern audience. I've mentioned it on the
boards a few times because it's literally the best example I've
come across of how to bring something back right. It's pretty
close to the original (they didn't get Bulk and Skull right, but
NO one does), the characters are more fleshed out and
contemporary but still identifiable as the original characters,
the stakes and the scale are epic and cinematic yet the visual
language is exactly what it was in the show: spandex suits,
simple dinosaurs, floating head, weird witch... and it all
works.
It looks like we're not getting a sequel, and I can't say I'm
that surprised about that... part of me is curious, but at the
same time they'd be redoing Green With Evil and it would be like
Star Trek Into Darkness, a retread of something that's pretty
universally popular and done well enough the first time around.
Those are the episodes that EVERYONE remembers and the shock
value of it just cannot be reproduced, like making a second
Jurassic Park. You can't do that, it's not amazing anymore. So
I feel maybe bullet dodged there. I mean, "there's a SIXTH
Power Ranger and he's EVIL... AND sexy AND he just keeps kicking
their *sses over and over!?" It wasn't even that ORIGINAL when
it happened, but it really resonated because it was a five
episode event. This sh*t happened over FIVE. WEEKS. When you
are a kid, that is HUGE. That is an impossible mountain for a
movie to climb.
Oh, and if you haven't seen it, here are all the Green Ranger
battles:
[center]
HTML https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OV5kSV67X4E[/center]
What I'm really curious to see is the Lego Ninjago Movie,
because... that's f*cking Power Rangers as well. I want to know
how they did it, what their approach was.
#Post#: 41420--------------------------------------------------
Re: Power Rangers (2017)
By: Chiprocks1 Date: February 4, 2018, 1:58 pm
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I was very much looking forward to your insight on the movie to
fill in a lot of stuff that I just wasn't going to pick up on
because of the fact I had never seen an episode of the series.
Very insightful breakdown and you pointed out some stuff that I
didn't even think about at all. Great read Neumatic.
#Post#: 41424--------------------------------------------------
Re: Power Rangers (2017)
By: Neumatic Date: February 4, 2018, 5:11 pm
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And I had been looking forward to your reaction as a newbie...
was quite curious to see how it played to an unfamiliar
audience. It seemed like the general reaction was "okay, not
great" which is a death sentence for a movie if you don't have
that dedicated fanbase (see YA movies).
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