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Power Rangers (2017)
348 Plays2 years ago
Derek L. Chase and Corrine Levy of the Comically Pedantic podcast join Perry this week to discuss the ups and downs of the Power Rangers reboot that ultimately went nowhere. While there are great points to discuss, like giving the Rangers some personality and Elizabeth Banks chewing every last bit of scenery, it's also a bit too dark and serious.
Listen to Derek and Corrine on the Comically Pedantic podcast.
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Transcript
Introduction to Rita Repulsa and Power Rangers
00:00:13
Speaker
Sir, I'm detecting elevated heart rates. They're very scared. I don't understand. Why would you show us that nightmare? It's not a nightmare. It's the future. Is that for real? And who is that woman? Her name is Rita Repulsa. She will create Goldar, a huge monster who will rip the crystal from the Earth, and all life on your planet will die.
00:00:36
Speaker
With the crystal, Rita will have the power to create and destroy worlds. So let me guess. You want us to kill this woman, Rita? Aye, aye, aye, Rita. She must be stopped. When is she coming? She's already here. My best guess is we have 11 months. I'm sorry, days, days, 11 days. If we're the Power Rangers and this is our ship, if I walk through that door right now, will it open for me? Yes, of course. Whoa, how you doing?
00:01:06
Speaker
No, no, no, come back. No, no, please don't. Jason, my ranger team died defending the crystal from Rita. That's why I'm in this wall. How do you know my name? Because it's you, Jason Scott. You are the leader. You are the Red Ranger. Rita was a ranger to me and my friend.
00:01:33
Speaker
But she betrayed us. Wanted more power. She lost her way. Now she is just pure evil. You must bring them back, all of the Rangers. You must train your team to stop Rita before she has the strength to find the crystal. Okay. I'm leaving. And I only speak for myself. No, no. You speak for all of them.
00:01:58
Speaker
You know that deep down what I'm saying is true. You were born for this.
Guests Introduction: Derek Chase and Corinne Levy
00:02:05
Speaker
Welcome to the Superhero Cinephiles podcast. I'm your host, Perry Constantine, and we've got two guests on this week, the hosts of the Comically Pedantic podcast, and that is Derek Chase and Corinne Levy. Guys, how are you doing today? Good. Yeah, we're doing pretty great. Happy to be here. Happy to have you on.
00:02:23
Speaker
Yeah, I was really excited to get your email when you talked about, said you wanted to talk about Power Rangers today, the 2017 movie. So I'm really looking forward to diving into this movie because I'm one of the few defenders of this movie, I think. So I definitely think it's got some good points that people overlook. So I'm looking forward to getting into it today. But before we jump too much into that, why don't you tell people a little bit about yourself? Derek, why don't you start?
00:02:50
Speaker
Okay, I am a graduate of the Kuberts school. So I studied comic books for quite a while, actually. I went to, actually two of my professors were the Kuberts. I had Andy and Joe before Joe passed away, unfortunately.
00:03:15
Speaker
And I don't know, so the most interesting thing about me is just that I know Corinne and we do this podcast. Corinne? I am kind of on the opposite side of Derek, which is what's so fun about doing a podcast with him. I am very new to comics. I have always like, you know,
00:03:43
Speaker
been wanting to get into them for a long time and then just there's been points in my life where I've just been into other things like my main thing that I do in the outside of the comics realm is I am like a very big culinary person so like I studied culinary nutrition I used to be like a cheese maker for a hot minute
00:04:04
Speaker
So I had been a bit busy. But when I met Derek, actually through his fiancee, we worked at the creamery together. Derek helped me get into comics. So I've been learning a lot of things from him, getting a lot of recommendations, kind of finding my own things that I like. So it's fun to kind of find a new hobby with a friend.
00:04:28
Speaker
Mm-hmm. Awesome.
Exploration of Comics and the Podcast's Themes
00:04:30
Speaker
And how did you guys end up starting the the comic leap pedantic show? Derek, I believe you started first and then Corinne came on later. Do I have that right? Yeah. Yeah. So I started the show with just sort of the idea of going over some of the more complicated and weirder aspects of the comic book world, specifically the more
00:04:53
Speaker
The more I would say negative aspects of a lot of things, because that tends to be what I find really interesting. Actually, when I first started the show, one of the main topics I wanted to cover was Dave Sim.
00:05:10
Speaker
and his like, cerebus comic book and then just him in general, sort of things that he has done throughout his life. But then as I started getting into it, you know, it's really hard to write multi page scripts for an episode and keep things going. And I started I was originally having different guests on
00:05:33
Speaker
each episode or every other episode. And I really wanted to nail someone down who could sit and do a deep dive into Comixgate with me. And I wanted it to be someone, one, who knew very little about them, and two, who wouldn't run away screaming after the first episode that we did. And I asked Corinne if she would be my scapegoat, my pincushion.
00:06:02
Speaker
whatever you want to say and she graciously stepped in and it was just such a fun experience I asked her to stay on as long as she wanted and thankfully she had enough fun that she decided to.
00:06:15
Speaker
just kind of throwing her in the deep end there starting with comics gate too. It truly was like, oh, hey, do you want to like guest on my podcast? And I was like, I've never done a podcast before, but I'll like tap into my pure millennial side. Like, why not? And then it just was like shoved off cliff. There were some like
00:06:38
Speaker
There were some very interesting topics first discussed because we started with, um, in order to even talk about comics gate, which I believe like when Derek mentioned it, I was like, is that like a, like a president Nixon vibe scandal? Like, I don't know what's happening. Um, it's not really in case you didn't know, but I'm sure you didn't know. Um,
00:07:07
Speaker
And yeah, so we had to talk about gamer gate even before we got to talk about comics gate. So it was a very like, whoo, what a deep dive. And then thankfully it's gotten brighter since then. Like after that, it was like, here's a treat Corinne. We're going to talk about Batman. And I was like, thank you. Yeah, it's been, um, I haven't listened to Batman episodes yet, but I did listen to the full comics gate saga. You guys did add, um,
00:07:36
Speaker
I've had some interactions with some of those people myself and it's just like been awful. And just hearing you guys laid it out in so much perfect detail and also in a way that made it very, also very entertaining to listen to because it's actually a very depressing story, but it was very entertaining listening to you guys talk about it.
00:07:56
Speaker
Well, I'm glad you got a kick out of it because man, I was learning. I was I was concerned when I was writing those scripts. I was like, because originally I was like, oh, it'll be like three episodes long and ended up being six. Yeah.
00:08:11
Speaker
I was getting very nervous about how much I was putting in. And I was leaving so much just in the bin, because I was like, oh, we can't get to that. We can't get to that. We can't get to that. And it was still expanding. So I'm happy that at least somebody got some fun entertainment out of that, because it was a hard thing to research, write, and then record and edit. I can only imagine.
00:08:41
Speaker
Yeah. Sorry. Go ahead. Oh, no, that's okay. I think the best thing that came out of it though, was we really did want to put like a positive spin on it. And like at the end, Derek did end up buying the domain, um, like fuck Collins Gate, which is still like my favorite thing. I have been telling like all my friends, like it ends up kind of happy. Like we do a good thing with it in the end.
00:09:07
Speaker
No, absolutely. I think that's great. And now you guys are, at least at the time that what I'm listening to now is you guys are doing a deep dive into the Spider-Man, the infamous Spider-Man clone saga. What brought that on? What made you decide to do that as the next big kind of project?
00:09:24
Speaker
I guess I can start that answer at least. It was a weird thing where I was like, I need to find something that I think is interesting that we can actually dive into together. And I don't want to have another situation where I'm writing script after script after script and things just keep getting pushed back. And so I actually came to Karen and I was like, hey, I have a couple of ideas.
00:09:52
Speaker
And one of them, one was actually a Batman storyline that I thought we could go over. But the other one was The Clone Saga. And I think I started with that one. And I was like, it's a really bad comic book story that lasted way too long. And I think it would be a lot of fun to read it together. And I don't even think I finished the sentence before she was like, yes, let's do it.
00:10:21
Speaker
He didn't sell it well either. He like let me know very clearly that it's not good. And I was like, but we'll make it good. It'll be fine.
00:10:33
Speaker
I think I mentioned, at least in one of our first talks about this, that I had started a few times trying to read from the beginning of the Clone Saga and gave up. And I've read parts of the Clone Saga before. I know how it ends. Corinne doesn't. So that's one of the fun things about this is
00:10:57
Speaker
there are things that come up that I kind of keep to myself because I want it to be a little bit of a surprise to her when she gets to it. And we're trying to kind of piece the little puzzle pieces together as we go through it because it doesn't always make sense in the moment or even in hindsight, but we try to make it make sense. In short, it's me just progressively getting angrier about one character
00:11:27
Speaker
and Derek supporting me and trying to make it logical. And I just go full with feeling about how angry I am about it. But it's fun. There's actually really good parts about it. And I think we have found some really positive things, which is nice. Absolutely. Yeah, that was one of the pleasant surprises because I had read the clone saga for the first time a few years ago. They've
00:11:50
Speaker
Marvel's got like a series of trades for it. I think it's actually like four or five massive omnibus. And they were on sale a few years back and I just bought all of them and read through them and then read through the Ben Riley trades that came out right after that. And I had two thoughts after I'd finished reading it. The first was, like you'd mentioned, my God, this thing is really long.
00:12:15
Speaker
But the other thing I found was that there is actually some parts that I really sincerely enjoy and I was not expecting that. So I'm glad you guys have been picking up on that as well as I've been listening to your read through of it.
Comics and Personal Journeys
00:12:28
Speaker
Yeah, it's been a lot of fun. Like we just hit like Amazing Spider-Man 400 like recently, which is when I guess it was technically supposed to end. And I was like, oh, this would have been such a great ending. Like I think it's like probably like
00:12:43
Speaker
my favorite piece that we've read from it so far. So it's interesting to see where it's gonna go after we've seen the like alleged what could have been the ending. It's very interesting. We have a long winding road ahead of us. Are you planning to cap it off with the alternate ending they did a few years ago?
00:13:03
Speaker
They were I think what we were actually planning on doing is they had released a Comic book called the I think it was 100 ways to end the clone saga And it was a series of ideas that were pitched Just to end it There was that there was also a few years back. I think it was maybe 10 years ago now They released it was like a six issue miniseries it was called I think it was called the clone saga or the real clone saga and it was a
00:13:30
Speaker
They brought back some of the creators and they basically got to tell the story in six issues the way they actually wanted to tell it. Yeah, I've looked into that. I haven't read that yet. So there is a chance it will show up on the show.
00:13:47
Speaker
For me, I really enjoy a lot of the behind the scenes stuff. So if we were to do that, I think a lot of that conversation would end up being kind of about where did we see this change happen? What editors were involved? Why was marketing involved at all? Things like that. I'm guessing you've used Life of Riley as a big source for this.
00:14:15
Speaker
Oh, yeah, I tend to have a bit of trivia at the end of each episode. And it's not always life of Riley. It is mostly life of Riley. We usually take just editor Glenn Greenberg's comments just to give some context to the the story that we just read or something that happened within it. OK.
00:14:40
Speaker
So Corinne, you said that Derek was the one who got you into comics. So what did he get to introduce you to comics? So Derek told me about Saga, which is, if you don't know, it's from Image Comics. And he had kind of explained a bit of like what the gist is about with it.
00:15:02
Speaker
my boyfriend Max happened to have like the first six books and I was like I'm gonna read this and then I just fell in love with it I think I read all six of them in like two nights and then I just like bought myself the compendium up until like they would gone on like years of hiatus so that really got me into them and then I
00:15:24
Speaker
I think Derek got tired of me talking about how much I loved Saga every time I saw him, that he gave me just a stack of different comic books. But those were all really fun. I'm kind of building a little reading list that I'm going to post at some point, just so other people can see them. Because a lot of them that he had given to me were strong female leads, which I think is really cool.
00:15:48
Speaker
Um, so like I've read, uh, a bit of hack slash, which is fun. If you want like a bit of a throwback to 2009, like horror movies. Um, I did try out Ms. Marvel cause I do tend to lean towards like DC leaning just cause I always have liked Batman and I just find like a lot of like the horror elements that certain DC like stories bring. Um, but it was nice to try out like a fun Marvel thing.
00:16:16
Speaker
And yeah, I read Sandman a lot. I became obsessed with him. I think that's like a great story to tell. It's super like, if you like mythology of any kind of leaning that has a lot of really interesting stories in it. And then what else am I reading? Oh, God. I've done a couple like little one shot things like seconds, which is the same guy who made Scott Pilgrim. That's another great like one shot story.
00:16:45
Speaker
But yeah, I kind of go all over the place with what I want to read. It depends on what mood I'm in. I heard you talking about The White Knight on your show a bunch, and I love that series. I was actually talking, we did an episode on the DCU slate, and one of the things I said, a dream project I would love to see them do is maybe like an animated adaptation of those books, because I think that'd be a really cool way to capture that kind of artwork style and to tell those stories.
00:17:13
Speaker
Oh, absolutely. I think The White Knight is super fun because it's also just everybody knows like Batman and Joker and you could see like everyone does a very similar variation and I love those two characters a lot but I thought The White Knight was cool because how they kind of spin it on its head a little bit and it makes it a more complicated relationship. I think that's so fun. I love when things are complicated and a nice moral gray area but I think that whole universe is really cool.
00:17:43
Speaker
And then I haven't seen it. I know they've done like an animated Long Halloween. I can't tell, I haven't seen it yet, but I really love the art style in that comic of the Long Halloween, because it is just very like noir-esque. I'm a big fan of that. We had actually just fairly recently, we'd covered Long Halloween on the show. It doesn't really match the art style of the comics, unfortunately, which I thought was a big failing of it.
00:18:11
Speaker
The first half of it I thought was really good. The second half, I didn't like the changes they made to it. So your mileage may vary though, but yeah, we had covered that one. And yeah, we had covered it after. We also had that same guy on to come do the, we talked about the comic on the Patreon show and we did the Patreon show first and then we did the movie episode and definitely reading it right before rewatching the movie had a totally different spin on our reaction to it.
00:18:40
Speaker
it doesn't hold up as well when it's compared to the book, unfortunately. Oh yeah, I'm sure. I'm always so afraid to like read something right before I watch the movie. Cause I'm just like, there's never, and I feel like Derek and I have talked about this a little bit every once in a while where it's just like, some stories are meant for just certain mediums and I love to see like what people do. And I'm, I'm not a person that's like, it has to be a one-to-one like, you know, transfer.
00:19:09
Speaker
But sometimes when they make a movie or something, I'm like, oh, maybe you should have stayed a book. Yeah, yeah, definitely. And Derek, what was your history with comics? I know you said you went to the the Cooper School, but how did you get interested in comics in the first place?
00:19:29
Speaker
For me it was it's a little kind of a long protracted story because like there were moments of me Being super interested in like let's say the X-Men animated series or spider-man the animated series and the Batman movies that were coming out kind of around the same time and
00:19:50
Speaker
And getting into comic books a little bit through that, but then as like the years go on, you know, you don't really have a... I grew up in the Midwest. It's really impossible to find a good comic book store, especially one where if you don't have a car, you can get to.
00:20:09
Speaker
So I ended up finding it through other people where people would bring me boxes of stuff to just go through. I now have a massive collection and a lot of it is stuff that I bought but the majority of it I would say is probably stuff that was just given to me.
00:20:26
Speaker
So I've read a lot of garbage comic books over the years, but I fell pretty deeply in love with a lot of them. You know, some of the harder times in my life where I was dealing with a lot of depression, you know, I wouldn't go anywhere, but I would sit at home and I would read a series of whatever comics I could find. A lot of X-Men and a lot of Spider-Man, but not just them.
00:20:52
Speaker
I definitely, definitely can sympathize with that. I definitely had those periods in my life too, when I would just lock myself in my room and just read like endless X-Men comics. And going back to something Corinne said, because I know she said that she was leaned a little bit more DC. I found that too. Like, whatever one was kind of like the one that started you off tends to be the one you tend to lean a little bit more towards. So I tend to lean a little bit more towards Marvel because of that. How about you, Derek? Have you found that too?
00:21:21
Speaker
Yeah, I go through waves where I will be very interested in specific, X-Men tends to be the thing that I fall back on. And I think a lot of that does have to do with being introduced to the X-Men at a younger age and it just being a very good idea for a story and having, God, so many different directions that they have gone in over the years with different characters to carry those stories.
00:21:52
Speaker
I go through waves where that'll be my touchstone and then I'll be really into Superman for a bit or the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or right now I'm very into a lot of like indie stuff. I kind of want something that's short and is a full story. It's one and done because I get kind of
00:22:14
Speaker
I get kind of bored reading long storylines. I have to take breaks. Mm hmm. You know, but again, whenever that ends up happening, I fall back on things like the X-Men. Yeah, I definitely had times like that, too, when I feel like I've been reading. I've been reading too much Superman now. I need to take a break and just read like a one one story thing and be done with it. So that that answers my next question, too, is what kind of stuff are you interested in now? How about you, Karen? What kind of stuff are you really interested in right now?
00:22:44
Speaker
Well, so to prevent myself from having that problem of getting tired of something, I force myself to never read a similar thing consecutively. So like I was just read, like when I read the first book of Sandman, like I binged that book and I was like, this is great. I know I want more of it, but I'm going to tuck it away for now. And I'll read, like, I'll go back and forth between comics and novels intentionally. So I don't get tired of something.
00:23:13
Speaker
Um, so I want to say like the last comic I read was book two of Sandman, but then like to spice it up because a lot of times like there's a lot of very heavy themes with that.
00:23:26
Speaker
Now I'm reading just like some goofy like Janet Ivanovich like fun, flirty adventure kind of thing. But then I know after that, it's like I want to read Hellblazer. So I'm just gonna like go back into like dead lands and people dying of ghosts and shit. So yeah, I go very back and forth between something kind of goofy and then something very like dark and thriller like
00:23:56
Speaker
And it's still very DC-focused, just because, again, I am a sucker for a horror element. And a lot of things like that. So that's kind of the vibe, for sure.
Nostalgia and The Power Rangers Franchise
00:24:11
Speaker
There's new saga stuff that's out that I want to read. And yeah, I also had just gotten... I've never read any manga or watched really anime or anything, but a friend of mine,
00:24:26
Speaker
After I just went to visit her, she was like, you have to read Chainsaw Man. And I was like, I'll do anything for you, my guy. So I have to read Chainsaw Man. I don't know when it's going to happen, but sometime soon. I will say that my wife loves the anime. So that's anything, any recommendation to go on. And she loves that anime. She's watched like several episodes of it. It's got a lot of references to like Western movies and stuff like that, too. So there's like a lot of little callbacks.
00:24:56
Speaker
But anyway, today we're talking about the 2017 Power Rangers, like I mentioned, at the top of the show. What's your history with Power Rangers, guys? Were you guys Power Rangers fans as kids? I can start that off. Yeah, we're gonna let Derek start with that.
00:25:13
Speaker
I'm an old man so I remember when Power Rangers started and I was obsessed as a kid. I think I watched all of the Zordon era all the way through. I stuck with it for a little bit after that and then kind of gave up on it.
00:25:32
Speaker
And in recent years, just because of, I guess, nostalgia, I decided to watch a more recent Power Rangers show, The Dino Fury. And it's, you know, it's a lot of fun. It's very kid friendly. And that's the kind of thing that I tend to really like. I love sort of cartoony over the top.
00:25:58
Speaker
Family friendly stuff and this was definitely right up my alley. So that's my whole life has had intermittent Power Rangers obsessions, I guess Corinne, how about you?
00:26:12
Speaker
Um, okay. So for me, Derek and I have quite a bit of an age gap. And so Power Rangers for me was like a show. It would come on while I was like, you know, on a Saturday morning and I would be like, I guess this is what I'm watching because I'm four and I don't know how remotes quite work yet.
00:26:35
Speaker
um but it's like a fun like almost like an acid dream memory to me because i'm like they're colorful people and they've got they got big robot animals um i tried to figure out which
00:26:50
Speaker
like line of Power Rangers I watched by just constantly trying to like go through Google images and I'm like which suits do I remember? Which robots do I remember? And I think we came to the conclusion that it's a mix of like the original one
00:27:10
Speaker
And then there's a different one where they turn into like jungle animals. And like, that is what I can give you. So for me, we were like, we're doing Power Rangers. And I was like, cool. I'm hanging out with my friends today. Let's do it.
00:27:28
Speaker
Derek, I think we're probably similar in age because I was also a kid when Power Rangers came out. I think it was like 10 when it first started airing. But at my school at the time, 10 was like the age when you stopped watching the more kitty shit. So for me, being a Power Rangers fan, it was something I had to hide from other kids at school because everyone else was like, Power Rangers is so lame. And I'm just like, I kind of like it. I like the toys. I like the show. But I stuck with it throughout.
00:27:59
Speaker
I was stuck with the Mighty Morphin era and I watched most of Zio, I think. And then Turbo, I didn't watch the Turbo movie, but I watched like the first episode of the series. And at that point I tapped out. I'm like, no, this is not for me anymore.
00:28:15
Speaker
But yeah, I was into it for a good long while. That's like a good, like what, four or five years or so of just like being obsessed with Power Rangers and the toys and all that. And I had like all the Zords and all that kind of stuff. And you know, I live in Japan, we're here, it's called Super Sentai. And every time I'm in like a,
00:28:34
Speaker
store or something like a recycle shop. They've got a toy section. I always kind of like look over at the super Sentai stuff and see like, do they have any like the stuff I remember from Power Rangers? Is it cheap enough that I think I can justify buying it?
00:28:48
Speaker
I just recently started watching one of the Super Sentai series. I cannot remember the name of it for the life of me right now, but it is weird. It's weird, yeah. It's also interesting is that Marvel indirectly led to the creation of Power Rangers because
00:29:08
Speaker
Yeah, back in the 1970s, Stanley was really interested in the Super Sentai stuff that Toei was doing over in Japan. So we met with Toei. They struck a deal where Marvel could use Toei characters in comic books, and Toei could make TV shows about Marvel characters. But other than that licensing agreement, there were no restrictions. So there's a Japanese Spider-Man TV show. It only lasted one season.
00:29:34
Speaker
it is bonkers because it is he's wearing the same costume but it's everything else is completely different right he's uh it's available for free online i believe i think i think it robot involved yeah in fact that started the giant robot trend in super sentai because before that they didn't have robots but
00:29:56
Speaker
know, Bandai, who was their licensing partner, they started making toys of this. He had a giant robot. He had a spaceship that transformed into a giant robot. And it was called the leopardon. And the toys sold like, like hotcakes. So they went to toy and they're like, we want more of this shit. So they were going to make another one with Captain America is kind of like,
00:30:19
Speaker
And do a similar thing where they're going to just retake the basic name and change everything else around it But the licensing deal ended and so So they lost the deal, but then they still kept like the basic idea. They couldn't call captain america anymore But now it was it was battle fever j and it was like it was like a super sentai by like the un or something so they were all representative of different countries and They all had giant robots and that started the trend of the super sentai having the giant robot. So spider-man helped lead to
Review of the 2017 Power Rangers Movie
00:30:49
Speaker
the Sentai having robots, which eventually led to Power Rangers. Oh my god, that's so fun. I feel like as a little treat, once we get through like the clone saga, we should watch it. Oh, yeah. So many ideas. I will say this because that show came out at the same time that CBS was doing their live action Spider Man show. And
00:31:11
Speaker
Stanley infamously hated the CBS show, but he loved the Japanese one. Like he loved like the way the guy moved and everything. And it's got this weird Kishi charm to it. It's definitely fun. It's worth a watch. I would be so down. I'm gonna find it. So what did you guys think of this movie? Did you see it when it came out in theaters? I did. I did not. You did.
00:31:40
Speaker
yeah i i watched it uh that was actually the last time i watched it before watching it for this uh i came away with the first time i watched it i really didn't like it uh i wasn't wholly against the movie there were parts i really enjoyed but um
00:32:07
Speaker
I think I enjoyed it more this last time around watching it. But I think the difference there is that I kind of accepted some of the stuff that I really didn't like the first time I watched it, you know. Corinne, how about you? How did you feel? So I remember previews coming out when it did come out. But now that I'm thinking about it, so it came out in like 2017.
00:32:37
Speaker
And I was like, what was I watching in 2017? And I realized like, I, have you ever heard of Danger Five? I've heard of it. I don't think I've ever seen it though. Okay. So if you picture like kind of the craziness, how like old Power Rangers was filmed.
00:32:59
Speaker
but it's like fake set in the 60s or 50s and it's like the most technicolor production that a modern like cheap Australia ever produced. It's like an insane show and I loved it and I was like wow maybe this is what Power Rangers felt like to other people and um
00:33:19
Speaker
So I was like, okay, so I'm gonna watch this movie. I watched it like on Thursday. And I was trying to remember what Power Rangers felt like to me. And I was like, well, it felt like Danger Five. It's colorful, it's punchy, and it's heckin' goofy. So I'm gonna set the intention of enjoying this colorful, punchy, and maybe goofy movie. I don't know. And then it wasn't that. And I was like, all right.
00:33:47
Speaker
Guess we're watching this other movie that I did not set intentions for. But I watched it, I watched it with my boyfriend, which definitely made it like a good experience. This was a movie I feel like you have to watch with another person.
00:34:03
Speaker
Yeah, I would actually say that the other difference between me watching it the first time and the second time was I watched it alone the first time. I watched it with my fiance and a friend this last time. And even the parts that were very silly and kind of like, I think, tonally mismatched were more fun because we were sitting with people who also noticed that.
00:34:31
Speaker
that's an interesting exercise. I've actually only ever watched this movie on my own. So I would, I'm definitely curious to see how, how it would be with a watch with like my wife or someone, or maybe someone who actually has some familiarity with Power Rangers would probably be better, but anyway.
00:34:47
Speaker
You know, Curran, before we started recording, you had mentioned the Batman Forever episode that we did. And my guest on that episode, Mark Buskett, he had a great line in his review of this on Letterbox. I just read it last night. The first line of his review says, Zack Snyder's Breakfast Club Power Rangers is a strange movie. And I think that is probably the best way to summarize this film.
00:35:07
Speaker
Oh, my God, it is. Oh, OK. He makes like great points because like I also got to say like I am I am I am putting it out there now. I'm the strongest defender of Batman forever. And like I don't care if someone else thinks that they are a stronger defender is me. I am the number one. Like that movie was made for me and no one else. I don't think that's OK.
00:35:33
Speaker
But I really liked his theory that it was a Michael Keaton fever dream. I think that's super fun. In my brain, I'm like, no, this is real. But I love if that's what someone needs to like believe in order to enjoy it. I don't care. That's fine. That's so great. I love it. But no, I think that is a perfect way to describe this Power Rangers movie because we were watching it and they go into detention and
00:36:02
Speaker
that my boyfriend Max and I we looked at each other and we were like so this is this is what they think the breakfast club is
00:36:15
Speaker
I actually, I found myself enjoying it quite a bit, although I definitely see there's lots of problems with it. I think that, you know what I want the most about it is I thought it would like the way that they kind of grew up the Power Ranger mythos and like kind of like made it a little bit more serious and all that.
00:36:32
Speaker
But on this last watch through, what I found myself enjoying a lot more was actually the times when they weren't involved in any Power Rangers shit, when they were actually just kids hanging out. I thought that they actually did a pretty good job of developing the characters.
00:36:48
Speaker
I liked a lot of the characters individually. My favorite was definitely Billy. I think Billy is the best character in this. And then Elizabeth Banks' character. Because you can tell she's just having fun. She's having a great time.
00:37:07
Speaker
And I think my favorite scene of the whole point is they're doing the classic movie montage and it is Trini and Kim and they're just like fighting over like a piece of muffin or something. And I was like, this is the best part of this movie. I could just watch this for 15 minutes and I'd be content.
00:37:30
Speaker
I felt like it was two different movies with a lot of the sillier Power Rangers stuff being kind of to one half of that movie and the serious interpersonal drama maybe front loaded at the beginning. And I think they both work. It's just that there isn't enough of a blend between the two of them.
00:37:58
Speaker
that made it kind of seamless and flow together. So like I agree with Corinne, Billy is probably the best character in the movie.
00:38:10
Speaker
But if you were, if this were a slightly goofier movie, God, Rita would have it hands down. She is so much fun. And there is not a piece of scenery in this movie that she was not chewing on. It was great. Yeah. I do have to ask as two people who like Power Rangers now watching this movie, who,
00:38:36
Speaker
Who do you think they made the movie for? Cause that was a question I feel like I kept asking myself. Like, I feel like there were moments where I was like, this is a movie for kids to get into Power Rangers. That's fun. But then there were other moments where I was like, or is this for like adults and their nostalgia? I kept kind of, I feel like tonally and especially with the way the script was written, I feel like I kept getting confused on like,
00:39:07
Speaker
Is it for one is it for the other. I feel like if it's for both, it maybe could have been blended better better because, like, especially when like the kids were talking to each other. To me the way they spoke to each other.
00:39:23
Speaker
reminded me of so much like when you're a kid and you're playing with all the neighborhood kids and you're playing pretend like you're just playing like i don't know like vampires and werewolves in the backyard and you're like oh wait and now we go here and this happens and like oh look at this we found a magic thing like
00:39:43
Speaker
and i really liked how they talked to each other because i was like again it just made me think of like how i would talk when i was playing pretend like with my friends and i was like this is so wholesome and cute and i feel like to me a younger crowd would really connect with that kind of dialogue but then they would like
00:40:01
Speaker
move to like talking to the parents or talking to Brian Cranston's character and I was like wait but this feels more like they're reminding adults of like hey remember this thing you really used to like pretty cool um so how did you kind of feel like did you feel like this movie was really made for you
00:40:20
Speaker
for you or do you feel like it was more to like encourage younger people to get into it or both? Or something totally different? I think the intention was it was made more for people like us because Corinne, you may not know this, but Derek, you might remember several years back they did, there was a Power Rangers fan film that was released on YouTube and it was like this really adult dark take on Power Rangers. It's sort of James Van Der Beek in it.
00:40:50
Speaker
Yeah, I think he was in it. Yeah, that's right. He was in it. But yeah, it was super dark. It's like, if Zack Snyder directed Power Rangers, this is exactly what it would be. It's exactly like that. And it was just like, I watched it and I'm just like,
00:41:08
Speaker
this is too much. And I'm like, this is just, you know, you're taking something for kids. And you've got like Zach sleeping with sleeping with hookers, and you've got people like dying left and right. And I'm like, this is, I think you're pushing it. The I understand, you know, there's a desire to, to have an adult spin on on kids stuff. But I think there's a line at some point that you cross and this movie definitely jumped over that line. Right.
00:41:36
Speaker
And so when I, sorry, go ahead. I was just gonna say, I think that this movie, the intention originally was to do something to get a whole new group of people interested in Power Rangers.
00:41:56
Speaker
But then when they started doing it, they remembered how often kids had to hide that they were interested in Power Rangers. And they tried to make it more serious and be like, no, no, no, it's okay that you like it. It's all serious now. There's no camp involved at all. Don't worry about it. But then as they went into it, they were like, well, we gotta do the go-go Power Rangers thing. We gotta do stuff like that.
00:42:26
Speaker
I was a person who, when I saw that Power Rangers fan film, I hated it.
00:42:35
Speaker
And to this day, I really like, I don't like it. And I know part of the fun of it is that it is a very serious take on Power Rangers, but I don't think you need that. I don't think it has to be a very super serious show book or whatever. You can do serious and still be very campy and fun. That can be done.
00:43:00
Speaker
Yeah, I think to that point, and Corinne, this goes back to what you were talking about, that scene with Kim and Trini, which I love that scene as well. And I was thinking as I'm watching this, I'm like, you know, this movie would be a lot better if it had taken itself a little bit less seriously, right? It doesn't have to be as campy as the original, but, you know, there's an inherent ridiculousness in this concept that you gotta kind of have a little bit of, you have to buy in, you have to have a little bit of fun with.
00:43:29
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. And Derek, I know you're a fan of the Boom Studios stuff, because we're talking about having you guys come on to do the Go Go Power Rangers, one of the volumes for the Patreon show. And I feel like the Boom Studios series, it finds a nice way of finding that middle, right? It's something that it's still
00:43:55
Speaker
has an obvious love for the campy original stuff, but it also grows up in a mythos in a way that feels right. It doesn't take itself too seriously, but it's just serious enough.
00:44:08
Speaker
Oh yeah, that series is one of my favorites. It is ridiculously well written, I think. I think actually the first time I picked up that series, I think I got to like issue three of it. And I remember putting on like my Instagram story, something like, this book has no right to be as good as it is.
00:44:32
Speaker
it should not be like it shouldn't work but it does and uh i don't i don't i don't know how far you've read into it but there is a point where they split the series and you follow the three power rangers that originally left in the show and you follow them on a different power ranger adventure
00:44:54
Speaker
And that also, like that could have been its own entirely new premise for like a TV show or whatever. And I would have been hooked immediately. It builds on everything that came before it. It keeps the camp, keeps the fun. But there are real stakes involved. The characters are not stupid. They make very smart decisions. They just buy into the world that they have.
00:45:24
Speaker
And that I really enjoy. Like there is no point where the characters stop and think like, wow, this is really dumb. Or we have to somehow explain away the fact that there is a giant sheep monster running through the city. That just happens and you have to deal with it now.
00:45:47
Speaker
It sounds like they're really committed to like their writing and their theme. And I think that's how you like succeed in that kind of campiness while also keeping it like very intriguing and like what is the word really immersive for people.
00:46:04
Speaker
Like that's why I really like Saga, cause Saga, like it has some crazy people in it. Like there's people with TV heads and you know, there's a cat that just tells you if it's lying or not. And those are all very ridiculous things, but it also talks about very like heavy topics. And it's because they're just so committed to being like, well, there's a crazy world, but even if your world is crazy,
00:46:33
Speaker
You know, anything can happen in a world, whether it's serious or not. It's just, you gotta be committed to it. You can't be like, oh no, is this too silly? Like, I have to cater to other people. Not yet. Commit to the craft. I mean, I think James Gunn is a really good example of that because you watch the Suicide Squad and it's a...
00:46:54
Speaker
It's serious in a lot of ways, right? It's got these real stakes to it. But at the same time, you've got John Cena walking around with a bright red shirt and what looks like a silver toilet seat on his head. I loved that movie. It was so fun.
00:47:10
Speaker
Yeah, that's another example of like, this should not work, but it does. And I get a similar feeling from that Power Rangers series, and I feel like this movie needed more of that confidence in itself to really kind of lean into those absurd aspects of it.
00:47:26
Speaker
Now, I did some some digging last night. And by digging, I mean I did a five second Google and I don't know how much you're aware of this, but the director of this movie had done one. He was a director on one previous movie, and that was a Michael Bay produced project.
00:47:54
Speaker
And then this was the only other movie he did. And the writer of the movie, I believe the last writing credit that person had was for this movie.
00:48:10
Speaker
I think something you know they were they were trying to go for something and I can see like a Zack Snyder a Michael Bay influence and trying to do this I think that was sort of because this is like right smack dab in the middle of Transformers mania you know and the start of the the Zack Snyder Justice League
00:48:31
Speaker
whole universe. I think there was something there they were trying to capitalize on and these people they brought in were like, yeah, I can do that for you. I can make that thing. And it clearly did not work. I think that's honestly probably why I didn't see the movie. Not only it's like, yes, I barely watched Power Rangers when I was a kid because it was just I was
00:48:56
Speaker
I just missed like the age where it was like a thing for me to watch like fully. Um, but also just there was a lot of like the Transformers Michael Bay vibe where it's like everything is a CGI robot or it was like, you know,
00:49:14
Speaker
the Snyderverse where everything is just like, it looks like a cut scene from a video game to me at least.
Critique of Movie Design and Execution
00:49:21
Speaker
And that was just like not my thing. I like very colorful things. So I was like, I'll go watch Grand Budapest Hotel. It's got purple in it. I want to go see that. That was a thing too about this movie that kind of let me down. Cause again, like I remembered, I was like Power Rangers are colorful. They're colorful.
00:49:42
Speaker
and I want to see like good hues of like reds and blues and pinks and yellows and
00:49:52
Speaker
like the mood to me I was like I would start naming things that would happen five seconds before it happened like in the very beginning where Kim is in the bathroom I like looked over and I was like she's gonna cut her hair with those scissors and my boyfriend's like no she's not boom she's got a bob now or it would just be like
00:50:16
Speaker
I think I said it within 10 minutes in the movie. I was like, we're not gonna see them in the suits. They're not gonna properly morph until we get to act three where they have to be able to morph. And we're gonna see very quickly they're in the suits and then they're gonna go straight to the robots that they show.
00:50:35
Speaker
And it's exactly what happened. That was a thing that really bothered me because, you know, you're coming in to see a Power Rangers movie. I understand there is a point where you gotta like, you have to build up to those kind of things. Yeah, you gotta tease a little bit.
00:50:50
Speaker
there was like a two minute fight scene where they were all wearing the suits and then it was immediately to the Zords. Well there's also like there's the 30 second like walk up where it's all of them in line and they got the suits on and the oh it could have been so cool and super exciting and like they look great like the suits do look good but the way that they light things in the scene
00:51:18
Speaker
like I almost couldn't tell like the blue ranger apart from the black ranger which which is unfortunate because it's like those suits are supposed to be colorful like they're called the red ranger because like oh my god that man is red that woman is hot pink like we're rocking and rolling with these colors um and I I felt like they kind of just did the marvel jumpsuit effect with them which
00:51:48
Speaker
I, they just had a couple more sunny days in it. Like, ah, it could be such good color. But yeah. I had a lot of similar ideas too when, cause, um, I mean, I think the suits, they're okay. I think I, you know, they don't have to have like the, the unitards from the original or anything like that, but I also feel like.
00:52:12
Speaker
Yeah, but I also feel like maybe they're a bit too complicated. And to your point about the colors, I definitely felt that too.
00:52:22
Speaker
It is really dark that they're the way they're lighting these things. And like, I'm just looking at some of the images from the movie right now. And, you know, you compare them to some of the actual like poster artwork where it's much brighter and it's much more vibrant. I'm like, that would have been looked so much better if they had actually felt like committed to showing bright colors on film instead of being afraid to.
00:52:47
Speaker
And it is weird that this came out in 2017 because this does feel a lot like a movie that would have come out more like in 2010 or something like that back when studios were kind of ashamed of doing superhero stuff. Yeah, I'm surprised. They just didn't really, again, I feel like they just didn't commit to it. I think they were a little nervous. I feel like you can kind of tell.
00:53:17
Speaker
I actually was, I hated the designs for the suits and for the Zords. I didn't get a strong, first I think that the suits looked too similar to each other and were very complicated. They were too busy and less colorful in that regard. And then when it came to the Zords, they were incredibly complicated to the point where they didn't look anything like
00:53:46
Speaker
the animal that they are supposed to represent. That's true. There was a point where apparently the joke was that Billy was driving backwards. I did not know he was driving backwards. Yeah, I did not catch that either. I was like, I was trying to figure it out. I kept looking because apparently there were a couple of times he was driving backwards. And I was like, I don't know. Where is the head? Where is the ass?
00:54:12
Speaker
I don't know, donde esta. I will say though, positive note, I think the Rita Repulsa costume was great because you get the nice like kind of like villainy like dark green and going with like the gold. I think that's a really good like almost like luxury kind of color combo.
00:54:33
Speaker
And I remember what she looked like from like the OG where she just got like crazy spikes hanging out of her head and they're all rubbery and stuff. And I know they're not going to do that in 2017. And that's fine. I thought they had a cool modern spin on her because it did allow her to still just like use her physicality to just be like an unhinged bad guy alien person, which so that was fun. I did like her her whole look with that.
00:55:03
Speaker
Derek, I'm totally with you on the Zords. I've seen this movie several times, and for the life of me, if you put a gun to my head, I don't think I could tell you what actually happens in that big Zord fight. It's just incomprehensible. I was thinking back to the first Mighty Morphin Power Rangers movie, where they had the CGI Zords and all that. We had done that on the show a few years back.
00:55:30
Speaker
When I rewatched it, I remember thinking like, God, these Zords look terrible. They're just ugly. Like the CGI was not that advanced. And the CGI in this film, honestly, it's not that much better. It's still pretty incomprehensible. Yeah, I would agree with that. Yeah. There were a couple of moments where it's like, OK, I can like see kind of what is happening. But then other moments I was like, I think this is like the same quality of like spawn.
00:56:01
Speaker
So also, how did you feel about, like, the big Megazord? Because I had thoughts on that. They took away, like, all the color. Yeah. They're not in the same control room. Isn't that the whole thing? They work together in, like, one room that no one knows where it actually is on the big robot, but they, like, are together. It always confused. As a kid, I was always trying to wonder, how does that even work? Do they have, like, tunnels in the Megazord that transports them from one to the other?
00:56:31
Speaker
I always thought that they were just like in the face. Because I was like. Well, yeah, that part. But like, how did they get from the Zord cockpits to the center is what I was always trying to wonder about. I figured it was that like Star Trek beam me up to the face kind of thing. Well, they're in in the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers movie from the 90s.
00:56:50
Speaker
There is a scene where after the White Ranger docks on the Megazord, there is a door that opens up at the in the behind the command center and he has he's in a chair and the chair just like moves forward. So there is like some sort of like a tube system, I guess, that like takes him in, which is really interesting. I would.
00:57:13
Speaker
if there was like a roller coaster that was like you're at like the foot of the megazord you have to get to the command center and it's just some kind of mega drop indoor roller coaster situation i think that'd be a great time also very educational but to answer your question like i hated the the megazord design it just looks yeah it there's it's not colorful at all it just
00:57:39
Speaker
It looks like a very nondescript, again, talking about the Transformers influence. It looks like a very nondescript Transformer, like an extra on the Transformers movie. Yeah. There is actual design that goes into a lot of the Super Sentai.
00:57:57
Speaker
uh uh mechas that power rangers takes it all well basically just takes and there it seems like there was nothing here so like you can point out the original megazord by silhouette you can do that with almost all of them
00:58:16
Speaker
And you, I could not tell you what this thing was, unless you told me it was from Power Rangers and that it was a Zord, I wouldn't be able to tell you what it was if you just gave me the silhouette. I mean, you can't even tell the different components of it. Like I'm looking at the thing and I'm like, which one's the Triceratops? Which one's the T-Rex? I can't tell at all. The only thing I can tell.
00:58:42
Speaker
Oh, sorry. The only thing I could find was just like the jet was put on the back. Just it was just like slapped on there. But that's like all you can tell because they throw them into a pit. And that's just like how they blame all the color getting melted off.
00:58:58
Speaker
And I think that they forget that one of the really fun parts of the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers TV show was getting to see the Zords come together. We don't see that at all. It's just they fall into a pit and then this mega Zord comes out of it.
00:59:17
Speaker
That's not fun. You got to watch the whole transformance in the show. And that got you hyped. Oh, yeah, definitely. Yeah. And if you're thinking of it from also the marketing side, you would want to sell toys off of this movie because they sell toys off of every superhero movie.
00:59:39
Speaker
And now I'm thinking of it with transformers where it's like you can clearly see how Bumblebee goes from Bumblebee to the Camaro. There are steps, it's a puzzle, but it gets from point A to point B and it's very clear on how that happens. You see where like
00:59:59
Speaker
The tires go and everything. If you gave me this as a toy, I could not tell you how to put it together, how to take it apart. I would just be like, this is the toy. It's just stuck like this. And that's not the point, I feel like. That's not what's playable about it. Absolutely. I mean, to Derek's point about the design and all the work that goes into it.
01:00:22
Speaker
You know, on Netflix, they have the toys that made us and they did an episode on the Power Rangers. And, you know, they talked to the Japanese designers who had actually went, gone in and designed these things and talked about how they put them together and everything. And there's, you know, so much thought they put into like, how are they gonna look? How are they all gonna fit together? How can we make these very different things all fit into one big piece? And it's really kind of marvelous the way they were able to do it when you think about it.
01:00:51
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. It takes a lot of like creativity and like just kind of engineering skills to create something so interactive like that. For sure. And that was one of the most fun parts of the toys was not so much the Power Rangers figures themselves, but playing with the Zords and putting them all together. That was, you know, I mean, I used to put those damn things together and take them apart nonstop for hours.
01:01:19
Speaker
I used to try to do what they did in the show. You get to see not just how they put together, but there's a very specific sequence in which they go. And it just made sense to try to do that with the toys. And if you're making this, I assume you're going to be selling this to kids or adults that still really like to have these figures.
01:01:49
Speaker
but you would want to have something that people enjoy about putting them together. I do wanna talk about Elizabeth Banks because like you guys very accurately said, she is far and away the best part of this movie. I feel like she is the only person who really got the assignment correct. She's like, oh, we're doing a modern Power Rangers, so there's gotta be a degree of camp in it. I think she's the only one who actually understood that part of it.
01:02:18
Speaker
And I love camp. So like the fact that I feel like she almost went with it with like a theater kid approach where she's like, the camera is not my audience. The audience is like hundreds of yards away from me. I got to make sure they see me.
01:02:38
Speaker
And I saw her, I was like, she was killing it. And I think a lot of acting like that is very fun. Like if I had to pick like,
01:02:50
Speaker
if I had to swap genders for this role, I would want like a young Tim Curry to play this role. And I think that they did good. I think she did great. I think she hit like a good kind of Tim Curry almost like zaniness to it, which I'm a sucker for. You're right. It's almost like she's putting on a bit of a Tim Curry impersonation at some points. Like even with the weird accent she's doing and everything. Yeah.
01:03:19
Speaker
I was thinking last night while I was watching this, and it might be because we had just talked about Batman forever, but I was like, Schumacher should have done Power Rangers. Oh, hell yeah. That's what should have been done. I would have seen it if that was the case. If they started a trailer.
01:03:39
Speaker
And they were like, hey, do you remember this Batman Forever movie? Do you also remember Batman and Robin? Do you want to watch him take control of five teenagers in a movie? Here you go. I would have bought a ticket. I would have gone to the premiere, gotten myself like a big old thing of popcorn and had a hoot and a half. I would have been so thrilled.
01:04:00
Speaker
well i mean even in in the batman movies there are like neon gangs so like there there there is a design aesthetic moving in that you clearly remember it is easy to see and then in this movie they were like oh we have to have uh some sort of minion to fight named the putties so let's just make them a jumble of rocks that you can
01:04:23
Speaker
cannot see. There is nothing interesting about them. Chewbacca would have gone bananas with them.
01:04:32
Speaker
No, absolutely. And it was funny when we talked about not to go too down the Batman Forever rabbit hole, but one of my big problems with that movie is that it doesn't seem to know if it's supposed to be a camp movie or if it's supposed to be a serious movie. And it just ends up being really horny instead. Whereas Batman and Robin, like I can go back and watch that. I'm like, you know what? As a modern day version or then modern day version of Batman 66,
01:05:00
Speaker
it kind of works a lot more than it doesn't. And I actually enjoy that more than Batman Forever. And if you had someone like Jill Schumacher taking that approach with Power Rangers, I think that would have been a lot of fun. Did you guys ever watch Spy Kids?
01:05:17
Speaker
I never did. Okay. Cause I was going to say how, okay. So spike it. Maybe that was, that was what I was watching instead of Power Rangers. Um, but it's like CGI was kind of just starting, but it is like a wild adventure. I mean, I highly recommend it cause it's truly just a trip. Like watch it in the middle of the night with some popcorn and just don't even think about anything. Just watch it happen. Um,
01:05:46
Speaker
But there is a kind of campiness and goofiness and childlike wonder to spy kids. Probably because it is intended for kids. But I feel like if you took someone who made that and used them for this movie, I think it would have been like a substitute.
01:06:04
Speaker
it always blows my mind to remember that Robert Rodriguez directed the Spy Kids movies. And then he also went and he did like the Planet Terror and the El Mariachi trilogy and From Dusk Till Dawn. And just like, I think I would want to see Robert Rodriguez's Power Rangers too. The only other person I would say. From Dusk Till Dawn is like as weird and horror filled as that movie is, it's also really campy. It's very campy, yeah.
01:06:33
Speaker
Planet Terror too, right? Planet Terror is supremely campy. And I feel like, again, when they did Grindhouse, I feel like Robert Rodriguez got the assignment, quit in Tarantino, not so much. And because Robert Rodriguez really leaned into the camp stuff with that movie. And I think that's what Power Rangers needs. I think that's what we've learned today, guys, is that there are just some franchises that require camp.
01:06:58
Speaker
I would have done well with more camp and less of the weird sexting storyline that happened with Kimberly. Oh my god. If I may. Just a random moment.
01:07:16
Speaker
I love that they try and by love I mean I can't stand the fact that they tried to make a character have like a thing they did that was bad but like you gotta forgive her I'm sorry but you can't forgive that that's like that's foul like
01:07:34
Speaker
that she could be lit, if that happened like in the real world and not in a movie, she could a hundred percent rightfully be arrested for that. Cause that's like staring for it. It was revenge porn. It was revenge porn. Yeah. That was, that was a weird element to put in. And straight up like Jason's just like, Oh, but you're not a bad person. I'm like, no Kim, you're a bad person. I'm sorry. Didn't she show the picture to Jason too? Yeah, he did. She's like, look at his picture.
01:08:04
Speaker
She's explaining how she learned the lesson while she's actively breaking that idea. The only good thing I can say about that is there is a weird tendency in movies like this
01:08:25
Speaker
where there is a strange bit of voyeurism that everyone is engaged in, where the movie makes you passively a part of it, and they show you the thing that they're showing to other people. And at least this movie didn't do that. Oh my god, that would have been really uncomfortable.
01:08:44
Speaker
Um, one thing I did like, cause I'm going to try, I know that like overall, I was like, this movie is not for me, but like, again, I get to talk with my friends because I watched this movie. So it's fine. Um, but one thing I did like was that when they got their superpowers, like Billy's personality stayed the same.
01:09:06
Speaker
Like he's still a kid with autism, but he's just really strong now. And I think that that was like really great because it's kind of like, um, it's almost like the Percy Jackson effect where it shows like kids with Percy Jackson. It was like, Oh, these kids have like ADHD and they have dyslexia, but because they're like demigods in Greek mythology, it's actually like a strength for them.
01:09:33
Speaker
And I think it's really cool that it's like, oh, well now like, you know, a kid can watch that and be like, oh, I feel like I'm a lot like Billy, but I could be like just as cool and strong as him one day. And I thought that was like a very nice thing. Cause he's still my favorite. I will forever root for Billy. He was so fun to watch. Oh yeah. I think he was definitely the best outside of Elizabeth Banks. Definitely my favorite performance in this movie. Yeah. They're like my solid top two.
01:10:03
Speaker
One of the changes too I liked is I like that they established that Rita herself and Zordon used to be Power Rangers. Because that was always one of the things of just like watching the TV show. I was actually very curious about the lore and the world aspects of it. Like, well, if she's been in prison for what, 10,000 years or something, what happened before that, right? How does Zordon get trapped in this time warp? Where does all this stuff begin?
01:10:28
Speaker
And I actually thought it was really cool to show that Zordon was originally the Red Ranger and Rita was originally the Green Ranger. And she even still has aspects of the Green Ranger costume in her look. Yeah, I thought that was an interesting twist. I wasn't as sold on it, I think, as you were.
01:10:54
Speaker
I think for me it was more to do with I really enjoyed that Rita was just kind of a witch in the original series and a lot of the fun weird aspects of her character came from her being a witch and in this
01:11:14
Speaker
it's not really fully explained other than she's a Power Ranger. And it looks like she does a little bit of magic, but it could be just manipulating the Morphin Grid or something like that, I don't know. But having her be a witch with weird little goblins around her, that was something I really enjoyed. And it's not in this. I think as someone watching this,
01:11:44
Speaker
without much knowledge of the previous content, like just kind of sitting like, okay, I'm gonna watch a movie. I think the way they started the movie was good because if you just started it with not explaining the previous Red Ranger or Rita or any of that, you would have been confused, I think, just watching it without that kind of context.
01:12:11
Speaker
Because I'm sure there are some people that didn't know about Power Rangers before watching this. So I think the way they kind of set it up was good. And I was like, all right, I get it. I'm down. It also made it a fun kind of hook to the movie. Like you're just thrown into the action right away. And you're like, this is the world you're in. And it's like, okay, I'm strapped in.
01:12:38
Speaker
I also like that the Rangers in their civilian identities didn't all dress in their color because that was something that was always kind of weird to me in the original TV series, especially when Tommy goes from the Green Ranger to being the White Ranger and then he has to change his whole wardrobe.
01:12:56
Speaker
So I even when they switch from Mighty Morphin to Zio, right? Yeah, like all of them have the color change. Did they do that like really intensely because they had subtle like color assignment. They had subtle colors. No, but they did it intensely in the original show. Like they wore like everything in that color. And to me, when I think of like them in like kind of civilian garb in the old show, I just picture like
01:13:20
Speaker
full house people, but with different faces. I like can't picture the colors that they wore. I mean, you're not far off. There's definitely an aspect to that in the civilian performances. What's wrong with that though?
01:13:36
Speaker
I also did like that it felt a little bit more random how they all come together like they're all kind of drawn to the coins whereas in the show it's there are these five kids they all conveniently dress in the colors they're going to get as Power Rangers and they're already friends and martial arts expert Zordon just picks them and it always kind of
01:13:57
Speaker
I always thought it was kind of funny how when they did the stories when the bullies were trying to find out who the Power Rangers are, it's like, does nobody think to ask the five or six kids who always hang out together, always do martial arts, always seem to be getting in fights with monsters in the park and who all conveniently dress in the same colors as the Power Rangers?
01:14:18
Speaker
And also when someone leaves the show and then they cycle in other people who wear the exact same color as the person who just left. They didn't have the budget for other costumes. I guess not. Rick left. You're in Steve. I did like that aspect of it. What did you guys think of Bryan Cranston as Zordon?
01:14:43
Speaker
I mean, I like Bryan Cranston. I think he is just a fun guy. So just to see him in anything, I'm like, I can get down with it. I thought the, I remember Zordon being just like a blue face in a tube. So I thought it was kind of an interesting modern spin to have him as like the kind of like nano grid almost.
01:15:10
Speaker
I just, I think maybe I just wish it was more blue. Colors mean a lot to me, if you couldn't tell by now. Well, I mean, it should mean, colors should mean a lot in a Power Rangers movie too. Yeah. And a lot of times it's symbolic. So, and I like looking for stuff like that. But yeah, I think again, but overall my notes are going to be like, if it was a little more saturated, I think it could, it could be more fun.
01:15:35
Speaker
But I thought he was like, I thought he did a good job as the character. He was very informative and I feel like that character is meant to be informative.
01:15:43
Speaker
Derek, what'd you think? Yeah, I was a big fan of Bryan Cranston as Zordon. And if they were to do a complete reboot, like today, and do something, I would want them to keep Bryan Cranston as Zordon. I think he did just the right, I don't know, maybe like gravitas or something. He has the right voice for it, you know? When he speaks, you're like, oh, I should listen.
01:16:12
Speaker
That's kind of what he brings to the table. And it's also fun because he voiced some of the monsters in the original show. That's why Billy's last name is Cranston. He was named after Brian Cranston. Oh, I did not know that. It's fun that they brought him back. I had read that he had done some of the voice of the monsters, but I didn't know that's why they gave Billy his last name. That's really cool.
01:16:38
Speaker
Um, yeah, I really liked him. I, and I liked that he wasn't the Zordon from the TV show where he's, you know, you know, this kindly wizard guy who's always saying the right thing as always. I liked the fact that, you know, there's some pushback between him and the Rangers and like, you know,
01:16:57
Speaker
him and Jason are arguing back and forth because I was you know you watch some of those episodes I remember the when Tommy came back as the White Ranger and Zordon just introduced him he's like oh here's your new leader what do you think of this and then it cuts to Jason he's like this is great I'm just like dude he just fucking demoted you don't you have a better reaction than that
01:17:18
Speaker
The same thing happened when they went to like Zio. Rocky was the Red Ranger and they were like, oh, you're blue now, because we got to give Tommy the red spot because that's the leader of this team. I do have a question. What did you guys think of kind of how the fight scenes and a lot of like or like the car chase scenes, like how did you feel like how they were filmed?
01:17:46
Speaker
Because I definitely had some thoughts. Honestly, the action was one of the least interesting things of this movie for me. That was actually where I really started tuning out. I think I actually fell asleep during the zord fight at one point.
01:18:05
Speaker
I would agree. I actually complained last night about the lack of martial arts in the movie. It is very uninteresting fighting. There is nothing in there that I was like, oh man, I want to go and sign up for a class to learn how to do this kind of thing.
01:18:24
Speaker
it was just generic punching and throwing people around and that's not like that's fine for a regular movie but this is this is power rangers you're supposed to have like some kick-ass fight scenes yeah i i would agree because from again what i remember is a lot of like crazy kicks funky punches and then eventually when things get really tough they
01:18:49
Speaker
they then resort to like the robots. But another thing that I felt like with just like the cinematography almost, I feel like it made me a bit directionally impaired. Like they would be, especially when, like in the final scene.
01:19:10
Speaker
I like couldn't tell like what street they were on, like in relation to like, who, who are they fighting in relation to where, like, where is everybody? How did they eventually meet up? I felt like it was almost just, it was just very confusing to watch. And maybe it's just because like the CGI maybe needed a little more attention or they maybe needed like a redesign on how things looked to make it easier to look at.
01:19:36
Speaker
but also same with like the sizing of Goldar against the like Megazord. It was like, at first I was like, wow, Goldar's like a lot bigger. And then another scene would happen and I was like, oh no, they're the same size. It almost felt like I was like competing with an optical illusion. I was like, I don't know how big these things are anymore. And I also don't know what street they are. How close are they to the Krispy Kreme? Like where is all this happening anymore?
01:20:06
Speaker
I don't know if you guys felt as as directionally impaired as I was, I didn't notice that but I think that's a very, it definitely speaks to what Derek was saying earlier about the fact that this guy, this director has obviously not done a lot of a lot of movies, because if you're going to be doing a fight scene like you should really have
01:20:26
Speaker
either some experience, especially something that's as big as Power Rangers, where a big focus of that, again, to what Derek was saying, a big focus of that TV show was the action. You weren't going into that show, and the actors weren't cast on their incredible acting ability, right? I mean, Amy Jo Johnson was the only real actor of the bunch, and she's pretty much the only one who had an acting career after the show, after she was done the show. But everybody else, they were cast for their martial arts skills or their gymnastics ability.
01:20:57
Speaker
And that's why you watch that show because the characters honestly were very flat in that show. They didn't have a lot of dimension. They didn't have a lot of depth. They didn't have a lot of conflict with each other. They were very bland. And so you watch that show so you could watch the action scenes. So if you're going to get someone to direct this movie and
01:21:20
Speaker
It's great that they're beefing up the performance side and they're trying to give these characters a little bit more depth. I really did appreciate the effort, even if it was misguided in the Kimberly situation, but I feel like you shouldn't have done that at the expense of all the action. Yeah, absolutely. There's plenty of opportunity for this movie to have had some just really standout scenes.
01:21:49
Speaker
And I don't really think that that was...
01:21:53
Speaker
made a priority like you could have had like shung chi has some amazing fight scenes in it oh yeah and you could have done something very similar with these characters you don't have to make them incredibly super powerful where you know they hit a brick wall and it falls apart or whatever you could have them like learn the martial arts and have that be something that was
01:22:21
Speaker
I mean, you can't really do the same thing with the Zords, but it would go a long way if you could kind of see what was going on. And I think with the Zords, it's almost like they put the detail in the wrong places. Because with the older robots, from what I remember, there was a lot of just solid color and like bare bones, but distinctive shape.
01:22:50
Speaker
And it was almost like they did too much with like the fine detailing of these ones, where it's like there's a lot of different lines and outlines and different colors happening.
01:23:03
Speaker
That's, it's cool that you can do that, like technically, but that's not what you need right now. You need, you need to know where the head is and you need to know where the ass is on a triceratops. Yeah, I actually, I did a fun little exercise last night where I, I paused it after they introduced all the Zords and I said, tell me what they are. And the only one that was given was Tyrannosaurus Rex.
01:23:32
Speaker
Yeah. Nothing else. They could not figure out what they were. What is the Black Rangers supposed to have? Mastodon. Okay. I had no idea. I was like, I thought one of them had a mammoth. Was I wrong? I had no clue what was happening with that one. It was kind of wild. Also, in fact, now that you mentioned it, I don't think they ever mentioned the names of their animals, did they?
01:24:01
Speaker
No, they didn't. We didn't get a kick-ass scene where they all yell out the animals. Also, the way he says it's morphin' time is really underwhelming. Because if you think of someone saying it's morphin' time, it is loud, it's enthusiastic, it's almost like you're really happy that it's morphin' time. Not that there's like...
01:24:28
Speaker
like danger afoot. But he was so serious. Take the scene from the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers 90s movie where they first morph in it and compare that to when they first morph in this. And it is just wildly different. Just the energy behind saying it's morphin' time,
01:24:54
Speaker
is so much more pronounced in the original movie versus this one where he just kind of goes, it's morphin time. And then they step onto a platform. I feel like that was something where they're like, okay, we have to have this line in the movie, but nobody really wants to say it. So that's really kind of what it felt like to me in that scene.
01:25:17
Speaker
Yeah, I think my one big note is go full out with feeling. Yeah. And maybe two people got that note. For me in 2023, to the people in 2017, my note for you.
01:25:35
Speaker
No, yeah, I think that's a pretty good note to end it on. As much as there are things I like about this movie, I do like the character stuff for the most part. I love Rita. Zordon was pretty well done. I thought Bill Hader did a pretty decent job as Alpha, even though I thought the design was weird. They made him very oddly nightmarish looking for some reason.
01:25:57
Speaker
Oh, yeah. God, I hated that design. That was so weird. He's a funky frisky. They gave him some fun lines. He's kind of funny. He says, aye, aye, aye, aye. He says, go, go Power Rangers. So they kind of gave him some fun stuff to play with, but God, they made him terrifying to look at and genuinely horrifying in his introduction scene. Yeah.
01:26:23
Speaker
Well also like going to what Corinne said about the detail too and focusing too much about like Derek you probably know this too because you're an artist as well but that's one of the things you learn is that if you focus too much on these small details at the expense you have to take a step back and see how it all works together as a larger piece. Yeah. Oh yeah absolutely. It's like doing a paint and sip.
01:26:44
Speaker
Like, I didn't go to art school like, cool Derek here, but boy have I done a paint and sip every once in a while. And they tell you like, hey, put the wine glass down, take a couple steps back from your piece and then maybe stop touching it. And it's a great, you gotta do it. If you keep hyper fixating, it's gonna get splotchy. And that's what happened with these robots, splotchy. Absolutely, yeah. I mean, yeah, it's,
01:27:15
Speaker
Yeah, disappointing.
Future of Power Rangers: Netflix and Beyond
01:27:16
Speaker
I know their Netflix is doing a big, has a big Power Rangers new series they're gonna be doing with like, they're gonna have like a more adult oriented one. They're gonna have like a more, a kids oriented one too. I understand they're planning on doing like this whole big Power Rangers cinematic universe thing. I'm not sure if that's still what the plan is. That's what it was a few years ago at least.
01:27:43
Speaker
The last that I read about it, that was still the case, but they've not really given any updates other than they're doing this 30-year anniversary once and always, and they are bringing back the Dino Fury Rangers in a new series called Cosmic Fury.
01:28:06
Speaker
But I think they're too focused on getting those out the door to say anything more about the other programs. Which is probably for the best, because as we saw with the Snyderverse stuff, when you're trying to do too much stuff at once, it ends up kind of blowing up in your face. Right.
01:28:26
Speaker
But yeah, I think if they had taken more of a cue from what the Boom Studio stuff is doing, I think this could have been an interesting project. And I think there is a way to do Power Rangers in a more adult way without being this self-serious about it. Without going essentially Zack Snyder for the whole thing.
01:28:53
Speaker
I don't need it to be like a Marvel movie either, like that's its own tone. But it can be something, you know, I'm just gonna keep going back to Schumacher or, you know, something a little bit crazier. Like, let's have fun with it. I'm in full support. No, absolutely. Yeah, yeah, totally agree with that. Okay, guys, this is a lot of fun, though. Thank you so much for coming on. Why don't you tell people where they can find your stuff?
Promotions and Podcast Conclusion
01:29:23
Speaker
You can find all of what we do at comicallypedantic.com. We'll have links to our shows, links to some of the different social sites that we use, lots of fun stuff where we put up visual companions to some of the things we go over. If I'm doing a deep dive into something, you get all of the
01:29:45
Speaker
all of the references that I use in order to write those scripts. So you can fact check me if you'd like. I'm totally on board with doing that. We don't have like a Patreon or anything because honestly I'm not super interested in doing that kind of thing. This is just fun. We just do it for shits and gigs. Yeah.
01:30:07
Speaker
I mean, if you want to send us money, we'll take it. We'll use it. We'll like we'll we'll pay for the server space or something with it. But like, you know, we're not going to come out every week and and say, you know, oh, you have to donate money if you want to hear like the whole show or whatever. It's just kind of a fun thing. You know, it's not meant to to to rile anyone up except for maybe some comics people.
01:30:33
Speaker
It's mostly just me. It's to make me annoyed with Cain. But no, this is just a thing that like I so Derek and I used to live like 15 minutes away from each other. But now I have like moved to a different state. And like both me and like his fiance, Derek and like my boyfriend, we're all like very close friends. So this is just how we stay connected. And if people like to listen, like that's cool.
01:31:02
Speaker
I appreciate it. Thanks for listening to our opinions and thoughts. But yeah, we just do it for fun. We love comic leap dancing. Yeah, it's a great show. Definitely, definitely check out the Comic Skate series because that was extremely well done. And the Clone Saga episodes are fun. I've definitely been enjoying those. But guys, thank you so much.
01:31:23
Speaker
Thank you. Thank you so much for coming on the show. And that does it for this episode of Superhero Cinephiles. Superherocinephiles.com is the website, SuperCinemapod on Twitter and Instagram. And if you join, I am gonna ask you guys for money, because if you join the Patreon show, you get these episodes a week in advance, and you also get the Superhero Cinephiles Book Club. Hopefully we're gonna have you two on to talk about Go Go Power Rangers at some point, and we'll hopefully get that set up soon.
01:31:51
Speaker
Depending on how schedules work out. It might actually come out before this episode does since these episodes are recorded way in advance But thanks so much for listening and we will talk to you next time
01:32:02
Speaker
If you enjoy the Superhero Cinephiles, then you'll also love my companion podcast, the Superhero Cinephiles Book Club. All my Patreon subscribers get access to this exclusive podcast where I review superhero comics and graphic novels. Not sure what comics you want to read next or what you should dive into? I've got you covered on that. I'll be doing reviews, recommendations, and also talking to you about useful entry points if you're interested in reading some comics but don't know where you should start. Plus, you'll get access to all episodes of the main show a week before everyone else.
01:32:30
Speaker
on all of this for as little as just a dollar a month. All you have to do is go to patreon.com slash supercinemahut and you can sign up at any subscription amount to get started. Thanks so much for your support and please don't forget to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
01:33:06
Speaker
Thank you for listening and as always good night. Good evening. God bless.