Original Power Rangers feature film

The big thing they need to figure out is how to blend the plot threads. The first movie had two plot threads and suffered for it. The character stuff was utterly divorced from the Rita stuff, save for the sidenote that they need to figure out Plot A before they'll be able to step up and address Plot B.

A movie should be a story. Not two stories. Not five stories. One story. Everything that happens in the film needs to service that single unifying plot thread. See: Spider-Man 3 v. Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

Spider-Man 3 is notorious for being a crammed movie with three different villains and no time to develop them, but that's not its problem. Its problem is that it has three different plot threads with zero relation to one another.

Winter Soldier, meanwhile, has five villains. Five. But you don't even notice because they all serve one single unifying plot thread. It only has one story to tell, not three, and so despite having more villains than Spider-Man 3, the result is a tighter and more cohesive story.

The first two acts of the Power Rangers film function in that regard, but the problem is that the main plot thread is not, in fact, what the film thinks it is. The Breakfast Club story isn't supporting action to complement the plot. It is the plot. Everything that's interesting and compelling is found there. The emotional climax of the film is when the Rangers finally suit up for the first time.

If your emotional climax is twenty minutes out from your closing credits, you have a problem. The film wants the emotional climax to be when the Rangers are all ready to die trying to stop Rita. But it's not. It's not because no one f*cking cares about Rita. No one cares about what she's trying to do. No one cares about Goldar or the Zeo Whatever or the big Zord battle.

That's not the story. The story is the emotional journey of these five characters from angry youths to friends who respect and admire each other's differences, and by the time we arrived at this point, that story had been over for like twenty minutes.

The second movie needs to find a villain and a plot for that villain that can seamlessly integrate into the character story rather than awkwardly exist near it. Now, the first movie's stinger suggested we're moving on to the Green Ranger story next. That's a good sign. It would be trivially easy to incorporate Tommy into a unifying plot thread along with all of the awesome character stuff.

So, all things considered, I have high hopes for this one. As long as they learn from the first movie's mistakes, I think Power Rangers 2 can be a solid hit.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Aug 8th 2018 at 8:48:55 AM

So we’re getting Zedd, right?

Nah, save Zedd for a third film. They've already set up Tommy Oliver as the next villain.

Tommy would be the brainwashed Dragon ala Bucky in Winter Soldier while Zedd is the overall big bad. Since Rita appears to be out of the picture now, Zedd will have to serve as the instigator for the Evil Green Ranger story.

Rita was sent to the moon in the last movie.

We shouldn't waste Lord Zedd's cinematic debut on a movie that will focus on Tommy Oliver.

His cinematic debut has already been wasted in the first Power Rangers movie from the 90s. At least here he won't get Starscreamed by Ivan Ooze and will be the one driving the plot.

Yeah, but he'll get outshined by Tommy.

Have patience, young Padawan. Zedd's time will come.

Speaking of which, the TV-Series thread reminded me, I hope they make the Megazord less lame? Like, it's awful how it can't actually be the sum of its parts, and have a combination sequence. So they had to chuck it into a hole to have it emerge morphed.

Half the fun of a combining Robot is watching it combine.

(Oh, and I wanna point out that I called in this very thread when the Megazord was "revealed" that we'd not get a proper combination sequence^note Though I was expecting them to give a t-1000 style "melding", I guess even I couldn't predict how much they'd cheap out.. And some of you doubted me! You know who you are.)

Edited by Ghilz on Aug 9th 2018 at 10:17:48 AM

Agreed. They were trying too hard to make it look like a weird alien robot. And. Like. Sure. It's a weird alien robot. But it should look like a weird alien robot made from five weird alien robots locked into each other.

Because it is.

Also, speaking of the Megazord. I raised this before, but anyone noticed that Movie!Goldar looks exactly like it? Same spike/sword arm, same wings, even the shape of his head include the same set of horns.

Feels like there was a draft at some point where Goldar was like a corrupted zord or something, and that never made it into the movie.

It would make sense, given that Rita's a corrupted Ranger.

I figured she made Goldar as a mockery of the Megazord.

Wasn't it that Zordon/Rita's Rangers were never able to make the Megazord? She was probably rubbing it in their faces.

Youtube video poster, The Disney Brain, makes a video discussing the 2017 movie. He talks about what he liked, what he felt the film got wrong and how he'd handle a sequel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nljup2cu-0

I can't say I agree with his idea of making Tommy choose to be evil. The team choosing to be Rangers in the movie worked because it was better than Zordon essentially blackmailing the teens into joining a war on evil. Tommy not having a choice in becoming the green ranger was the point - he wasn't a villain he was a victim. When he accepts Jason's offer to join the team, that's the first time he's making a choice.

Edited by windleopard on Aug 15th 2018 at 1:15:22 AM

Maybe they can use the Thunder Zords in the sequel.

Maybe. They might end up skipping that part given the Thunder Zords were only used because they ran out of Dino zord footage in the show. The audience might end up seeing it as a rather bizarre and pointless change given they only just got the Dino Zords in this film.

Yeah, it's harder to get away with So Last Season in film.

Not only that but a Mid-Season Upgrade by arbitrarily making radical changes in gear or appearances. It's one thing with a character like Batman or Iron Man, as they explicitly are always modifying their gear, but just getting new toys just because is what stands out as Merchandise-Driven. Especially when the zords aren't alive or they don't have a support staff making upgrades between episodes. Power Rangers could get especially bad with that because Super Sentai would usually justify it with some degree of Fetch Quest, while the worse seasons of Power Rangers was "I'm pulling this out of storage, I always had it but decided to wait to give it to you." The Transformers movies found themselves in a tight spot by the third film in that the main cast had remained in the same basic robot and vehicle appearances and thus had a dozen toys based off one design. The fourth film was written as such to justify changing it up a little.

I mean, you could easily justify new designs with the Movie Rangers. Zords are explicitly said to be able to change their form based on what planet they're on.

Say Billy and Alpha went into the software and changed a few settings, upgrading the armour. Maybe even have open up more power from the morphing grid to give their suit more power and thus brighter colours.

It's actually easy to justify it, the problem is making it work within the confines of the narrative instead of shilling more merchandise. That was a major issue with the movie, the characters are well drawn but the Worldbuilding was almost comically inept. Foremost, the Rangers stumble upon their powers instead of being called upon to counter an upcoming threat. Imagine instead of general statements about Rangers being "great warriors" that Zordon actually outlines the grand history of Power Rangers, Zords and the forces of evil they face against. Jason is shown putting in his sword in the Command Center, which has external symbolism via Take Up My Sword but the weapon itself was not built upon.

I don't recall that ever being said in the film.

Zords take on the form of the most powerful creature on the planet.

Wouldn't they be humans then? Or whales I guess?

Coz like, they are taking the form of something dead.

And if it's the most powerful thing at the time of the crash, explain the Mammoth and Sabertooth tiger.

Edited by Ghilz on Aug 16th 2018 at 2:37:32 PM

If we're speaking in terms of natural prowess, humans aren't very powerful. We just use tools to make up the difference and then some, which has helped propel us to surprising heights for such a relatively pitiful creature. Put a human unarmed in an arena with a mammoth and it's not going to end well for that dude.

Also, the Megazord's a human, so that's something.

But yeah. If they take the form of the most powerful thing on the planet, why are there even five distinct Zords? Shouldn't they all be the giganotosaurus or some shit?

Edited by TobiasDrake on Aug 16th 2018 at 12:57:44 PM

When the Zords automatically did the rankings, those five tied.

Alpha says they take the form of the most powerful creatures and at the time they took the forms they have now that was the dinosaurs.

Doesn't explain the mastason or sabertooth tiger, but we do see the Zords can activate without a pilot, so maybe those two went out for a stroll one day and saw the new critters running around and decided the wanted to get on the new mammal fad.