Power Rangers Samurai Retrospective

The following opinions are mine and not necessarily those of anyone else (although they should be and probably are)

This season (or pair of seasons depending on which way you look at Super Samurai) was, for lack of a better word, a huge let down. A lot of episodes were shitty, some were okay, others were actually really good. The acting was almost universally in the negative star range save for Rick Medina and some of the voice actors. The 'comedy' was about as unfunny as slap stick can get. Some things deserve a litte more detail.

The music:

The best thing that changed when Saban came back in charge was the return of the original theme song. The theme song was great (despite the stupid as fuck roll call), and all the mood music was great. Sometimes it was out of place (a few times I found myself wishing that a scene was silent or had more mellow music) but overall the music was probably the best part of this show.

The action:

This season had some great action scenes. it also had a lot of good scenes that were made terrible by the rangers not shutting the fuck up. The original MMPR rarely talked while fighting, opting for a realisitc  breathing technique in the form of the kiyas, here, we got stupid one liners that did nothing but take away from the visuals. The unmorphed fights, while few and far between, were made to be a big deal and were always very well done, especially in the finale with excellent gymnastics and wire work. Almost all of the action was centred around sword play, and there was a lot of great coreography, especially in the one on one duels between Jayden and Dekkar. The fight in the finale with Master Xandred was amazing.

The Episode formula:

I really didn't like the formula this season. Every episode had a Nighlok attack, get the heat, dehydrate, leave then come back for the rangers to win.  It got tiresome fast. Episodes without this formula were often much better.

The Rangers:

This is probably in the top 5 worst Power Ranger teams of all time. Individualy, none of them are all that interesting; sure, they have interesting back stories (Emily's dying sister, Kevin and Mike being frced to abandon there friends, family and way of life for a greater purpose, Jayden living a lie about being the true Red ranger) but none of these things are touched upon more than once, and it was a lot of watsed potential. So many episodes that focused on one ranger, often had no impact on other episodes. Nothing is ever gained from the inclusion of one off characters like Mia's brother or Kevin's old swim team.

The interpersonal relationships between the rangers was also difficult to keep track of, and Emily is the prime example of this. Early on she pines for Mike, and this seems to be the direction they were always headed, but then for no real reason, in the middle of Super Samurai she seems to be a lot more interested in the well being of Jayden then anything to do with Mike. She also did not seem to click with Mia at all. I;m not saying that every pair of female rangers on a team has to be best friends (Summer and Gemma certainly weren't in RPM, nor were Jen and Kaite in Time Force) but the writers tried to make it seem like they wre with the dialouge. All of it felt forced, and all of the Girl Power scenes suffered because of it. Emily's best moments were always the ones with the male rangers, specifically Mike and oddly enough she had great screen presence with Scott in Clash of the Red Rangers, but more on that later) The one thing that I think should have done is that Emily's sister Serina should have passed away, it would have made for some great character development for her. She was seen as weak, and in Strange Case of the Muchies, she just got stronger. The death of her sister inspirining that change would have been much better.

Mia was a waste of a character. In the second episode (to air) they established an unfunny season long running joke that she can't cook. This was brought up numerous times, leading up to a stupid pay off with Lauren enjoying her cooking. (The best part of that scene was actually easy to miss, if you go back and watch it, pay attention to Kevin. While Emily, mike and Antonio are secretly hiding their food in their napkin or dropping it on the floor, Kevin is secretly putting his onto Mike's plate) The only of thing Mia was given was Spike's crush on her. It started as a crush on the pink ranger, and although he never learned it was her, when they did start interacting, he seemed to be interested in her. This ultimately went absolutely nowhere, the storyline was never resolved, and it was just more wasted potential.

Kevin was a great character, unfortunately that character was torn to shreds by the horrible acting of Najee De-Tiege. He was your average second in command ranger. Ironically, despite how much on paper i thought episodes focusing on him would be a disaster, 2 of them, I've got a Spell on Blue and Kevin's Choice, are two of my favourite episodes of the season. I enjoyed the chemistry he and Mike had, especially in the episode "A Sticky Situation" (which was hugely out of place in terms of pacing and progression of the season, personally I think whacky comedy episode belong early in the season, not as late as this one was). Had casting doen a better job, the Blue Samurai Ranger could've been one of the more notable rangers of recent years, and while he is, its for the wrong reasons.

Mike was a comedy relief ranger, and while he is no Ziggy, he wasn't bad. One of the main reasons I was hoping for a full team up with RPM was to see those 2 share the screen, (also, the ideaof Dillon having to work with Mia and his reactions to the idea probably would have been great). His side of the relationship with Emily was always the better side of that coin. You could tell he really cared for her. The first episode to air was a Mike episode, and it was a pretty good one, dealign with his desire to go back to his normal life, and although this was never followed up on, and by seasons end he made the choice not to go back, and instead go with Emily shows a greater growth. Mike started the season as the slacker who didn't put in a lot of effort, and by the end he was easily my favourite character due to the way he stayed just as fun loving, but also knew when to be serious and be the hero he needed to be. Rangers that mature are always better than ones who don't.

At first, I hated Antonio. go back and watch his debut episode. He is so annoying. He got better as time went on though. I rather enjoyed his scenes with human form Dekkar in the first half of the season, and some of his comedy bits were the funnier moments of the show. The things I don't like were the way he randomly threw spanish words into his sentances and the way he said a few things, like calling the light zord LZ . I'm also really not fond of the Gold Samurai Ranger's look; it might be one of my least favourite power ranger suits ever. His bromance with Jayden worked, it grounded Jayden and made him seem like a real person. Antonio's little character arc at the end of the Serrator arc of episodes was really stupid. Never before did he question his deservingness to be a ranger, and in fact fought to be one when Ji tried to turn him away. Randomly doubting himself seemed really forced and did nothing but waste some time.

Jayden is one of the worst Red Rangers of all time. He is worse than Mack. He is worse than Casey (I liked Casey, but a lot of other people hate him). He is a monumental let down, and causes what could be the most jarrign shift between personalitywhile unmorphed and actions while morphed. The Red Samurai Ranger is fairly cool, but none of that was because of Jayden, the Shinkenger footage had a lot of great red ranger moments and there was a huge disconnect between Alex Hartman's performance and the costume. This is a very personal thing, but no red ranger should have a justin Bieber hair cut. It's just wrong. The red ranger is supposed to lead and be a driving force. Jayden was not that. He whined about his secret all the time, took off like a coward twice, and made a big deal about the others protecting him, while him protecting them was okay. He was all over the board in terms of motivation. His reasons for leaving both times made zero sense. Jayden is  my second least favourite Red Ranger ever, behind Nick.

Lauren got shafted huge. Kimberly Crossman didn't get to be in the main credits, and she was only around for a few episodes. Her debut showed how awesome he could be, and she completely dominated the training scene with Mike. She had great chemistry on screen with Kevin and Antonio. She was probably the best ranger character in the show, and its a real shame we didn't get to see more of her.

The Villains

Ocatroo: WORST VILLAIN SIDE KICK EVER. So frelling annoying. I really wanted to see a scene where he goes to the Shiba house and injured Lauren kills him.

Dayu: Dayu's motivation was always clear, and she was a very well done character. She's no Tenaya 7, but she had a lot of great moments, and her fued with Mia was a small detail, but maintained well enough that the pay off felt satisfying.

Serrator: I LOVED Serrator. he should have been the main villain. His voice, his mannerisms, his fighting style, that thing he did to Mike and Antonio, it was all fantastic. His plot to split the world had a season finale feel to it. Serrator is definately one of the better secondary villains ever.

Master Xandred: Really really boring. He did nothing for the longest time, then once he kicked some ass once, he did nothing for another few episodes. He only ever did something beyond sitting around and drinking in 3 episodes. 3 out of 44. That is pathetic. Sure he was a force to be reckoned with, but it was nothing overly special for all the build up. I also HATE that he grew to giant size to fight the megazord in the finale. The main villain should not be so similar to a monster of the day.

Dekkar: Rick Medina was by far the best actor this season, his subdued tone was perfect. If one were to analyze all of the characters on this show, they would find that this show was, for the most part, Dekkar's story. All of the ajor plot episodes were about him. His story was tragic, and he was much less of a villain and more of an anti hero. Him turning baby face against Serrator was very fitting. He only wanted the sword in order to lift his curse. His motivation was clear. He didn't hate Jayden, deep down, he was pushing Jayden to be better so that Jayden could kill him. Its what he wanted. He needed to fight so he could escape. Dekkar was a tragic figure who saved this season from being a complete disaster.

The Story

The main story of this season, the sealing of Xandred was very weak. It was built up all through the season as being a huge deal, but it was all just talk. The rangers never took the next step by trying to draw Xandred out, they just waited for him to show up. It was boring and felt like a B or C plot, but it was the A plot, and thus extremely weak.

The B plot, the story of Dekkar was amazing. I've already talked about it, so I won't repeat myself. I was very pleased when it was revealed that he survived the first duel wit Jayden.

The C plot of Serrator attempting the split the world and take over was also great. The build was subtle, and  none of the characters saw it coming until it was already in motion, which was great. This should have been the main plot.

The comedy was rarely funny. Before the show started Saban Brands said that the show would have a "brighter tone and gets an infusion of fun and comedy that wasn't present in Jungle Fury and RPM" But the truth is, the comedy in both of those seasons was leaps and bounds above the comedy here. Bulk and Spike were a waste of space.

The RPM cross over was a huge let down. I was really hoping we would see the other side of the story when everyone but Jayden is warped to the 'alternate dimension' (i HATE that RPM is suposedly some alternate dimesion that doesn't matter) I liked it much better than I thought I would. I was very glad they were true to Scott's character, but overall the thing was a let down. 

Overall, the season was one of the lesser ones in terms of quality. Hopefully Mega Force is better.

A Twilight Retrospective

The opinions expressed in the following are simply that, my opinions.

Well, Twilight has conculded. What an odd series. Notice that I chose to call it 'odd' rather than bad, because on the whole it wasn't 'bad'. Sure, Breaking Dawn Part 1 is the worst movie I have ever seen, but the rest weren't all that horrible. First things first, star ratings:

(scale out of 5)
Twilight: Half a Star
New Moon: 1 Star
Eclipse: 2 Stars
Breaking Dawn Part 1: MINUS FIVE STARS
Breaking Dawn Part 2: 1 Star

See what I mean? Remove the MINUS FIVE STARS from the equation, and what's left is a lower end of the barrel franchise that is harmless enough. Its whacky, it has its charming moments and characters, and there are parts of them that I actually enjoyed. That being said, I'd never choose to ever watch any of them ever again.

What made the series so interesting to me is comparing my opinion on it to the opinions of others. Tonight as I sat alone in the theatre waiting for the movie to begin, a pair of young ladies sat in the seats next to me. I asked what they tought of the previous film, and they both claimed to have 'loved it' when they asked me what I thought I was very honest, explaining that I thought it to be the worst movie I have ever seen, and that I gave it a rating of MINUS FIVE STARS. We got to talking and I explained my thoughts on the other films which I shall summarize:

Twilight: Extremely boring, and beyond that there's nothing much I can really say. I did not choose to watch this movie, I was working as a Co-Op Student in a 7th grade class, and when that class watchd it, I was stuck.

New Moon: Whacky, silly and all around laughable. Has that 'so bad it's good' quality that a lot of movies I enjoy have. The lack of Edward for the majority of the film made it easier to watch.

Eclipse: I actually kind of liked this movie. Despite some stupidity, this is my favourite one.

Going into this movie, I was prepared for the worst. I knew there was a distinct possibility I could completely hate this film. However, in the end, it was an enjoyable theatre experience. I could sit here and nitpick the finer details, spoil the whole thing, but I'm hesitant to sit and actually review this. I'm not in a position to do that. To those two young ladies that were sitting next to me, this was their Countdown to Destruction. They enjoyed this movie, and I did as well, although for much different reasons.

To sum it all up: If you ignore Breaking Dawn Part 1, this series is nothing special. The other four movies are just whacky and campy.  They are like Batman Forever; bad, but not horrible. Some of my closer friends have heard the stories about my expeirence with Breaking Dawn Part 1, but for those of you who haven't, well it can be summed up in three words: MINUS FIVE STARS.

Thank you for reading. I was honestly expecting this to be a little longer.

(Elephant in the room: Seeing Breaking Dawn Part 1 by myself was a little difficult for me because it was the first time I'd seen a Twilight movie without the friend I saw New Moon and Eclipse with. That was our thing, and well, she and I have grown apart. Truth be told I miss her greatly. )