Power Rangers Trailer - It's Morphin time!

Well we've been complaining about the lack of marketing for the new Power Rangers film for awhile now  but that looks to be changing very quickly. Take a look at the full trailer that shows us everything we wanted to see in the teaser. 

So I have been a bit letdown by everything the movie has released thus far but oh man, that trailer was fantastic! It really makes me wish they had held off on the toys and waited until we this trailer had come out. Are the designs still funky? Yes, but seeing everything in motion makes it all look way better. 

I love the new putties but I do think Goldar still looks weird and I am annoyed that he looks to be a generic villain when he was originally one of the more iconic things from the original show. Rita is shown in both he morphed and unmorphed forms so it looks like she definitely is tapping into the Green Ranger coin's power a little bit. Looks like all of those leaks an Rumors are true.

I think the biggest thing this trailer adds is that little bit of fun. This feels like Power Rangers now. Maybe a bit more grounded in reality but it just oozes that style that I felt was missing before.

What did you think of the trailer? Are you excited to go see it? 

Power Rangers: We Finally Get A Glimpse Of The Zords, And They Look…Well...

Last year, it was announced that Lionsgate Studios would be producing a 'Power Rangers' remake. Earlier in the summer, we saw the new suits (wedges?!). This week we finally got to see what are arguably the coolest part of the Power Rangers franchise: The giant fighting robots.

Five posters, one for each teenager with attitude, have been released showing the rangers posing/relaxing on their respective zords. It’s been twenty years since we last saw these particular robo-dino’s/prehistoric mammals on the big screen and uh…

I don’t, uh…..

I mean…

Oof…

 I guess they aren't the worst. I genuinely like how the Triceratops looks, though, full disclosure, Billy was always my favorite. And with the Tyrannosaurus, Sabre-tooth tiger, and Pterodactyl, I at least can tell what I’m looking out. But that Mastodon confounds me. I can’t make any sense of what I’m seeing. What is he standing on? Is that the trunk? Why is it so weird and skinny? Is it coming out of the things butt?  

We’ll have to wait until 'Power Rangers' hits theaters next March to find out.

 Have creative descriptions of what the black thing looks like to you? Or have you figured out which part is which? Leave a comment because I cannot figure this thing out.

Bryan Cranston Cast As Zordon In 'Power Rangers'

Well, if this isn't the day for 'Power Rangers' news! Bryan Cranston, one of the best actors of our time, has just been cast as Zordon (giant floating head in a tube that gives the Rangers their powers) in the brand new film coming out next year. Surprisingly, this is not the first time Mr. Cranston has been in involved in the Power Rangers franchise.

Way back in 1993, Bryan Cranston actually provided the English voice work for two of the monsters the Rangers battled. The creatures "Snizzard" and "Twinman" were some of the first creatures that Rita Repulsa sent after the Rangers, and as you can hear in the clips below, it is very clearly Cranston's voice.

Bryan Cranston's last name was actually used by Saban for the name of the original Blue Ranger, Billy Cranston. Apparently he was a pretty popular guy while doing the voice work for Saban and they decided to drop a little nod to him with the last name of the character.

Having an actor of this caliber attached to the film version of Power Rangers can really only be considered a good thing (even though he will probably be constrained to a CGI effect). I am incredibly excited to see how the film pulls off this iteration of Zordon, and can't wait to see Cranston's motion capture work in action.

The banner for this post could give us some clue into what Zordon might look like in the new film. While he's usually portrayed as a giant head in a glass tube, this early concept art for the film shows him as a full bodied figure- in a glass tube. Check it out below.

'Power Rangers' releases on March 24, 2017.

Teaser Poster For 'Power Rangers' Unveiled On Twitter

While we wait for a teaser trailer for the new 'Power Rangers,' I can't help but be interested in the direction they are going to take this reboot. It's easy to write it off as a quick cash grab on a well known franchise, and so far they haven't given us much to fight that conclusion. Most of the design we've seen so far has not driven the fan base into a frenzy, and as far as I can tell, general audiences don't know this exists yet. So, I'm glad to report that the official twitter for the film pulled through and gave us our first look at the kind of tone they're going for, and it comes in the form of a teaser poster. Check that out and our thoughts on it below.

There are two ways you could look at this poster. Either you see it as an almost Michael Bay-esque generic blue and orange poster that doesn't tell us anything new, OR, you could try to imagine this next to promotional materials of the original 95' movie. That film played up the jokes and the action; making a kid friendly big screen adaptation of the show to an almost fault.

From this poster alone, it seems like they're taking a little more of a pre-destined approach with the kids. Juxtapositioning them against a dominant night sky implies that they really are part of a crazy intergalactic struggle that they have to step up to take on together. Who knows if the marketing team was really going for any of that, but the idea of a really serious Rangers movie does at least get me into the theater. Whether they can convince me to be there opening weekend or not is another story.

'Power Rangers' releases in theaters March 24, 2017.

Dean Israelite's 'Power Rangers' Suits Revealed, Analyzing The New Look

If you've been following the news for the upcoming 'Power Rangers' reboot, this is the unveiling you've been waiting for. Teasing us with Rita Repulsa and a shot of the main cast in street clothes was just a lead-up for the main event, and Entertainment Weekly brings us our first look at the 2017 feature film's heroes post-morphin' time. Check them out below, along with my personal analysis.

Here's what the director of the reboot, Dean Israelite, had to say about the new designs:

"The show was about kids coming of age, about metamorphosis. These suits needed to feel like they were catalyzed by these kids and their energy, their spirit."

I agree with him about the coming of age aspect to the show, but I don't see where he's coming from with that last sentence. Nothing about these suits seems to be directly relatable to the human teenage experience, but maybe he's hinting at something revealed in the film itself. His production designer, Andrew Menzies, also talked about the immense pressure involved in trying to please everyone:

"It’s tricky finding a new language for a superhero costume. Ours is an alien costume that grows on them, that’s not man-made. You can’t win everyone over, but we are trying to appeal to a more mature audience and gain new fans."

He's right of course, fans are already finding things to nitpick about with these new costumes. I can admit that Kyle and I had similar reactions, but I wanted to break it down a little more and maybe shed some light on what might have inspired these designs.

The image at the top of this article comes straight from the 1995 'Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: The Movie.' Just like we spoke briefly about on the podcast this week, these costumes were mind-blowing to my much younger self, as spandex was replaced by flexible armor that produced gadgets and cool new weapons, I couldn't help be impressed. They kept pretty close to the original show's design while updating them at the same time to compensate for a much larger budget. I think they did a fairly good job in retrospect.

These new suits are similar to the recently revealed Rita Repulsa design in my opinion; they just don't stand out at all. There's nothing inherently unique about them or specifically tied to what the filmmakers have described in the press. There are multiple quotes where they've said that the costumes would reflect the fact that they morph onto the Rangers instead of being suits that you change into. Many people took this to mean that they might have a kind of organic quality to them and I think Elizabeth Bank's character has a feel that conforms to that concept. The Ranger's armor, on the other hand, looks like it stands alongside the standard Hollywood overly-designed "power suit" look. So much so, in fact, that I couldn't shake the feeling that I had seen a similar design to these before.

The first that came to mind actually has a loose connection to this reboot. Production designer Andrew Menzies worked on another film franchise that shares many of the elements seen in these new designs: the modern G.I. Joe reboot. I called it a loose connection because he actually only worked on 'G.I. Joe: Retaliation.' I do think the normal costumes that characters wear in both of those films share some DNA with the new Ranger's suits, but in particular, the "accelerator suits" in the first film were the most apparent to me immediately. Here's a reference if you've forgotten that film as much as the rest of the public has:

You can really see it in the helmets and the spaces between pieces of heavier armor. The designs are so busy it's hard to tell what's really going on.

The second image I thought of was 2009's 'Robocop' costume. This is actually closer in the way that it has a more streamlined look to it that's more fitted to the body, but is still trying way too hard to look cool and stand up to an original iconic design.  

At the end of the day, it's the story and characters who are going to make this reboot successful or not. They'll most likely get a decent opening weekend just out of the curiosity and nostalgia of the fanbase, but if they want this to turn into a franchise and bring in new audiences, they're going to have to make something truly worthwhile. I really hope that's the case and we're seeing these designs wildly removed from the context of a good film, but I am definitely starting to have my doubts.

I think with everything they've said about these costumes, they really could have gone for a more organic, skin-adhering type of suit that would have been unique. If you haven't seen it, there was a sizzle reel type fan film that had some b-list (but awesome) actors attached that actually got fans pretty excited for a modern interpretation of this universe. It found a way to update the suits in some really interesting ways. They're actually what I imagined when director of the new film first started teasing what the suits might look like. Below are some shots from that, as well as an embed of the full film if you want to check them out in action (Warning, graphic content and language).

So, what do you think? Let us know in the comments if you think the film is on track, or at least interesting, and whether or not you'll be there on day one of the release.