RODAN To Air on SVENGOOLIE 04/08 on MeTV

Following up his February run of Godzilla movies, SVENGOOLIE will be showing the American version of RODAN (1956) this Saturday night on MeTV. You can see the promo video on his official site.

Svengoolie 
MeTV

SABAN'S POWER RANGERS Now In Theatres

I've been a POWER RANGERS fan since the very beginning. The last thing I really wanted was a big theatrical "reboot" of the original series, I'd have much rather seen something in the existing canon, preferably tied into SUPER MEGAFORCE, which had so much potential, but failed to deliver. But here we are. Saban and Lionsgate has chosen to reboot the original MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS as the first in what they're hoping will be a series of films. Hopefully so, because there's missing backstory and other details that need explaining.

I saw the movie tonight at the local AMC Theatre at 7pm. There was pretty good-sized crowd; Some adults with Power Rangers shirts, and a little kid dressed as the Red Dino Charge Ranger. I wore my newest Power Morphicon shirt.

It's best going into the movie dropping what you already know about all of the characters from the series. They're vaguely similar, but their personalities, backstories, and such are quite different. You will spend a decent amount of time learning about them and their problems. My "review" here will mostly go over what I liked and didn't like as a Power Rangers fan, I'm certainly no film critic. Spoilers ahead.

The movie begins with an ancient battle on Earth, with a dying Zordon (Bryan Cranston, as the original Red Power Ranger) battling Rita Repulsa (Elizabeth Banks). There seems to be an awful lot going on, such as attacking spaceships, but no real explanation is given, so hopefully that will be expanded upon in prospective sequels. The Zeo Crystal is quick to be mentioned, and becomes an important element of the plot, but from the sound of it, it's role, power, and design are much different than that of the series.

The title screen is a simple plain text in the lower right hand corner. Personally, I like flashy title logos. Gone is the Command Center as a building; it's replaced with a spaceship of some type (like the one at the beginning?) buried underground. Alpha 5 has a new, unique design, I would compare it slightly to the Millennian from GODZILLA 2000. Voiced by Bill Hader, he provides some dry humor; Personally I was surprised, as I thought they'd be pushing him as some sort of goofy, idiot comic relief character to get a few laughs from the kids. At one point we get his classic "Aye yai yai" line.

That said, while this IS a film kids can watch, it is rated PG-13, and definitely goes far beyond anything the show has ever done. Numerous references to killing, actual deaths, several uses of "ass" and "shit", and an almost-use of the f-bomb. Sexting and drug use are also alluded to, as well as the (off-screen) unintentional pleasuring of a bull (seriously).

 

Zordon is presented in a way quite different from the series; While he was a "floating head" trapped in a time warp before, here his spirit is part of the wall of the ship, reawakened only when the five new Rangers arrive with the Power Coins. The Coins appear to be some sort of rock, with a circular center piece bearing each ranger's color (the toys show dino emblems, but I don't recall if they were apparently in the movie). They grant them superhuman strength and abilities when not morphed, unlike the series (although some later seasons had Rangers who could access special abilities unmorphed). No actual Morphers are used, though they were made by Bandai into toys (but don't worry, we do get the obligatory "It's morphin' time").

The suits look a bit better in action than the initial images that were released. I think they could have done a better job with making the helmets each look a bit more unique. The only weapon shown is the Red Ranger's sword, no other weapons, even the Blade Blasters, seem to be present.



As a huge fan of Power Rangers villains, I was reasonably disappointed in the villain designs. Rita bears little resemblance to her original counterpart, sporting a largely green-armored design, and with good reason, she's the original Green Ranger (though appears only briefly with the helmet early in the film). Her staff, bearing only the vaguest of similarities to the original, is made of the gold she collects, with the Green Power Coin held within the crescent portion. Rita is portrayed effectively scary, many of her scenes have a good horror vibe to them, and she kills and/or seriously wounds several people. There's one scene that was extremely similar to one from LEPRECHAUN 2 where she does a little gold digging from a homeless guy.

Her quest for gold is to create the giant Goldar, who is said to have the power to retrieve the hidden Zeo Crystal, which in effect would destroy the Earth. In the original series, Goldar gained his name and popularity as the gold-armored, snarky, ape/griffin-like top warrior to Rita and Lord Zedd. Here, he's a giant, faceless, ever-melting humanoid mass of literal gold with no personality whatsoever. He bears the vaguest of similarity to the original, with slight horns on his head, functionless wings, and later on he gains a sword. When Rita first creates Goldar, we get the classic "Make my monster grow!" as he forms. No "headache" comments, interestingly. Rita operates entirely on Earth, no Moon Palace to be seen. Rounding out the villains are the Putties, which are much more beastly and rocky golem-types than the original footsoldiers. They're not as much humanoid anymore, but with extra appendages here and there, and some appear to have items built into them from the surroundings of the rock they're formed from. Half the time they appear are actually as battle simulations on Zordon's ship. Again, something that could have made the Putty battles more interesting are a variety of weapons, which the Rangers did not have.

The Dinozords have a decent overhaul of their designs from the series. They don't look that bad in action, but in my opinion, the Megazord is pretty poor. It hardly resembles the original Dino Megazord at all, very humanoid in bodily design. One key difference is, instead of serving as the chest armor, the Pterodactyl appears as a set of wings, and then can become the Megazord's swords. The Mastodon, which appears to have some spider traits, never gets that aspect explained. For that matter, I don't recall any of the zords, or the Rangers' respective dinosaur spirits, referenced by name as all. And if you enjoy a good mecha combining sequence, you'd be disappointed, as it happens largely off-screen (it's basically used as a surprise moment).

In the film itself, the "Go Go Power Rangers" theme is briefly used when the zords go on the march. The version used is the one from the original movie, interestingly (they also appear to drown out the "Mighty Morphin" part). A new, instrumental version is included as part of the credits. There's also a godawful new cover of Snap!'s song "The Power" at the first of the credits.

The movie ends with Rita being defeated in a fashion where they could either decare her dead, or easily bring her back. Interesting the whole space dumpster aspect is never used, she simply spent millions of years in dormancy under the sea (and conveniently recovered by fishermen at the same time the Rangers find the Coins...).

With all of the redesigns and personality changes, there ARE a couple references for the longtime fans. Jason David Frank and Amy Jo Johnson get cameos at the end of the movie, in the crowd celebrating the Megazord's victory, everyone taking selfies. If one wanted to assume they're a couple, this is good vindication for fans who were pro Tommy x Kimberly, that's at least in some alternate continuity they ended up together. And when Jason's dad is driving around looking for his son, he mentions the locations of Mariner Bay and Reefside. This will go unnoticed to the casual viewer, but these were also names of the cities in POWER RANGERS LIGHTSPEED RESCUE and DINOTHUNDER, respectively.

I went into the movie expecting to be disappointed, but I can't say I was. They took many liberties with the source material, but in a way made it something new entirely. The mid-credits scene gives a set-up for a possible (and intended) sequel, but I won't ruin it (and sadly, it doesn't involve Lord Zedd). I guess we'll just see how well it does, though there have been plenty of sequels to films that were essentially flops.

It will never beat the original, but I think it was fair.

Power Rangers official website

KONG: SKULL ISLAND Now In Theatres

The newest King Kong movie, the second in Legendary Pictures' so-called Monsterverse has finally been released, and I went to see it last night at the 7pm premiere at our local AMC Theatre. I have to say, I was not disappointed, it lived up my expectations, unlike their previous GODZILLA (2014). The movie was a new Kong story, not yet another retelling of the original movie, yet still contained a number of nods to them. There was lots of action, and it was also quite intense, with very good fights; Actually some of the violence was a bit more than I'd anticipated. The monsters, for the most part, had interesting designs. The cast was great as well, with many likeable characters, in particular I enjoyed John C. Reilly's performance (as a fan of his Adult Swim show CHECK IT OUT WITH DR. STEVE BRULE). All the humor in the film was used in the right places.

A surprisingly small amount the audience I was with stuck around for the post-credits scene, which does indeed confirm Rodan, Mothra, and King Ghidorah's existence in the Monsterverse (as well as a reference to Godzilla himself, of course). Speaking of the audience, I'm not sure why you'd bring your toddler to this movie, especially when he can't sit down most of the time. Not that he was much of a bother... the people checking their phones were, though.

I wish I were a better movie reviewer, but all I can say is, definitely go see it. It's a lot of fun. And it definitely makes more more optimistic for the upcoming GODZILLA: KING OF THE MONSTERS and GODZILLA VS. KONG. The latter should be a hell of a fight.

Godzilla On SVENGOOLIE All February

Beginning this Saturday, TV horror host Svengoolie kicks off a month of Godzilla films on his show, all notably from the Classic Media lineup. You can find it at 10pm Eastern on MeTV, carried over-the-air by various stations nationwide, so check your local listings. You can see promo videos for the movies at his site linked below.

The schedule is as follows:

02/04: GODZILLA, KING OF THE MONSTERS!
02/11: GODZILLA RAIDS AGAIN
02/18: GODZILLA VS. MOTHRA ('64)
02/25: GODZILLA'S REVENGE

Svengoolie official website
MeTV official website

SHIN GODZILLA In Theatres NOW

Tuesday, October 11 marked the North American theatrical premiere of SHIN GODZILLA (occasionally known as GODZILLA RESURGENCE). I originally saw it the night of the premiere in Shinjuku on July 28 (something I'll detail in the future, as Ive been putting off doing my big write-up of my first trip to Japan). That screening was at 1am, and I had my big tub of Godzilla popcorn, and enjoyed the movie... except for the obvious lack of subtitles. Though I got the gist of the film, I needed a second viewing and better understanding of the plot.

Not long after American theatres started announcing showtimes, I confirmed with my local Alamo Drafthouse that they would be showing it. I knew if any theatre in Kansas City would be showing a movie like this, it would be them. They originally planned three screenings but recently added a fourth. I bought tickets a month in advance and got some prime seats.

I went to the first, Tuesday night screening at 7:30pm. I invited my mom as well, as she is also a fan of Godzilla. Before the movie, the Alamo had their pre-show features, consisting of things like Godzilla trailers, BAMBI MEETS GODZILLA, and other random bits.

Me at the Alamo Drafthouse theatre.

As for the film itself, I can say while I loved the experience of seeing it in Japan, I had a greater appreciation and understanding of it the second time, with subtitles, and anticipating particular scenes so I could pay more attention to the details. When Godzilla's (final form) design was first revealed, I wasn't a huge fan of it, but it's really grown on my since. I'm looking forward to the (hopeful) release of an X-Plus rendition of it. His earlier fo
rms are also quite bizarre, and quite shocking the first time you see them (I had never seen them prior to my first viewing), but are interesting. I'm not sure what, if any, scenes actually used traditional special effects, but either way, I found the effects in general to be very good and convincing. As Toho had touted, the movie has a massive cast of characters and bit players, of them in particular I recognized Akira Emoto who was Akira Yuki in GODZILLA VS. SPACEGODZILLA. The ending, which I won't spoil, came as an abrupt surprise to me, because most discussion about it in the movie I wasn't able to understand.

The score was an interesting one, by Shiro Sagisu, who also scored EVANGELION, but admittedly the only other work of his I'm personally familiar with is his score to MAGICAL SHOPPING ARCADE ABENOBASHI. His music works good in this film, with several very memorable tracks, though a few are a bit repetitive (at least, that's easier to note if you're just listing to the soundtrack CD itself, which I purchased at Tower Records in Shibuya). Stock Ifukube music is used as well (the original tracks, not re-recorded) and used to pretty good effect, culled from GODZILLA '54, KING KONG VS. GODZILLA, TERROR OF MECHAGODZILLA, and interestingly enough, BATTLE FROM OUTER SPACE. The end credits are a compilation of several other Godzilla film themes.

Earlier this year, a so-called company named New World Cinema strongly alluded that they had the rights to SHIN GODZILLA, but that eventually turned out to be a flat-out lie, what they were thinking is beyond me. It was eventually announced, to my surprise, that Funimation had picked up the rights with intent for limited theatrical distribution. As a longtime anime fan, I have plenty of their DVD/BD releases, have seen several theatrical screenings, and met them at conventions; I knew the movie was definitely in competent hands. The subtitles were good; Of course I can't tell for certain if the translation itself was correct, but considering they're in the anime business of decades, I trust them. Of particular issue was the fact there was frequently onscreen text (such as character titles and locations, done to such excess I assumed it may have been an intended joke?). All of these were subtitled alongside the dialogue. Interestingly, after the whole exchange concerning the USA calling the monster Godzilla, and the Japanese "translation" being Gojira, the later is regularly used throughout the rest of the movie. Concerning Funimation's inevitable home video release down the road, my biggest question is whether or not Toho will have them use one of their own international English dubs, or if Funimation will request and/or be allowed to make their own. Funimation's anime dub work is always very good, though I've never heard a live-action film done by them. I've met many of the voice actors that work for them, and some in particular I would love to hear in SHIN GODZILLA.

Overall, it was a great experience. The house was packed, and the audience seemed to love it. My mom liked it, though she says she's still more partial to the older Godzilla. The next couple screenings at the Alamo are rapidly selling out. I'd like to attend one but due to circumstances, it's unlikely. Kudos to Funimation for making this available in the US, especially on the big screen, and so SOON after Japanese release (less than two and a half months!). And a special thank you to Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi, for giving us their unusual, but fantastic and fresh take on Godzilla.

POKEMON: ADVENTURES IN THE ORANGE ISLANDS - THE "COMPLETE" COLLECTION

After finishing the Indigo League on DVD, I moved onto the Orange Islands arc, which encompasses the latter part of season 2 and early season 3, in one DVD set. It was originally released back in 2002-03 in three separate volumes, and then as a single 3-disc set in 2009, and once again as this set in 2015. Why mention these other releases? I'll touch on that in a bit.

In general, good video and audio, and hardly any extras. All of the episodes have been stripped of their Pikachu's Jukebox segment, though you can find all of those music videos in the Indigo set. Disc 1 has a POKEMON 4EVER American trailer held over from the original release. Disc one begins with a single intro theme, plays all of the individual episodes, and finishes with the ending theme. The other two discs present each episode with their own opening and ending themes.

Now, after watching this, I was looking though some info about the various "banned" episodes, when I came to the realization -- Two of the episodes were missing from this set! "Complete Collection" my ass. "Stage Fight" and "The Mandarin Island Miss Match" are both missing. And, they both coincidentally contain the Pokemon Jynx (as did an episode removed from the Indigo League, "Holiday Hi-Hynx"). This of course IS the reason they're missing, as Jynx was allegedly considered by some as a racial stereotype (you be the judge). If you want these episodes, they're on the original releases, and supposedly the 2009 set as well.

If you can overlook the absence of the two episodes, it's a pretty good set, for about $20 at Target or other retailers. But personally, I think it's really sad they're not included.

Here's a complete list of the episodes in this set:

84. A Scare In The Air
85. Pokeball Peril
86. The Lost Lapras
87. Fit To Be Tide
88. Pikachu Re-Volts
89. The Crystal Onix
90. In The Pink
91. Shell Shock
93. Bye Bye Psyduck
94. The Joy Of Pokemon
95. Navel Maneuvers
96. Snack Attack!
97. A Shipful Of Shivers
98. Meowth Rules!
99. Tracey Gets Bugged
100. A Way Off, Day Off
102. Wherefore Art Thou, Pokemon?
103. Get Along, Little Pokemon
104. The Mystery Menace
105. Misty Meets Her Match!
106. Bound For Trouble
107. Charizard Chills
108. Pokemon Water War
109. Pokemon Food Fight
110. Pokemon Double Trouble
111. The Wacky Watcher
112. The Stun Spore Detour
113. Hello Pummelo
114. Enter The Dragonite
115. Viva Las Lapras
116. The Underground Round Up
117. A Tents Situation
118. The Rivalry Revival

POKEMON - INDIGO LEAGUE: THE COMPLETE COLLECTION on DVD

This release has been out for a couple years, but I figured it was worth talking about, since I just binge-watched a bunch of it, not having seen most of these episodes for years. Viz Media originally issued three individual sets of 3 discs, and then this 9-disc set collecting them all on 10/28/15.

Way back in the day, Viz Media was doing as many companies releasing kids shows to home video would do, just offering a few episode per volume. It wasn't until DVD really took off that you started getting complete seasons and such in single sets. POKEMON unfortunately was one of these; Each VHS/DVD volume usually offered a mere three episodes. Fortunately, after all these years, we get the Indigo League episodes in one big set.

I was a huge POKEMON fan back then, and more of a casual fan now. I still watch the new episodes of the anime as often as possible, I play Pokemon Go, and I also saw the newest movie in a theatre in July when I was in Japan. And I unashamedly admit I had (er, still have) the biggest crush on Misty. But, more about the DVDs...

It should be noted that while it covers the Indigo League, this is technically all of season 1 and then some of 2; The Orange Islands arc comprised the rest of season 2 (available separately). They boast "The Complete Collection" -- this is not exactly true. While it does include virtually the whole run of episodes, it's missing a few of them:

Ep. 18: "Beauty and the Beach". Originally skipped due to questionable content (James in a bikini with inflatable breasts), it was later dubbed/edited and slipped into the Orange Islands arc, only airing once (to my knowledge). Sadly it does NOT appear in the Orange Islands DVD set either.

Ep. 35: "The Legend of Dratini". Never dubbed, and skipped due to gun content.

Ep. 38: "Electric Soldier Porygon". Never dubbed, this was the infamous "seizure" episode, and since its first airing in Japan has been banned even in that country.

Special 01: "Holiday Hi-Jynx". A Christmas special that ran as a regular episode in the US, it has since been "banned" due to the inclusion of the Pokemon Jynx, perceived by some as a racial stereotype.

Two other episodes and another special also are out-of-order, but this is how they originally aired in the US. Otherwise, this set contains "all 78 episodes".

Misty and Pikachu. Because... Misty.

Video is fair, nothing fantastic, looks about as good as you'd expect from 78 episodes of a 90s cartoon crammed onto 9 discs. Sound is good too, you can slightly tell the difference in quality between episodes but still sounds good. There are no subtitles.

There are no true extras to speak of, but the first six or so discs contain the full-length PokeRap at the end of each one, an essential inclusion (the VHS/DVDs of old included this as well). All of the season 2 episodes have their respective Pikachu's Jukebox (mini music videos) included at the end of each.

Packaging is fair; For the box set there three standard DVD cases with 3 discs each, in a flimsy artbox. The art for the packaging and disc menus are the standard and somewhat boring "clipart" images we've come to know over the years of the Pokemon and their trainers. Take the box cover for example, very plain, overused images of Misty and Brock, even though better stock images exist (not to mention, unlike all the other characters, their colors are flat and unshaded). Additionally, one disc uses the wrong season's Ash on the main menu.

Overall, I'd say this is a pretty good release. It's expected that three of the four missing episodes were gone, but the absence of "Holiday Hi-Jynx" is very unfortunate. You can get it at Amazon and other retailers for a really good price.

Currently, Viz has continued releasing classic seasons to DVD, with MASTER QUEST (season 5) due out 10/11/16.