Nagisa Oshima, Kaneto Shindo, Ingmar Bergman, Jean Luc-Godard, etc., I've betrayed you! I caved! It was me all along! I did it! FORGIVE ME!
In case you did not know, (and you probably don't cause I only need one toe to count how many people read this site) I watched on youtube, to make sure I would not give it a view. (
And I don't regret it.
It's not
Samurai.
Unfortunately, it's still a lot friggin close than I would like it to be. And the two shows are essentially sharing the same bed at the moment!
They did not copy it shot-for-shot.
In fact, there's this awesome helicopter shot of a Red Ranger practicing on a rooftop that a Sentai director would have came up with himself.
It's not exactly indie, but then again Asylum can do those same shots as well.
Instead of copying the script from
Shinkenger and adapting it poorly, they copied the script from
Mighty Morphin and did it poorly.
I still have to wait for a few more episodes to see if there is character development in the show. However so far the show is still making the same mistake most (children's) shows make by creating characters, instead of people one can relate with. This stuff just does not hit right away like in Mighty Morphin where in
High Five, you learn that Trini has a fear of heights and in A ZEO Beginning where we forget about that entire kid mess and have to have that awkward transition into learning about how Tanya's character worked in
Shooting Star.
Or perhaps they are just directed to be annoying. I dunno.
Gosei's Olmec or Zordon now. And there's a robot that's supposed to be Alpha. Cute. Very cute...
They also fight the monsters once they leave their "command center" like in Mighty Morphin. The fight scene's actually a lot more dynamic than the original Mighty Morphin fight. They carried over the fact that the enemy is not given much depth or reason for us for us to care about them "attacking Earth," but then again Rita did not either (aside from an earthquake and a wonderful combination of performance by Machiko Soga and Barbara Goodson!)
They get flipped over.
They morph.
It's morphin' time.
In fact the whole episode is like that:
Nothing vs introduction of iconic character. "Don't leave! You'll miss my coming out party! That's when I destroy the nearest planet! Hahahaha!"
Introduce school.
(School that establishes they go to school and how smart they are and who they like)
VERSUS
(Establishes characters favorite hobbies after trying three different pilots including Bulk and Skull!
Billy demonstrates a fighting weakness, which gives his character a flaw, an arc to overcome. Sure, it is not established in this episode, but is fully utilized in later episodes. His character ends up growing the most in possibly all of Power Rangers history. You could debate the hardships of everyday school is their arc.)
Establishing they're friends, er... Classmates rather trying to survive a suburban school with no arcs.
Vs
Friends trying to survive school bullying, the stresses of every overachieving kid. Earthquake on Earth
One shot of the enemy base.
Vs.
Shots that establish the enemy base are constantly shown throughout the show.
You couldn't even make up a name for the new
Ernie? Not Richard or Mr. Ginelle? How about just let him be a dessert guy without having a specific name?
Which brings me to...
Nitpicks:
I also don't like the idea of one of the Rangers having the hots for one of the original five. It's a Mighty Morphin homage and that did not happen in Mighty Morphin.
To quote Mr. Plinkett, "I don't like things that are different!"
(WHY KIM?! WHY?!)
Haha! Nature! Can't good guy friends just accept your other friends' beliefs?
To make things worse, it was directed directly by Trachzor himself! -_- So any nitpicks I have are directly influenced by the producer himself.
At least, they'll have guest stars to save this season...
