Best Super Sentai films

In homage to the release of Pacific Rim, I am doing a list of best Super Sentai films.
I am excluding Goranger-JAKQ since there were no giant robots in those series.

Most of these get on the list for aesthetic reasons.

Super Sentai World aka Kakuranger vs Dairanger vs Zyuranger vs Jetman vs Fiveman
We actually get to see mechs fight each other. No old teammates really come back, but it brought interest back into the teamup.

Dairanger
It was a little early for a film, but we got to see 4 baddies against 5 rookie good guys. Good intro.

Dekaranger
Ban gets a cool girlfriend who is way too good for his annoying self. At least, we get Doggie Krueger in a helicopter sniping.

Boukenger vs Super Sentai
Was actually one of the worse Boukenger episodes, but Boukenger was full of so many great moments that this film just had to be included on the list.

Magiranger
Kai finally gets the girl.

Boukenger
The beginning of the movie begins with a great Lord of the Ringish CGI fight pre-Ranger War.
The fight is a supposed great threat that is worse than all the others, but not really.
Oh we also get a new Boukenger mecha formation.

Hurricanger vs Gaoranger
Two teams fight although it is really Jakanja in disguise and in command of the Gaoranger's powers.
They win a bit cheap, but both teams are featured pretty well.

Gaoranger vs Super Sentai
It was a first time seeing a mixed teamup of this sort. JAKQ still was unpopular unlike Big One.

GoGoV vs Gingaman
Really well executed. A demon spirit attacks Ryoma. However, he friggin uses fire so off course the undead spirits lose!
They weaken him a lot during the film though as he tries to warn  of GoGoV.
The film ends with a combined effort by Gingaman and GoGoV against the demon thanks to GoGoV's mechs and Gingaman's fire.

Magiranger vs Dekaranger
It's a theme about family that leads from Magiranger into Dekaranger. Also, Ban is less annoying.

Does Tommy Oliver have the Shining?

The Native American origins of Tommy Oliver bother me. Was seriously anyone a big fan of this origin? It was never bad per say, just a bit odd like a few of the storylines in Power Rangers: Turbo. It never really seemed to be related to anything. Power Rangers was very multi or even a cultural when it came to its characters. They never spoke much about of their culture. If they did, there would normally be for comical stupid effects, wow and culture.
They never show his parents, so who can care what his ancestry is?

However, watching Stanley Kubrick's the Shining recently, I cannot help but notice the similarities the film has to Power Rangers: ZEO and that Lost Galaxy made a 2001: A Space Odyssey reference in its opening space scene. Also, there have been countless accounts of the film's connections to Native Americans from the hotel's marking origins to that of Wendy Torrence's outfits.

We never see Tommy's parents. However, there is no indication that his parents had not mistreated him while he was younger.

The opening scene of the Shining opens with Jack Torrance driving all the way to the Overlook hotel through lush green scenery. Tommy has become the Red Zeo Ranger in the series. Red as in Red rum? Also in ZEO, he goes from the White Ranger to the Red Ranger. A white man to a red man?

Tommy in one episode of ZEO goes back to attack his former friends, just like he had to the entire city of Angel Grove in Mighty Morphin like nothing had happened, so much to the fact that it seems like a Stanley Kubrick plot discontinuity.

Happy July 4th everybody!

MMPR fan film aka Project_Ranger Con appearances

The MMPR fan film facebook has mentioned on June 30th 2013 that they would appear at Wizard Con NYC.
They also mentioned that they might appear at NYCC 2013 and have their own table!

The Potential for Dan Southworth's Divergence X/10

Popular Uprising's Divergence episode 9 finally revealed what the antagonists of the series are up to tying both to Mark's past and the future of the series.
The next episode can potentially make the series very memorable if the right steps are taken.
I have been hearing rumors about something big happening the last episode. Possibly a lot of sci fi disappearing based action. Mark finally uses the technology against those using it perhaps? Will their be multiple dimensions of Marks, Tys and whoever to encounter a la the Star Trek: Next Generation episode Parallels?
However, let us just take it one step at a time.
While I question Mark's line about the war being over in one line, to science fiction paranoia in the next, there is no doubt episode 9 finally got everybody talking about what was next for the bad guys in Divergence.

Episode 9 helped us tie in the fact that the main baddies are associated with Mark (or at least they of a different dimension are associated with another dimension's Mark, I think. It's in the episode. Watch it!) Anyway,

In episode 10, we can get to learn more about Ty, alternate reality or not as well as the girls of the series. We may even get to know their commanding officers and what happened to the rest of their troop based on this Ty's dimension dopplegangers in the show, giving us an idea or foil of what this Mark's troop may (or may not) have been like.
Potentially, Mark can be made a militaristic army bad guy if taken the wrong side in episode 10 in there is enough of their mission that is similar to his original mission that we never actually knew about in the series before.
Perhaps something even more devious, like the rumored Venjix-Dillon personality of RPM rumor lore.

Also, what about Mark's doctor?

MMPR fan film aka Project_Ranger Analysis

Let me get my nitpicks out of the way.
Tommy is an overused device and albeit one used out of legacy and popularity, rather than the actual substance of a character a la Andros or Dillon. Not having the other former Rangers in this fan film, further exaacerbates a post-Austin-Thuy-Walter mentality that they could have easily been replaced, despite all the little character quirks the writers and actors already put in their characters.
The professor in the youtube footage looked a bit too cartoony for me, albeit that might have been an homage to Super Sentai professors of the past i.e. GogoV. I also did not get that it was supposed to be a Silver Guardian project in the trailer.
Some of these nitpicks are not really even negatives. Some may be risks or just the vision of the director.
New blood can be a good thing, especially for those of us who are sick of watching Saban screw everything up. (Mighty Morphin bootleg theme song for two shows in a row?)
We can finally see a passing of the Mighty Morphin torch from the originals to another. Out with the dinosaurs, in with the new.

Now on to the good:
This is a relatively cheap project, yet it looks blockbustery. On a budget of less than $30,000, they managed to develop a film that has a Batman Begins feel to it, being shot in brown film-ish tone, opposed to the children's soap opera production beginnings of the franchise. (Film has a better history of success than television, more of a budget, more takes, less scheduled rushes.)

We often see buildings razed by monsters, but often there are no economic consequences for civilians in these situations. All the white collar jobs normally stay in their respective city, even though giant monsters would most likely drive jobs and construction out of that city. However, in MMPR we see the economic rammifications of Lord Zedd's leadership. Out with the Bar itzvah's. In with economic stability- people without shelter, possibly without food.

Speaking of which, we also get a rare glimpse of religion in a Power Rangers season. A building block of humans under their worst conditions, forced to sin.

How ironic is it seeing MMPR with a girl with a ragged toy, compared to those Mighty Morphin toy commercials with loud rock music , production values, and extravagance.

I do not think this will break barriers for Power Rangers as highest class art, such as Paul Thomas Anderson and Alfred Hitchcock.

However, can we be seeing a Bela Tarr or a Vittorio De Sica in this film? They set up a long shot that great cinematographers use in great scenes for the mmpr trailer.
Also, the trailer goes great with the theme from Taxi Driver!

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers fans should watch The Turin Horse

Saban's great first live action superhero franchise Mighty Morphin Power Rangers has some resemblances to Bela Tarr's final cinematic piece the Turin Horse . It is a repeated use of repeated footage from Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger, especially for the Pudgy Pig and reused Machiko Soga footage.
Bela Tarr's final piece, The Turin Horse is very methodical. It has a message about Nietszche which I did not get watching it at press screenings from the Walter Reade Theatre twice. However, I did observe the realism through repetition in the film however. It is sort of beautiful in its mundane manner.
The everyday life of farmers forced to eat potatoes to survive in a storm they will probably not survive in, the same fate of those monsters who are too stupid to say, "F*** you, Lord Zedd. I'm not fighting the Power Rangers. They're motherf***ing gonna kill me. What ya have to say about that? I'm forming a union with all the other monsters against these terrible conditions!"
It is not to say that Power Rangers is surreal, but that the Turin Horse is modern, whereas the Power Rangers is possibly a variation of the post-post-modern group, being all mass appealish opposed to dystopian film niche copying and pasting materials, crew and footage.
Furthermore, both media have a certain method to their repetition, and their audiences and fans have appreciated it.

Power Rangers:
Go Go Power Rangers
School scene
Rita scene
Power Rangers vs Putties
Japanese footage

Turin Horse:
Go outside
Put on clothes
Eat potatoes
Light the lamps
Blow out the lamps

Daniel Southworth Updates May to June 2013

Dan Southworth Facebook Admin Susan has stated that Dan has regretably not been able to join Power Rangers Super Megaforce 20th (or 21st or 19th reunion depending on your point of view,) because Dan and Saban Brands were unable to complete a negotiation. The Admin would like to reemphasize: he was invited, but the negotiations did not go through. The information can be seen here.

"I'd like to thank the producers at Saban for extending an invitation to appear in the upcoming reunion, and while its unfortunate that we were unable to reach a mutually suitable arrangement I hope filming goes well and that perhaps there will be another opportunity."

He can however be seen on his web show Divergence from his own production company Popular Rising seen here.

Best of luck to ya, Dan!