Lionsgate "Power Rangers" - - - - - - - - - - - Part 20

[Sithborg]

Yup, doa in Japan. Never know in China, but no way it saves the movie.

 

[MydnightPhoenix]

So standing around doing a kumbaya moment was better?When they morph its suppose to be exciting and kinda a "It's about to go down" moment. In the film it just happens. Also why did they even have to stand around in that circle for them to morph? It was pointless. They could have just morphed without standing in those pads.

LMAO... I admit I might have been too old at the time, but nothing about morphing on the TV show screamed "its about to go down". To me it was a direction to LoL at that cheesiness, and you know the bad acting.

 

[I SEE SPIDEY]

Yup, doa in Japan. Never know in China, but no way it saves the movie.

China likes spectacles. Power Rangers is not a spectacle.

 

[DarthSkywalker]

It could pull a smaller version of BvS where people go and see what is on offer, and then it drops off a cliff if it isn't the spectacle they are looking for.

 

[Sithborg]

It could pull a smaller version of BvS where people go and see what is on offer, and then it drops off a cliff if it isn't the spectacle they are looking for.

I will always laugh that Apocalypse did better than BvS in China. While fighting off Warcraft.

 

[Reel-Man]

I preferred if they used the other cover for the steelbook, shame. Hopefully it looks better in hand.

From Power Rangers Now:

Also they have new posters for the Chinese release:
https://www.powerrangersnow.com/china-releases-final-power-rangers-movie-poster/

And Zord posters

https://www.powerrangersnow.com/china-releases-power-rangers-movie-zord-posters/

 

[YoungBlood]

China likes spectacles. Power Rangers is not a spectacle.

China: It's not like Transformers, there's too much plot and not enough robots fighting or hot chicks or Michael Bay.

 

[DrCosmic]

China: It's not like Transformers, there's too much plot and not enough robots fighting or hot chicks or Michael Bay.

An American movie without killer machines is like a Chinese movie without martial arts.

 

[TheVileOne]

I'm still confused why they gave the mastodon zord six legs.

 

[DarthSkywalker]

I'm still confused why they gave the mastodon zord six legs.

I am guessing they thought it was more practical in terms of movement, forgetting these are animal based mechs, so that really doesn't matter.

 

[Octoberist]

It's so stupid that he has 6 legs. Again, that's sorta of the Michael Bay school of thought on design: Over think it.

 

[KRYPTON INC.]

Uh... Didn't the original "triceratops " have no legs and tank treads?

 

[TheVileOne]

Uh... Didn't the original "triceratops " have no legs and tank treads?

http://powerrangers.wikia.com/wiki/File:MMPR_Triceratops_Dinozord.jpg

Yes, but FOUR sets of tank treads

 

[momotaros]

Right now I expect it to finish 3nd behind GOTG 2 and Dangal in China. Although it possible people go see it. Like it afterwards giving it WOM in China. Not saying it likely,just saying China people taste are different then ours in the US.

P.S. Some cast are still talking sequel. http://heroichollywood.com/power-rangers-becky-yellow-ranger-sequel/ So maybe what some in here consider it needs BO wise. Isn't what LG has in mind. Oh and the cast still wants green ranger to be a girl.. lol https://www.themarysue.com/power-rangers-becky-g-amy-jo-johnson/

 

[superion]

Right now I expect it to finish 3nd behind GOTG 2 and Dangal in China. Although it possible people go see it. Like it afterwards giving it WOM in China. Not saying it likely,just saying China people taste are different then ours in the US.

P.S. Some cast are still talking sequel. http://heroichollywood.com/power-rangers-becky-yellow-ranger-sequel/ So maybe what some in here consider it needs BO wise. Isn't what LG has in mind. Oh and the cast still wants green ranger to be a girl.. lol https://www.themarysue.com/power-rangers-becky-g-amy-jo-johnson/

That's just the actress hoping for a sequel. She does not represent Lionsgate. If this film does not at least double its $110 production budget (and there's still the marketing budget to account for) it would be amazing if it got a sequel. This isn't some low budget film that can make up its losses on home video.

Someone is going to eat a loss on this (either Lionsgate or the outside investors) and they are not likely to put any more money into a sequel. Maybe if Saban ponied up the money for a sequel it might get made.

 

[imfinewithit]

That's the only way I can see a sequel to this happening. The budget gets slashed at the very least in half and Saban covers a greater share. It may have trouble finding foreign distribution in many markets given how hard it bombed in most of them and that there's a recent indicative comparison as to how a sequel would perform commercially (Turtles 2). Power Rangers 2 would be lucky to even sniff 100m worldwide.

 

[momotaros]

No sequel. China hates the movie. Maoyan the most respect Chinese movie site around. The Smurfs and GITS both had over 8 ratings in China. No movie has had below 6 rating until now PR 5.4. Plus the movie already released last night there. So they have seen it.

 

[DrCosmic]

Power Rangers: making history again.

 

[Wildcard]

I still kind of can't believe this thing couldn't even make it to $200 million WW. Months ago, I thought for sure $300 million was the lowest it'd go WW. How very wrong I was...

 

[harryoscop]

What went wrong?

 

[Wildcard]

What went wrong?

A product was being sold that audiences didn't want. Rather than introducing PR as a fun, popcorn flick there's a lot of melodrama muddling up the majority of the movie with very little action involved. It's a blockbuster that feels nothing like a blockbuster and doesn't offer anything new or that hasn't been seen already and more competently executed.

 

[DrCosmic]

What went wrong?

Going backwards,

• the movie had no legs because it got a weak start.
  The movie got a weak start because of the options available (Logan still kicking, Beauty and the Beast just out) and a poor critical reception.
• The movie got a poor critical reception because there was a lot of attention and expectation on it as a modern superhero reboot of a once world-dominating franchise, and because the movie wasn't cohesive with a satisfying ending, despite it's good parts.
• The movie wasn't cohesive with a satisfying ending because it did not spent time developing the powers and abilities that the movie was leading to and concluded with.
  The movie didn't spend time (or much money) on the Power part of Power Rangers because the filmmakers weren't interested in that.
• The filmmakers weren't interested in that because the producers took their modest Lionsgate budget of 100M and instead of finding the right talent, they found the most experienced "best" talent they could find in that range, which got them the writing talent behind films like Geostorm and Gods of Egypt and the director of Project Almanac (think if Chronicle was critically panned and Fox still hired him to do Fantastic Four), and some no name actors. They would have done much better the other way around with talented no name (cheap) writing and directing talent and the cheapest experienced actors for the parts (think CW-types).
• The producers misused their budget in this way because the movie producers Haim Saban brought in were virtually all YA adaptation vets, with only one Power Rangers producer, the executive producer of the TV show, whose job and expertise and perspective is not directly connected with what makes Power Rangers so appealing, but with what makes them function from a corporate angle. This would explain why there are a bunch of children's toys for a movie promoted to teens and adults.
• Haim Saban brought on such people because he is a music producer by trade, and his understanding of talent comes from the slash and burn style of an endless parade of talent that he can use as he sees fit. Since he doesn't cultivate talent, but historically abuses contracts and content makers, he doesn't have any to draw on, even though he's been in the industry for... how old is power rangers?

I think the tone of the film is just a scapegoat. The movie was simply ill-conceived in general.

 

[harryoscop]

What would you guys have done to fix this movie? Like if the filmmakers were the problem, who should've been hired instead

 

[DrCosmic]

What would you guys have done to fix this movie? Like if the filmmakers were the problem, who should've been hired instead

Well... for directors, you want someone cheap who is acquainted with martial arts and superheroics, masks and the like. James McTiege, who brought great marital arts character development to Ninja Assassin and great emotions to the masked V for Vendetta would be pretty ideal, but if not him, someone in that vein, or who holds him as an inspiration. Though it might have been a little fast, hearing the feedback from J.D. Dillard's Sleight would have put him on the shortlist. Netflix's iBoy did just this trick with these same kinds of themes by finding Adam Randall.

For producers, you actually do want to keep your YA sensibilities, but you also want to balance that against people who are going to push for the character development through the super hero stuff, but is also essentially cheap. If you've going to the people who've actually worked on Power Rangers over the years, instead of getting a Exective VP to produce, get an actual producer of one of the best seasons of Power Rangers, that is, get Jonathan Tzachor. He is the most qualified person, since he's already done with some success precisely what you intend: update PR for a teen and adult audience. And because he's already passionate and slaving away on a non unionized children's live action cartoon, he's affordable.

When you have things like this happening, the Power becomes just as important as the Rangers, just as Iron Man's suit is as interesting and compelling as Tony himself, and a movie where Hulk is duller than Bruce Banner cannot be successful.

But still, after paying all of these people that leaves you with a relatively small budget, and the cheapest way to make a small budget look fracking awesome: lots of punching and kicking. With practical suits, giving Power Rangers 3-4 compelling action sequences won't blow your budget... not at all, in fact. Take the same stunt team that worked out the 2 minutes of martial arts combat we saw in the film and give them five times the budget and twice the prep time and require ten times the output. This leaves you with signficantly less money to have a long extended sequence of CGI zord chicanery, but now that you have someone who knows how to produce henshin action on hand, they'll tell you that's a GOOD thing, especially in your small town setting. You're left with a free-moving zord sequence that is only maybe a minute long and a megazord sequence only two or three minutes. Which is fine.

It also wouldn't hurt to learn lessons from previous superhero blockbusters: that is, have your hero drag your villain out of your city, saving lives instead of relishing in the destruction of their hometown, because the economic collapse of a small town like Angel Grove is similar to the economic collapse of the film's sequel. Also, show your heroes teaming up two by two during short action sequences to underline the comraderie that has developed between them.

Specifically, if I were plotting the story:

Spoiler

the beginning would look mostly identical, except Rita would be the former Yellow Ranger who discovered the corrupt Green Power (thus making our theoretical Tommy the first Green Ranger) and betrayed the team. The middle, when they start to train would show that morphing was a purely emotional thing, when Jason and Zack comes to blows, they morph, and we get a short show of the Rangers' potential. It would be Trini that breaks them up wth her morphing. Billy, in contrast, would be the one who first discovers and figures out how to activate the zords, during his study of the command center. Rita's development would happen gradually as the rock monsters would start tearing up the town and mining the gold mine creating a constant ominous nearby threat, also explaining where she is all this time, and showcasing how vulnerable the Rangers are without their suits when they get into a fight with them. I'd dedicate myself to Kimberly's storyline where her picture of the girl causes something actually horrible to happen, instead of her just whining over it. When they track and are defeated by Rita, it's she that gets killed, and has to be brought back, cementing that they are going to look out for even the "worst" of them. Rita's golden machine starts forming, rock monsters attack the city, and they go to confront them, taking out lots of rocky monsters in cool ways, saving their parents, etc, but it's too late, the Goldar is free, and they must then call upon their zords with Billy's help/instruction, which are quickly dispatched as the whole in the Krispy Kreme is opened up, they are pushed in and form the Megazord, which quickly throws Galdar out of town, and has it out with him in the nearby quarry, where their combined skills and new unified demeanor make quick work of the thing, and they then surround Rita, who is imprisoned in stasis within the Command Center, because that's gonna work out well, right? Then the whole mystery of 'what happened to the green coin she was deriving her power from' afterwards, because it's a mystery... cue credits, cue after credits scene.

But that's just how I would do it, the important thing is that better decisions were abundantly available.

 

[Sithborg]

Someone who understands that the martial arts/kaiju action needs as much attention as the character work. Which also means a bigger budget.

But, Saban...