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

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if anyone cares Power Rangers Break Even is

$268,000,000 World- Wide, around 2.5X the budget

at Dom + UK it is at $79,000,000 for lionsgate , so lionsgate needs $22,000,000 to break even from U.S. and UK

at International distributors it is minus UK, $38,000,000 International, so International partners need $138,000,000 to break even

to get a sequel, it is 3X the budget, but it can make it up with DVD Sales and streaming
 
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What happened with the whole "Lionsgate sold rights to so and so and such and such" that people were talking about?
 
What happened with the whole "Lionsgate sold rights to so and so and such and such" that people were talking about?

It's pretty much how Lionsgate does business. They are still small for a studio, so they don't have the resources to handle international distribution themselves. So they sell the movie to local distributors.
 
So, this goes back to the same problem a lot of these recent spectacle superhero-ish movies have: They are NOT actually interested in the property, just in the name recognition. They wanted to do a cool teeange superhero movie, which made the first bits of the film really solid, but as soon as Rita confronts the rangers the movie's quality, both in storytelling, tone and presentation takes a huuuuuge nosedive, because the film doesn't really revel in that, it's not as excited about that as it is the teenage drama. I called this, and while I didn't anticipate that they would just leave the property out of the first 2/3rds of the film, and thereby create something that was actually good, I knew that as soon as they had to actually do Power Rangers, it would be weaksauce, and it really really was. There is better costumed action and costumed emotional payoff in the cheap-o G-rated TV series 20 years ago than there was in this film, and that should be embarrassing.

Proof that they didn't really want to make a Power Rangers movie: If they had taken the suits and zords out, they would have had a much better film.
 
There is better costumed action and costumed emotional payoff in the cheap-o G-rated TV series 20 years ago than there was in this film, and that should be embarrassing.
No.
 
The movie flopped period. Some PR fans can spin all they want,but it flopped. Their are several reasons they did so. Number 1, the director. I don't care how nice the guy is or how much a fan of the series he was. Haim Saban should have never been allowed to pick the director period. Lionsgate should have paid Saban to not be involved with the project. When you let Saban to be hands on. Stuff going to be done on the cheap. Case and point hiring a Director from a movie that bombed before this one. Number 2,the release date. Any way you slice it putting it up against BATB,Kong,and Logan was asine period. Number 3,the promotion of the movie. It had very little promos,ad,etc in the US or OS. If you have faith in a project. You promote the hell out of it. Clearly Lionsgate/Saban did not have faith in it. Finally the tone of the movie. The movie should have been none stop action,martial arts,and explosions. That was what the general audience was expecting. What they got was breakfast club junior. The fandom may have loved that,but the general audience didn't.
 
if anyone cares Power Rangers Break Even is

$268,000,000 World- Wide, around 2.5X the budget

at Dom + UK it is at $79,000,000 for lionsgate , so lionsgate needs $22,000,000 to break even from U.S. and UK

at International distributors it is minus UK, $38,000,000 International, so International partners need $138,000,000 to break even

to get a sequel, it is 3X the budget, but it can make it up with DVD Sales and streaming

Yeah, none of that going to happen. PR be lucky to reach 170M WW.
 
Y'know... I'll give you that, I did overstate my point. 10 years is probably more accurate.

The last sequence of the movie doesn't even hold a candle to the best of Power Rangers, such as Forever Red or Green With Evil, because it doesn't use the very old tricks PR has for carrying over the emotions of the characters into the action. Team up scenes where we see two characters in action together provides a huge catharsis for the relationships in the film up until that point. Avengers did this very well, with a similar goal of having 20 minutes of spectacle to pay off an hour and a half of character development, though some of that occurred through action as well. The movie didn't understand that the morphed characters were still themselves, that they were supposed to still feel just as much themselves while their masks were on. The movie instead put the character development on timeout.

Episodes like Green with Evil upended the Rangers' expectations, and while it wasn't as easy for the reboot to do this without first establishing those expectations, they tried with Rita being a former green, and they had a little twist with Zordon coming back in there, and it didn't work as well as it did 20 years ago when the same emotions blew minds. The fight with Rita in the warehouse is as close as the film gets to the fight being personal with Rita, and the movie apparently didn't know what it had, because the screws never get tightened and the ultimate victory is little more than "Looks like Team Rocket is Blasting off Again" and while not everyone laughed, I certainly did. Compelling character development through fighting is what Kung Fu cinema is all about, and Power Rangers has done that so well at times it can make you misty eyed.

Villains like Ecliptor, The Psycho Rangers and even Galdar locked in a room with Jason simply carried more menace, they clearly demonstrated, on zero budget and for children, that there were personal stakes for them in these conflicts, which made them more dangerous. There's more to enjoy in Astronema's backstory and internal conflict played against her lieutenants' expectations than there is in Rita's tell-don't-show pursuit of worthiness based on nothing but what the viewer imagines out of thin air.

There were a few moments of choreography in the film that were worth mentioning, Billy's kick from the trailer was cool, surprising and strong, and Jason's capoeria inspired ground work when going to rescue his dad was pretty cool, but these are all things we've seen more and better of in the TV series. In the show, you can feel hits, and there are consequences to both the characters and environment, you can see struggle and back and forth, on the best seasons, you can pick out fighting styles for different characters. You can see people holding back when the monsters are their friends. It's clear that they simply spend more time thinking out the action sequences, that there's someone who is passionate about that aspect of the property and is allowed to do their work. The TV series did inside-helmet-vision long before Iron Man did to show those kinds of extreme battlefield emotions, and the movie gave us a hint of that when Billy first morphed and then never cashed in that wonderful check. A lot of the callbacks in the film were awkward, because they weren't built, they were just set up and never built up (like the empathic morphing), and then cashed in as though anyone should feel they have meaning, and that's not how you pay stuff off well in any visual media, even 20 year old Power Rangers knew that.

I could go on, and on, and ON about all the times Power Rangers was exemplary over the years, that the movie failed to deal with. It's not a fair comparison, honestly, because out of 800+ episodes, you're going to find some gold in there that rises above what should be expected of a cheap children's clip show. But the fact remains, that those golden moments did happen, and that the reboot did not take any lessons from them, and that is case in point ignoring the power of one's own brand.
 
Y'know... I'll give you that, I did overstate my point. 10 years is probably more accurate.

The last sequence of the movie doesn't even hold a candle to the best of Power Rangers, such as Forever Red or Green With Evil, because it doesn't use the very old tricks PR has for carrying over the emotions of the characters into the action. Team up scenes where we see two characters in action together provides a huge catharsis for the relationships in the film up until that point. Avengers did this very well, with a similar goal of having 20 minutes of spectacle to pay off an hour and a half of character development, though some of that occurred through action as well. The movie didn't understand that the morphed characters were still themselves, that they were supposed to still feel just as much themselves while their masks were on. The movie instead put the character development on timeout.

The character development by the big spectacle point was somewhat (obviously doesn't quite compare to the exuberance of development that came before even within the action snippets I listed) on timeout for everyone except the trio we've followed since the start with Jason obviously having the most to gain. Kimberly seemed to always be the one to drag people into situations. Billy showed off his continued humor through his quirky antics. Jason got to save his dad (as contrived as that is story-wise, it was very relevant to the tension between them). I was gonna say it would be better if he unmasked, but then his dad would probably be more freaked out than be very proud his son is now a superhero.

I could go on, and on, and ON about all the times Power Rangers was exemplary over the years, that the movie failed to deal with. It's not a fair comparison, honestly, because out of 800+ episodes, you're going to find some gold in there that rises above what should be expected of a cheap children's clip show. But the fact remains, that those golden moments did happen, and that the reboot did not take any lessons from them, and that is case in point ignoring the power of one's own brand.
At least you made that point.
The reboot did, ESPECIALLY in how it handled Zordon's expectations with the teens' aspirations. And I haven't gotten anything that moving since RPM.
I'm sure the more recent shows made attempts, but they likely weren't written, acted, or directed as well.
 
The character development by the big spectacle point was somewhat (obviously doesn't quite compare to the exuberance of development that came before even within the action snippets I listed) on timeout for everyone except the trio we've followed since the start with Jason obviously having the most to gain. Kimberly seemed to always be the one to drag people into situations. Billy showed off his continued humor through his quirky antics. Jason got to save his dad (as contrived as that is story-wise, it was very relevant to the tension between them). I was gonna say it would be better if he unmasked, but then his dad would probably be more freaked out than be very proud his son is now a superhero.

That's not really development, that's just, they didn't become mute non-characters like apparently Zack and Trini did. Jason had some rescuing his dad from the same situation he himself had been in, but that could only happen by stepping out of the actual fight sequence that was going on, showing that character development could only happen away from the main action, and to underline how meaningless that fight sequence was: Jason's departure had absolutely no effect on it.

Development meant things are developing, right? So character development are things like when characters have to make hard choices, or experience consequences or demonstrate how they've changed from the beginning. Power Rangers the TV show does that often, and sometimes incredibly well. Other films have done this well, having character development and payoff IN the fight sequences, IN the choreography, IN the cinematography of the action sequences. Characters who are fighting experience emotions and make decisions. PR specializes in this, and the movie chose to ignore that and make fights where no meaningful decisions or payoff happened. Even what was supposed to be the big payoff with the MZ forming was already done when they showed they were willing to die for each other 15 minutes earlier.

That last sequence is just really poor filmmaking, and the fact that all the problems they faced in doing it have been solved for over 10 years in the very property they are adapting is just pitiful.

At least you made that point.
The reboot did, ESPECIALLY in how it handled Zordon's expectations with the teens' aspirations. And I haven't gotten anything that moving since RPM.
I'm sure the more recent shows made attempts, but they likely weren't written, acted, or directed as well.
I would definitely put the first 2/3rds of the film, in terms of gravitas and character development over 99% of PR television. They made likeable rounded characters for the most part, and they should be proud of that, and we can talk at length about the things that were done well outside of costumes and zords, Zordon included.

But once they have to actually be recognizable as Power Rangers, the film falls apart, and the TV show has done so well with having emotions in suits and Zords and the actions therein, they really should be a little bit embarrassed because they didn't have to work from scratch, they could have just cherry picked the best/most fitting/most proven devices from the show and reaped the rewards. Instead, they left good storytelling on the table and chose to do things that don't work well in Power Ranger action sequences... because they just couldn't be bothered to make good Power Rangers. It's possible that they didn't even believe that there was any quality storytelling in PR history, so they never learned the lessons that have been available and at times mastered more than ten years ago. That IS embarrassing.
 
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That's not really development, that's just, they didn't become mute non-characters like apparently Zack and Trini did. Jason had some rescuing his dad from the same situation he himself had been in, but that could only happen by stepping out of the actual fight sequence that was going on, showing that character development could only happen away from the main action, and to underline how meaningless that fight sequence was: Jason's departure had absolutely no effect on it.

Development meant things are developing, right?...Characters who are fighting experience emotions and make decisions. PR specializes in this, and the movie chose to ignore that and make fights where no meaningful decisions or payoff happened. Even what was supposed to be the big payoff with the MZ forming was already done when they showed they were willing to die for each other 15 minutes earlier.
Yeah, for w/e reason people keep confusing character development for character growth or a cathartic moment. Character development is genuinely as broad as it sounds. If a character says or does something, that's character development and the good kinds inform the audience of a trait. Character growth or a cathartic moment is underneath that character development umbrella.

I recall Trini's retort toward Rita which instantly made me recall their first encounter together.
The only line I remember delivered by Zack was "that's a lot of gold." <- and it wasn't followed by them laughing hysterically :woot: thank gawd!

Overall, when they were kicking ass, they expressed how much fun they were having. When Rita had the upper hand, their characters developed to express fear and stood their ground the best they could under that pressure "Hold the line." 15 min ago they weren't all at the brink of death to this degree. The big payoff with the MZ forming works as TeeKay duly noted because even with all the new bells and whistles, they pushed how far the zords could be damaged. I remember some reassembling happening within that firey pit itself :mrk:

they could have just cherry picked the best/most fitting/most proven devices from the show and reaped the rewards. Instead, they left good storytelling on the table and chose to do things that don't work well in Power Ranger action sequences... because they just couldn't be bothered to make good Power Rangers. It's possible that they didn't even believe that there was any quality storytelling in PR history, so they never learned the lessons that have been available and at times mastered more than ten years ago. That IS embarrassing.
Time to give me an example because this is venting toward what I noticed was good fun Power Rangers time. My only major gripe during that was how fast the morphed martial arts portion flew by.
 
if anyone cares Power Rangers Break Even is

$268,000,000 World- Wide, around 2.5X the budget

at Dom + UK it is at $79,000,000 for lionsgate , so lionsgate needs $22,000,000 to break even from U.S. and UK

at International distributors it is minus UK, $38,000,000 International, so International partners need $138,000,000 to break even

to get a sequel, it is 3X the budget, but it can make it up with DVD Sales and streaming
Just stop. :funny:
 
The movie flopped period. Some PR fans can spin all they want,but it flopped. Their are several reasons they did so. Number 1, the director. I don't care how nice the guy is or how much a fan of the series he was. Haim Saban should have never been allowed to pick the director period. Lionsgate should have paid Saban to not be involved with the project. When you let Saban to be hands on. Stuff going to be done on the cheap. Case and point hiring a Director from a movie that bombed before this one. Number 2,the release date. Any way you slice it putting it up against BATB,Kong,and Logan was asine period. Number 3,the promotion of the movie. It had very little promos,ad,etc in the US or OS. If you have faith in a project. You promote the hell out of it. Clearly Lionsgate/Saban did not have faith in it. Finally the tone of the movie. The movie should have been none stop action,martial arts,and explosions. That was what the general audience was expecting. What they got was breakfast club junior. The fandom may have loved that,but the general audience didn't.

I don't often use Rotten Tomatoes for anything, but considering audience reception is 77%, I'd be willing to say audiences that saw it did enjoy it. Just nobody saw it because the advertising was so terrible.
 
Not necessarily a bomb (due to budget). But I wouldn't call it a success either.

I will say, though, I am getting tired of things having sub par martial arts action.
 
Yeah, for w/e reason people keep confusing character development for character growth or a cathartic moment. Character development is genuinely as broad as it sounds. If a character says or does something, that's character development and the good kinds inform the audience of a trait. Character growth or a cathartic moment is underneath that character development umbrella.

I recall Trini's retort toward Rita which instantly made me recall their first encounter together.
The only line I remember delivered by Zack was "that's a lot of gold." <- and it wasn't followed by them laughing hysterically :woot: thank gawd!

Overall, when they were kicking ass, they expressed how much fun they were having. When Rita had the upper hand, their characters developed to express fear and stood their ground the best they could under that pressure "Hold the line." 15 min ago they weren't all at the brink of death to this degree. The big payoff with the MZ forming works as TeeKay duly noted because even with all the new bells and whistles, they pushed how far the zords could be damaged. I remember some reassembling happening within that firey pit itself :mrk:

No one's confused. Development is a synonym of growth, isn't it? Is action also a synonym for development or growth? That's what makes people treat growth as development and action as not necessarily either. Otherwise, every action you take would be personal development, and just taking a picture would be called developing that picture. Plus, it's pretty pedantic to refute "this thing has no X" with "It does have X, just not very good X."

Fun can be, and was, expressed in 30 seconds, as can fear. How long can a movie go only expressing happiness and still be interesting? The answer is not 10 minutes. These are basic emotions that need to escalate and vacillate in order to make an entire extended action sequence interesting. What they chose to do left 20+ minutes with a lack of development and a plethora of opportunities for such.

Time to give me an example because this is venting toward what I noticed was good fun Power Rangers time. My only major gripe during that was how fast the morphed martial arts portion flew by.
It's past time to give an example, which is why I gave several two turns of conversations ago. To review:
Forever Red - Ahead of it's time example of how to show relationships between costumed characters who are fighting alongside each other. Avengers managed to duplicate this trick, but Power Rangers didn't, and instead the relationships of the characters were irrelevant in the fight scenes.
Green with Evil - Great example of using mystery and menace of a masked character in a fight scene with an underlying a sense of betrayal and taking advantage of the evil ranger conceit.

I alluded to several others: Ecliptor's introduction in Save Our Ship is pretty aggressive badass warrior behavior for an evil queen character, and wouldn't have been out of place. Even going back to Cyclopsis as a 'villain Zord' back in MMPR days was able to communicate a sense of weight to the battle by choosing interesting targets and not a donut shop. Another thing the show does to take pointlessness out of fight scenes, having a zord unavailable, elsewhere leaving the team at a disadvantage, underlining how important everyone is to victory. Yet another thing the show was always doing to put weight into the final battles is to put characters we care about in the fray. The power of Jason saving his dad could have been all through the scene if the characters we knew and cared about were on the line. I could probably go on, but long story short: people attach to these characters despite bad acting, so what do you think the show did in order to ingratiate people to them?

Now these are not techniques unique to Power Rangers, they are things that are big parts of skilled filmmaking and have been since before MMPR came out. It's just the fact that the Power Rangers TV shows have been doing it for 20+ years with these trappings (costumes, zords, etc) and the movie STILL couldn't catch on to these things, that's what makes it embarrassing.

EDIT: Do you know one moment that stands out to me that was SO much fun? When Doggie Cruiser (SPD) was alone against 100 foot soldiers, and he just went to down with great choreography and there was a countdown timer on the screen. It was sooooo gorgeous and so much fun, but to have that kind of fun, you have to have SOME weight, some anchor to make the action anything more than just meaningless flashes. The more I talk about it, the more I remember how great this show can get. If they had just had him fighting some bad guys with okay-ish choreo, I wouldn't even remember that that had happened.
 
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I don't often use Rotten Tomatoes for anything, but considering audience reception is 77%, I'd be willing to say audiences that saw it did enjoy it. Just nobody saw it because the advertising was so terrible.

Pretty much.
 
In defense of the advertising: was there a good way to advertise this movie?
 
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