The Power/Rangers Fan Film: Does it Suck?

     So, if have been living under a rock, we were blessed with a Power Ranger fan film. This wasn't not just your filmed in the backyard fan film. This was a fan filmed that featured talent like actors James Van Der Beek and Katee Sackhoff, producers Joseph Kahn, and Adi Shankar. The film has currently over 12,000,000 view on YouTube. Saban and the creators of this fan film have been in a bit of dispute this week as Saban has shown disapproval with the gritty fan film and has threaten to take legal action if the video wasn't taken down. Apparently a deal has been made and Saban has agreed to allow the video to stay up, for now. Good? Probably so, unless it sucks. But does it? Let's find out.

Story
     The fan film opens with an epic battle with good and evil to get you in the mood and let you know just how intense this battle is. The setting is in an Angel Grove a la Blade Runner. Everything is futuristic and robots of the Machine Empire are running everything. The Power Rangers are a resistance team set on overthrowing this tyranny. The whole film revolves around former Ranger Rocky interrogating Kimberly, the Pink Ranger, for the whereabouts of Tommy, the Green Ranger. As the interrogation goes on, you get a backdrop of how gritty and fucked-up things are as well as the background of the other Rangers. Zach is your stereotypical black celeb loaded up with money, drugs, & women and Billy is basically Tony Stark. The fan film plays every cliche in every gritty and mature film. Ton of drugs, a crime boss fights, an over the top betrayal scene, and throw in a ton of really gruesome deaths. It was nice that they've kept a few things from the series like Kimberly's relationships with Tommy and Jason, Tommy's power issues being referenced, and Zach's in his parachute pants and getting his Shaun T on, just like he did in the series along with some easter eggs like Klank from Zeo, Divatox from Turbo, and Scorpina making cameos. It was also cool to see them do a nod to the actress that played Trini, Thuy Trang, who died in a car accident.

Effects
     The effects, considering who was aboard with the film, were cool. Of course it was low budget and of course we all know we will know that watching this fan film we would not be getting the Avatar treatment of CGI. For the most part, it was as good as it got. It was cheap, but it didn't look cheap at all. And we've known we've seen worse.

Cinematography
     The Power Rangers fan film has been credited as a Joseph Kahn  film, he is the director. For those who don't know Khan's work he has been the guy who you would go to to make music video all throughout the early 00s. Most of Kahn's work was filming music videos. It's interesting to see him not only do something like this, but do it well. It looked like an actual film was being made. It doesn't look like the stuff Kahn usually makes so it's nice to see a director improve or do something different.

Final Verdict
     Does it suck? Not really. Yes it does every gritty action movie cliche, but it does it well that you're not really bothered with it. The only problem I had was trying to fit everything together. There were some inconsistencies in the script, like how did Rocky become a Ranger and betrayed everyone while Jason was still there, unless he was the White Ranger or something? We've been begging for a more adult Power Rangers theme and we kinda got it. With Saban and Lionsgate doing a Power Rangers reboot of their own in the near future, this fan film show what creativity and what direction they can go or do better. This gets a 3 out of 5.

What are your thoughts on the fan film?

LGBT Couples in Video Games

Valentine's Day is here! In celebration of today (and since I have no plans for the day because I'm single T_T), I decided to do a post about the romantic couples in video games. I could've done the usual. I could've done Link and Zelda, Mario and Peach, and Sonic and Amy, but that would've been normal, and boring. Instead I decided to do a post about LGBT couples in video games. As a gay person who plays video games, it's nice as well as important to not only see me being represented in video games, but to see LGBT couples in games as well. It almost helps spread that message that says that my love is no different than your love and counteracts homophobia that some people have in not only in the gaming community, but in society as well. With no further due, here are the LGBT couples in gaming.

Birdo and Yoshi


Let's get started with the most famous: Birdo and Yoshi. Yoshi, even though is considered to be gender neutral, is mostly associated as a male. Birdo's gender has been controversial from the very start. According to the instruction booklet of Super Mario Bros. 2 (Super Mario USA in Japan), Birdo, or Catherine, is described as a boy who think he is a girl. This is further confirmed with not only the Japanese commercial for Super Mario Bros. 2, but in Captain Rainbow for the Nintendo Gamecube. Birdo and Yoshi have been a couple and have had great chemistry in most of the Mario Spin-offs like Mario Party 7 and Mario Tennis. Mario Kart: Double Dash's japanese website has jokingly stated: "Catherine appears to be Yoshi's girlfriend... or does that mean boyfriend!?" (「ヨッシーの彼女に見えて実は彼氏!?」).

Rudolph Gartheimer and Damian Shade


Rudolph and Damian both hail as the Fighting genre's first openly gay couple. Groove on Fight was released by Atlus in 1997. While not as popular as the Street Fighter series or SNK, Groove on Fight was a cult classic in Japan. Damien (17) is an orphan and was adopted by Rudolph (45). They are polar opposites as Rudolph is considered to be a very aggressive while Damian is a pacifist. They seem to be very protective of each other, Rudolph being more protective as when playing as Rudolph, Damian is usually seen in the back watching the fight when playing as Rudolph.

Venom and Zato-1


Zato and Venom are both characters from the Guilty Gear series. Venom was an orphan that was was about to be kill when Zato-1 saved Venom's life. Ever since then Venom has dedicated his life to Zato. Venom is fiercely loyal to Zato. Most of his action in the series is either doing what Zato says or looking for his master. Even when Zato-1 died, Venom was devoted to tracking down his killer, Millia Rage, and killing her. Sadly the love isn't really returned as Zato has a thing for Millia, who he also hates.

Crystal and Amber Bailey from Dead Rising

Crystal and Amber are twin sisters that both work as hostesses of the show Terror is Reality in Dead Rising 2. They also work as Tyrone King's bodyguards. Both of the twins are very flirtatious saying innuendos throughout the game and even flirting with you during the boss fight. Amber also gropes Rebecca. These two are close. Very close. The cutscene when you kill the one of the twins does say that there is something more to them just being twins.

Ellie and Riley


Ellie and Riley are two characters from The Last of Us. Their relationship pretty much plays like a romantic comedy in a zombie apocalypse. They both meet during a zombie epidemic and mostly everyone is dead and they form a friendship where they pretty much have each others back. Throughout the game, their friendship does blossom into something serious and touching. The creator, Neil Druckmann, has talked about their relationship and confirmed that both Ellie and Riley do both have feeling for each other.

Dragon Age: Inquisition: Your avatar and Iron Bull, Josephine, Sera, and Dorian

When Dragon Age: Inquisition came it, it came with the possibility of your character being able to not only have a relationship with a person in the game, but with a select few people regardless of gender. You can have opposite and same sex relationships. This isn't new. Inquisition isn't the only game in the Dragon Age series to have this option. Origins had the option to marry someone of the same sex. You can pick from four out of the eight characters in the game: Iron Bull, Josephine, Sera, Dorian. Here's how to can court them.

Are there any couples I missed? If so, please let me know in the comments section. Also, Happy Valentine's Day to you all.

The Netflix Legend of Zelda Series: A Good Idea?

     News had just hit us that reportedly NetFlix and Nintendo are both working on making a live-action series based off of The Legend of Zelda games. As soon as word got around of this supposedly happening the interwebs was set ablaze. I, along with mostly everyone else, am very excited about this possibly happening. People have been praying to the gods of Nintendo to make something like a movie or anything else with The Legend of Zelda since I can remember. Even before the Super Mario Bros. movie was even being considered. Just as I am excited about this possibly happening I am also curious about whether this could work.

     First of all there is the major part of the Zelda games that NetFlix could have problems with: the source material of the games. If they decide to follow the source material, it could be hard to take stuff from the games and transfer it to this live action series. Especially if you consider that the entire Zelda series spans not only a few millennia, but also three alternate timelines. Which timeline will this series be based on and will seasons be set hundreds of years apart? It is possible that the series could set a new timeline where things like a Majora's Mask could be a bit influential for a season and the events in Twilight Princess could occur in the next.

     Another issue could be a royal pain: Princess Zelda. In the games Zelda is the damsel in distress and it is up to Link to save her. This could work in the first season, but what about the next seasons? It could be hard to write for Zelda as it wouldn't be that much development for her because she is often captured. Zelda is one of the few video game characters from the old days that have evolved from being just a helpless woman that completely depends on the hero to save her to having a bit of a backbone and can actually hold her own and even assist Link in the final battle, but having her not being held captive could, if not written correctly, could just have her be a prop.
     This hasn't been Nintendo's first go with a Legend of Zelda series and with live-action. Of course we remember, hopefully, the Legend of Zelda cartoon series and again, there's the Super Mario Bros, movie. Both haven't really been good. The Legend of Zelda cartoon is just this big campy mess and the Super Mario Bros movie has been considered to be one of the worst video game movies of all time. I doubt that the live-action Zelda series will be that bad, but hopefully the people at Nintendo and NetFlix have done their homework. It will be interesting to see how this will all look.

Do you think a live-action Zelda series is a good idea?