Power Rangers - Did It Suck?

     After 10,000... no wait, a couple of years the Power Rangers reboot is in theaters. If you don't know what Power Rangers is first of all how? Second of all I'll tell you. Power Rangers is a TV franchise where a group of teenagers with attitudes are giving powers by a giant talking head in a tube called Zordon who are tasked to save Earth from evil aliens. It was Japanese footage from the series Super Sentai mixed with American footage and American actors that made 30 minutes of awesome. The series is still running after 30 years, but during the 90s it was a mega hit. I'm talking about HUGE. There were an insane amount of merchendise and toys that drove parents crazy, including my own. Now there the original story is being re-introduced to a new generation retold as an more grittier reboot. I saw it. Did it suck?

Story
You've heard the story before. Zordon recruits a team of teenagers with attitudes to become Power Rangers and save the world? The story is a bit different this time. We were promised that this movie will be a more darker and grittier reboot of the series. It wasn't darker or grittier as the movie gave the original characters from the show: Trini, Zach, Kimberly, Billy and Jason more character and backstory. It's very much teenagers with not only attitudes but with problems. Think Degrassi, with superpowers. You got a lot of character background in this movie. Billy is the nerdy outcast, Kim is the a not so popular popular girl, Jason is a football jock that once had so much promise but fucked things up by getting into trouble with the law, Zach has to care about his ailing mother, and Trini aside of a running gag of everyone getting her name wrong is basically Ally Sheedy. I think the director had the Breakfast Club in mind while making the movie. It's cute and all, but it's obvious that Breakfast Fast club had a better job with character development than Power Rangers. At least the movie in its two hours had better character development than the tv series did the original cast during their run on the show. Action did take a bit of the back burner in order for you to get to know the characters with all the serious stuff happening in the later half of the movie. The movie did have a lot of jokes. They were the saving grace of the movie which made it a lot more entertaining. It took the opportunities to poke fun at certain things not only in the movie, but the show itself, which is not a bad thing as the show itself is now considered to be camp and over the top watching it now.

Acting
Most of the cast except for Zordon, Rita, and Alpha are mostly unknown actors. When it was announced who will be the Power Rangers in the movie, we were a bit skeptical. Will they do a good job, being the characters? A matter of fact they did. The biggest surprise has to go to RJ Cyler who played Billy and Darce Montgomery who played Jason. Both actors were the break away characters in the movie. Most of the cast did a great job, well most meaning everybody except for Elizabeth Banks. Her rendition of Rita seemed off. Not the iconic screechy voice in the Tv series, off but let me using different accents in certain scenes off. This surprised me as Banks is usually good in other roles I've seen her. Brian Cranston was great a Zordon, not a surprise as this is Walter from Breaking Bad. Bill Herter did an alright Alpha that didn't turn out as annoying, like in the show.

Final Verdict
Power Ranger overall seemed to be cute. It was a nice throwback to the series and in most cases it was funny. However with it main focus which was character development, it did a good job, but there are other movies that do it better. It tried to be a superhero version of the Breakfast Club but it didn't do a morphinominal job at that. Despite that it was a good movie, not great. Good. It gets a 3 out of 5.

Where Does Breath of the Wild Fit in the Zelda Timeline?

     Breath of the Wild is simply stunning. The game all about exploring an incredibly vast Hyrule as you brave trials and formidable odds in order to save Princess Zelda and Hyrule from Calamity Ganon. You can say fans are extremely satisfied with the game, or almost. While the game is incredible, one question or you can say one quest is left for fans to explore: Where does Breath of the Wild fit on the Zelda timeline? Beware of spoilers down below.

     For those who don't know most of the games in the Legend of Zelda series have been disputed exactly where they fit and relate to each other and theories of where they fit in a timeline have been one of the biggest mysteries in gaming, with few clues given, until Hyrule Historia officially revealed a map of where everything fits. There is a line where a few games are pretty linear like Skyward Sword happening before The Minish Cap. It gets funny when it gets to Ocarina of Time where there are three branches which is no wonder as that game deals largely with time travel. The three branches are a timeline where Link is returned to as a child at the end of the game (The Child timeline), the timeline that takes place after the events of the game (The Adult timeline) and a paradox timeline where Link fails to save Hyrule (The Fallen timeline).
    Like games before, Breath of the Wild gives sorta vague clues. In the game you do experience not only the ruins of the Temple of Time, but ruins of Lon Lon Ranch so this indicates that the game takes place after Ocarina of Time. Narrowing things down? Not really. Most of the games take place after Ocarina of time. Some fans have indicated that maybe the game takes place in the Fallen timeline as Link in this game has failed and has to be put to sleep for hundreds of years and the Master Sword is in the Lost Woods like A Link to the Past which is in the same timeline. While the former might be obvious, the latter could also be just a decision of visual artistry as the image of it resting in the Lost Woods is an iconic moment in the game. You do have things like certain creatures existing like Koroks and Ritos in the game which existed in other timelines, but that doesn't mean much as the series have done thing like put certain characters in other timelines as well.
    One theory is that the game takes place far in the future past the other games and is in a convergence time where the branches are rejoined. An example of this is where it has been stated that the Sacred Beasts in the game have fought Ganon 10,000 years years before and again 100 years and in during the final battle where Zelda has stated that Ganon, in his primal form has been tired of being reincarnated and that his final form in the game is his rage of doing so.
     So, let's get down to the nitty gritty. Does Breath of the Wild fit in the adult timeline? Not really. Even though it references a lot of stuff and creatures in that timeline according to the events in Wind Waker, Hyrule is under attacked by a somehow unsealed Ganon which causes it to flood and later on in the game Hyrule is forever in the bottom of the ocean, where the Temple of Time and Lon Lon Ranch is. It is most likely that it is in the Child timeline or the Fallen timeline, more so the Fallen timeline since what happens in the game seem to have a scenario where Link and Zelda fails and does have to restore Hyrule to its glory. Of course nothing is certain until Nintendo officially reveals where it is and shocks us all once again.

What are your thoughts?

Should Nightwing Be A TV Series?

     Warner Bros, while trying to make sense of not only the entire DC universe but the recent Batman movie fiasco, is apparently making a Nightwing movie in the future. No release date or news or who's on board for the movie has not been revealed other than it is being made by Chris McKay from the Lego Batman movie and it is being written by Bill Dubuque who wrote The Accountant. For those who don't know who Nightwing is he's Dick Grayson, the first Robin, deciding to be the JC Chasez to the Justin Timberlake Batman-led dynamic duo an venture off into a solo super hero. While a movie may be cool and all, there are some things that question Warner Bros' decision to make it a movie and maybe making it a TV show might work better.
     First of is the obvious, we have no fucking idea what is going on in the DC movie universe most importantly the Batman part. Batman vs Superman and Suicide Squad hasn't really established a clear map of when things have taken place. We do know that there was a Robin, but one he's dead and two it's Jason Todd not Dick Greyson. BvS is suppose to be when Batman and pretty much every other hero aside from Superman are brand new and things that we know in the comics haven't happened yet. There's no clear indication when Batman went through already two different Robins before he started fighting crime, especially when we haven't even gotten a full story on Batman yet.
     Maybe a TV series can help explain things by taking place a few years after whatever may come from the upcoming Batman movie? There is a possibility that the Batman movie and maybe even the Justice League movie might give a better story about Jason and Dick, but a show doing that would probably go smoother than anything the movie universe might try. There could even with a Jason Todd/Red Hood storyline that might play out better than it would in the movies.

What are your thoughts?