Team Lupinranger for me, thanks. Though I'm wondering how the stunt actors can even see out of those helmets. Yeah, Sentai helmets are hard to see through anyway with their black visors, but even the Timeranger helmets had tinted semi-transparent mesh visors. On the contrary, he Lupinrangers' visor looks to be the same material as the helmet itself (and thus opaque).
I might be imagining it, but if I look really closely at the top picture of the Red Lupinranger, I think I can maybe just barely make out a strip within the visor that's a slightly dimmer shade of red than the rest, suggesting that it's thin and translucent, but just washed out because it's brightly lit from outside.
They can't, the visors on those helmets are solid colors but they're only used for close ups and beauty shots just like they were on Timeranger (the mesh was never used for close ups on Timeranger I think, that was only done on Time Force but I could be wrong about that). The suit actors probably have some peripheral vision through the black parts. The actual stunt helmets are different, there are several variants, for wide shots they use really simple ones with holes drilled into them for example even for seasons with black visors, they're not using the good helmets when they don't have too.
Ah, I wondered if that might be the case. But then I convinced myself I could maybe see a more translucent area. So if they're actually opaque in real life, that leaves the question, how are the Rangers supposed to see through them in-universe? These don't seem like magic-based teams this year, so maybe there's some kind of video screen inside, or an Iron Man-style HUD? Or is it just supposed to be the equivalent of mirrored sunglasses, something that's transparent from only one direction? Then again, in a number of seasons, the armor seems to be treated as some sort of energy construct, as if it's made of force fields emulating solid matter, since it vanishes when the power is drained or it takes enough damage. (For instance, in Ohranger, the transformation device would emit essentially a net of light beams that would wrap around the Ranger to form a grid that would then "fill in" with the substance of the costume and helmet. I found that a very interesting effect.)
There has been speculation as to why these two sentai's are working together and share similar technology( The VS changer and dial fighters) Story wise I think Aka Red( the physical embodiment of super sentai) is pulling the strings. Lupin Red bares some minor visual queues to Aka Red Aka Red made his first appearance in 2006 with Boukenger VS Super Sentai. If anyone is interested in watching it it's on youtube.
Saw the movie last night on Netflix, and it was far more entertaining than it had any right to be. Better than all the Transformers movies. If it hadn't been so late to the game, where we've seen it all in Transformers, Pacific Rim and dozens of superhero movies, it would have been huge.
"Better than all the Transformers movies". Not THAT high a bar to clear, but still praise-worthy. :P Also, I've just realized that both Pato and Lupin teams share the same guns, belts, wristguards AND boots. The general cut of their "jackets" on the actual suit is the same as well. More's common to these teams than meets the eye. Mark
I thought I read that the Lupins stole the tech from the Patos. And the plot summary says they're both vying with a faction of monsters that wants the Lupin collection -- the Lupins want to steal it back for themselves, while the Patos want to recover the stolen property. So they often unite against a common enemy. It's sort of like Boukenger/Operation Overdrive in having multiple rival factions competing for treasure, except this time there's more than one hero faction instead of multiple villain factions.
I gerw up in the age of MMPR-In Space [Zordon Era] and slightly after, and kind of fell out after then, watching Forever Red and Once A Ranger I came back to Power Rangers only recently around the 20th Anniversary, not a regular viewer of the Saban seasons, but I'm reading the comics and they are so good! I look forward to Shattered Grid and I will eb watching the anniversary episode(s) I liked Time Force a lot, that stands out for me as well as Dino Thunder, like an up to date MMPR. I tried wathcing RPM but couldn't get into it, SPD looks alright too but I havent seen it properly yet As for Super Sentai Ive checked on bits and pieces - I've seen a bit of ZyuRanger and how different it is its astonishing! The first episode of Timeranger is very much like Time Force, I sought it out. Gokaiger looked far better than Super Megaforce, and to think Ninjor could have come back! Go-Busters looks good, I liked the suits and a pity it was never officially adapted, and if they do make KyuRanger (more like than not, Bandai America had a hand in development) then I will try and tune in. From the Sentai it looks good, and is you may guess I love space opera! I like the look of Lupinranger VS Patranger but if pattern persists then PR will skip it
Yeah, it was alright. It was basically Chronicle with a big budget Power Rangers episode as the last act, but it kept me interested. It could have used Bulk and Skull in parts though. But most of my knowledge of Power Rangers comes from the MMPR to In Space run, I grew out of it around then and lost interest. I have seen Linkara’s History of the Power Rangers series though, so I at least have a general idea of what came afterward.
Cast revealed! The two reds look quite different from what we’re used to Lol they actually got a Black actor to play the patorangers police chief. Stereotypical? Yes. Could be very awesome though Press conference video
That's cool. They've never really been much for ethnically diverse casting in Super Sentai. Even when they have Chinese or American characters, they're still played by Japanese or Japanese-American actors. Granted, Japan as a whole has very little ethnic diversity in its population, but it's still nice to see a bit of inclusion from time to time. Then again, I gather that Japan still has a lot of stereotyped assumptions about black people due to having so little interaction with them, so I hope this show avoids that.
Press conference trailer Character profiles http://news.tokunation.com/2018/01/...haracter-info-press-conference-released-48795
Maybe it's just these press pics in particular, but I haven't ever wondering how the suit actors keep their... bulges... in check during filming. In the domestic con scene, I've seen no shortage of morph suits or Spider-Man costumes or even early TNG uniforms where the men wearing them are rather evident. But here, these guys may as well be as featureless below the belt as anime characters in nude scenes. And no, it's not a size thing. I've been to hot springs in Japan. There's just as much a range as there is here. Mark
Tight underwear and padding to smooth everything maybe? I assume hiding a bulge is one of the easier things productions do.
As someone who's watched MST3K's "Prince of Space," I can tell you that the Japanese used to have their own struggles with accommodating anatomy. Is that the one where I've seen the photos of the Megazord with the giant train boner? What's the deal with that? Does it make sense in context or is this one of those cases where I just have to shrug, shake my head, and mutter, "Oh, Japan..."? As far as the 2017 Power Rangers movie, I didn't like it. Admittedly, it's way better than some of the other big-budget CGI nonsense that we've been subjected to in the last decade like Transformers, G.I. Joe, & Battleship but I think it overcorrects too much in the other direction. It's too focused on the characters and doesn't deliver enough on the action front. And while, as a kid, I always wanted Power Rangers to take itself more seriously, I wanted it to take itself more seriously as an outer-space action epic (probably more akin to what the show did with Time Force & RPM after I stopped watching), not as a grounded teen drama. That said, if they made a sequel, I'd watch it, if only because I'd be expecting them to put more action into it from the beginning now that they've gotten the origin out of the way. And while this is a minor quibble in the grand scheme of things, it's a major deal-breaker for me: We can't really see what's going on during the Megazord transformation sequence! When I was a kid, when I first saw "Day of the Dumpster," I mostly wasn't very impressed. But when we got to the end, I was like, "Wait a minute, the 5 individual dinosaur robots fit together to form a giant robot? Awesome!!!!" That was the gimmick that sold me on the show. I just loved the way that all of the Zords fit together. I had never seen that before. (In retrospect, it's an element that Power Rangers shares with Transformers & Voltron but I never saw those as a kid. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers was my first.) It's the reason why the show kept my attention through that repetitive stock footage every time. So, while the movie is called "Power Rangers," it doesn't really deliver on the things that I most fondly associate with Power Rangers. Speaking of Linkara, for anyone who hasn't seen it, I highly recommend his review of the initial Green Ranger arc from Zyuranger. I've never seen any Sentai before, but I'm very intrigued now, especially because Bandora seems like such a fun character. Not to mention "Secret Agent Lamy"! Meanwhile, I spent a big chunk of my Christmas bonus splurging on the Seasons 4-7 box set, where I proceeded to binge watch all of Zeo and the first chunk of Turbo before my DVD player crapped out on me. I really enjoyed Zeo, even the awkward bits at the end where they had to write out Billy with another actor after David Yost walked off the set. I was surprised at how little there was of Goldar & Rito living with Bulk & Skull. As a kid, I remembered that being a much more prominent bit than what it ultimately was. When I was rewatching early Turbo, I was surprised at how quickly the show seemed to fall apart. There are just so many problems. Alpha 6 is really annoying. Demetria's I-can-only-speak-in-questions schtick is kinda useless since Zordon's main function on the series was Exposition Guy. Bulk & Skull as chimps is stupid because their great gift on the show was their physical comedy. Divatox is a better villain than I think she gets credit for, but the added complication of her planting a detonator in every single early episode felt forced and repetitive and didn't really add anything to the show's formula. It also feels weird the way that Jason & Rocky went from being such core parts of the ensemble in late Zeo to all of a sudden being completely absent from Turbo. Justin is actually a decent character--at least when compared to precocious boy geniuses on other sci-fi shows like Adric or Wesley Crusher--but it still feels ridiculously irresponsible for Zordon to have recruited a 12-year-old to be the new Blue Ranger. I also get the distinct impression that Jason David Frank was phoning in his performance during his run on Turbo. Turbo also seems far more badly lit than Zeo. (And while it's a completely superficial complaint, I don't like the way that they changed Katherine's makeup on Turbo. On Zeo, there were a lot of reds & vibrant pinks which really made her look quite beautiful. On Turbo, they shifted to more light pinks, which made her look older and less glamorous. Now, I know that the character literally was older on Turbo but she looked about 5 years older than she did on Zeo even though it was only supposed to be, like, less than a year later. It feels like a significant change for me, even though it's really just a demotion from "most beautiful woman that I've ever seen" to merely "still more attractive than 99% of the Earth's population." ) BTW, does anyone have any idea what the behind-the-scenes reasons were for why Lord Zedd said "We're back" at the end of Zeo and yet they didn't return to be any kind of a threat again until In Space?
The Japanese tend to be more open about sexual matters in their media than Americans, so there's a fair degree of innuendo in Super Sentai even though it's for kids. Some of their female monsters in the shows I've seen have been blatantly sexualized, with giant breasts or visible nipples or the like, so it follows that some of their designs have phallic implications too. That's fair, but as I said in my review some pages back in this thread, I rather liked the character story, the way these screwups with nothing in common became fast friends and gained their power from trusting and caring for each other. I wish they hadn't reused the names of characters they had nothing in common with, but otherwise it was a decent story, though the movie certainly wasn't without its flaws. Yes, Bandora is a very funny villain. Soga Machiko's full performance is much more interesting to watch than the American version with Barbara Goodson's voice dubbed over the footage. I liked Goodson's work as Rita, but she tended to maintain a pretty constant shrill and angry tone, whereas Soga brought a great deal of range to Bandora, going from angry to joyous to maliciously amused to sorrowful and so on. As for Lamy, she was sexy as hell, but not too different from Scorpina, aside from being mushily in love with her husband Grifforzar (Goldar). My main problem with Demetria is that they were obviously setting her up as Divatox's twin sister, but then dropped that arc when Hilary Shepard Turner returned to play Diva but Carol Hoyt stayed on as Demetria. I agree the chimp thing was dumb, but I disagree about their great gift. When they were just slapstick bullies in season 1, they were just annoying. What made them work was when they got to develop as characters, first by achieving the goal of uncovering the Rangers' identity, then by becoming the comic foils to Lieutenant/Detective Stone. I liked their verbal and character humor better than their physical humor alone. Schrier and Narvy made a terrific comedy duo once they had good material to work with. The problem with the chimp arc was that it lost the actors' onscreen chemistry, both with each other and with Gregg Bullock as Stone. I wasn't crazy about Hoyt's Divatox, but Turner's Divatox is one of my all-time favorite Power Rangers villains, charismatic and funny and sexy. She had the same quality I liked about Bandora -- the fact that she really, really enjoyed being evil. She had enormous fun being bad, and it made her fun to watch. Ugh, I hated Justin. The child actor was pretty annoying, and the character wasn't much better. The idea of a preteen boy becoming a Ranger was inspired by the Dairanger KibaRanger, the basis for Tommy's White Ranger identity in MMPR S2-3. Whenever we saw Sentai footage of the White Ranger, Tommy suddenly seemed to get a lot more energetic and hyper than in the American footage, and that's because the original character was a 9-year-old kid. Here's an article about it on RangerWiki: http://powerrangers.wikia.com/wiki/Zeo–Turbo_transition_gap It sounds like Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie was originally going to be more of a transitional piece between Zeo and Turbo, but they decided to rewrite it to be less continuity-dependent and more accessible to general audiences. So a lot of the transitional material they would've put in was just dropped.
Toqoh becomes trapped in a giant coffin, so it uses that part of the red train to smash it's way out.