this sprained ankle has enabled me to catch up on some of my DVD watching. and there's a pile of them, this one included.
I haven't watched this movie all the way through since I saw it in the theater. at the time, I went in with low expectations and had them met. there were a few funny moments (Adam got the best line of the entire movie) and the female warrior Dulcea was the best addition. Bulk and Skull were underused, but there was so much going on with so many characters it's understandable.
and why do movies always have to add so many extraneous characters? did we really need Fred at all in the movie? no.
and of course, they invented a new villain who could get soundly defeated by the Rangers, unlike the tv ones. Ivan Ooze fit the role well, but couldn't they have given him a more imposing name, like "Oozinator" or something, and then let him decide to rename himself?
and really, did they let the kids write their own lame jokes? most of those were old when I was in grade school, and I wouldn't have laughed then.
on the plus side, the fights are pretty good, there's just not enough of them in 95 minutes. the new costumes are nifty, but the cg all around looks very cartoony. this was 1995, and it seems like cg has gone even further away from "reality" (there's a funny line in an interview with the director in the featurette saying the zords would look "real" when they really look even more like toys than before).
as mediocre as this movie is, it's way better than the sequel.
2 comments:
I cannot even remember who Fred is. Though, obviously, you are going to correct that.
I never thought of it as a "good" movie, but it was adequate enough. The CGI issue bothered me a lot then, and sort of still does now. This is one of the textbook examples of people thinking they can do effects "better" because they have computers, bragging about it, and then utterly failing. Honestly, Toei has since done it just as effectively, with less money.
I never understood why TURBO got made in the first place. It's not as if this movie was a rousing success.
I think in doing a little research this movie did make a fair amount in return of it's rather meager budget.
it looks like the BO return was 3X it's cost, so it made money, and all the toys... so that would be why a lousy, truly lousy, sequel was made.
sentai + cars = lame. always. lol
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