Review

Power Rangers’ Mighty Morph to the Big Screen

Saban’s Power Rangers recently opened on the big screen, and I caught a matinee showing. I grew up on the original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, during the golden age of Saturday morning cartoons and TV. I’m talking “get up early because the new episode is on” original, and saw the original 1995 movie in theaters (I think).

This movie came out at a time where I’m fairly hyped for original MMPR. I recently completed my set of ab-crunch addicted MMPR Legacy figures.

I also own the Green and White Rangers, but they’re too busy checking themselves out

I also have a growing collection of Fisher-Price Imaginext figures that I share with my four-year-old son. He and I have recently started watching the original episodes on Netflix, which has put me in a fresh mindset to evaluate some of the differences and similarities between the new movie and the classic show.

Now, to be completely transparent here, I had very low expectations for this film going in. As an avid toy collector, I often find a strong correlation between the quality of a movie’s tie-in merchandise and the movie itself. The movie toys are awful, look as if they’re made of cheap plastic you’d find in a kid’s sand pail, and are priced too high. Between the merchandise, the Zord designs, and some lackluster trailers, I set my bar low and considered waiting for the rental instead of paying for a movie ticket.

I’m glad I didn’t wait.

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Interview With the Vampire by Anne Rice : Exploring the Questions of Good vs. Evil

So a little while ago I got over my hesitation about reading a book about vampires and read Interview With the Vampire by Anne Rice. It was worth it! The book swept me off my feet with it’s deep questions about what makes us good, what drives us and how do we live when we have lost our faith. I say faith but I don’t just mean faith in a religion or a god/s as the book tackles so many different kinds of faith. Faith in people, ourselves, freewill, society, morals, law, god and religion and I am sure that I am still missing a few! But for the purpose of ease of writing I will just say faith.

When I first started I thought I was going into a possible drama, star crossed love, action novel. Little did I know that it was less about vampires and more about exploring philosophical ideas. Rice delves into the question of what makes us tick; and are those that lose faith (regardless of what they lose faith in) really just the vampires of the world? Always taking, but having nothing to give in return?

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Logan – A (mostly) Spoiler-Free Review

The latest film in the X-Men Cinematic Universe, Logan, is a major departure from the genre of movies we usually associate with mutant superheros. Indeed, it’s not a superhero movie at all — and in many ways, that’s why its one of the best superhero movies yet. The film focuses on one single character, on a journey of discovery; and no matter how predictable the ending, by the time we get there, the emotional investment is so powerful that you feel it anyway.

In this review, I won’t spoil the ending, and will keep the spoilers to an minimum. If you’ve never seen another X-Men movie, though, expect those to be spoiled at will. (I’m looking square at you, Age of Apocalypse). And, since the question has come up more than once: no, you don’t need to watch any previous movies to enjoy Logan, but you will probably enjoy it more if you’ve invested in the characters already; that means watching at least X-Men, The Wolverine, Days of Future Past, and Age of Apocalypse (mostly for the ending) first.

Overall, I give this movie a 9/10; to see why, and why you really want to see it for yourself, keep reading. (Also, in case you didn’t know, the movie is rated R — there’s tons of violence and tons of swearing. No kids, please).

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Gargoyles – A review

Cover of Clan Building #3, which shows a number of characters. Clockwise from top left: Flying gargoyle silhouetted against the moon, heavyset cyan gargoyle, small olive gargoyle, large lavender gargoyle with wings covering shoulders like a cape, blue dog-like gargoyle beast, human woman, red gargoyle with horns and white hair. All these gargoyles are male. In the center is a female lavender gargoyle.Warning: While this review is largely spoiler-free, it briefly mentions a few aspects of the show’s premise that might qualify as minor spoilers for the (lengthy) pilot under a strict definition.  I’ve done my best to minimize this by focusing on structure and themes, but it is difficult to avoid altogether.  Some of the links may contain more substantial spoilers, so please click at your own risk.

Unlike many Gargoyles fans, I was introduced to it via TV Tropes rather than the more conventional route of “watched it when I was a kid.”  The latter is apparently rather common for my generation, but I was just a little too young.  Moreover, I was raised on Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon, instead of the Disney Channel, so I probably wouldn’t have seen it anyway.  Instead, as an adult I wanted to know who this “Xanatos” person was and why his gambits were apparently so foolproof.  I started watching the show and rapidly found myself addicted.

Seeing as most of us have never heard of Gargoyles, it might help to start with a definition.  Gargoyles is an animated urban fantasy series, with some superhero undertones, primarily set in Manhattan.  It originally aired in the mid 90’s and largely took place in the then-present.  Many parts of Manhattan were substantially more dangerous at that time than they are today, and so the series is a bit of a period piece by modern standards.  Fortuitously, however, this works in the show’s favor: the perception of heightened crime is a necessary backdrop for any crime-fighting story to work.  You can’t have Batman without Gotham.

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