It's coming two months after it was meant to, but better now than never. I started with the Original trilogy in terms of films, and say I prefer them over the prequels – Phantom Menace aside. The sequels have a special place having both released near my birthday.
While my ordering of the originals on their own probably wouldn’t cause too many problems, when the sequels are added, then things start to get interesting. If you haven’t already, go and read my thoughts on the Prequel trilogy, then continue with my thoughts on both the originals and sequels here. It can be jarring going from Rogue One to A New Hope in that the visuals are a definite downgrade between films. I never let the visuals deter me from enjoying a film, but with A New Hope there’s nothing really to call out. It’s effectively same world new style, and if you’re really going to get hung up on the visuals then there’s quite a lot you’ll miss.
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To end Star Wars Month off in terms of articles, I’ve been sitting on this one for a while. Attack of the Clones is my least favoured of all the films.
While I don’t harp on about the romance between Anakin and Padme as though it destroyed the entire film, it is the area that’s dragging it down the most. For this Rewrite, I’m going to look at all of the film. The first thing to note is the opening. Nearly everything about it is fine. There’s just one thing that bugs me. Where is the bomb placed? The explosion makes it look as though it’s in the ship, and if it is – how did someone get access to the ship to place it there? As part of Star Wars month, I thought I’d do this review of all the films. I’ve talked Star Wars a lot. I’ve reviewed the newest films, reviewed the closing of The Clone Wars and opening of Rebels, but aside from mentions of the original and prequel trilogies, I haven’t ever given full thoughts about them.
I know there’s lots of reviews – both serious and parodical – that give a variety of different opinions, and I doubt there’s much I can add that hasn’t already been said. However, Star Wars is my number one core franchise, so it only makes sense I finally review all six films. I’m adding the new ones to the list as well, though they won’t be in full. There are two strong seasons I'm about to cover, and as an ending for the Disney era of Rangers, there could be no better seasons to do so. Jungle Fury takes the theme of teaching and learning and applies that theme to a whole season. RPM looks to the past to fix the present, all while being based in a parallel world.
Pai Zhuq – The Order of the Claw – trains students to unleash their animal spirits. Three students are chosen above the others. Three who will become the Jungle Fury Power Rangers. However, one of the students has darkness in his heart, and is dismissed. A new recruit takes his place, having proven himself by standing up to him. A Look Inside the Morphing Grid – Mystic Force / Operation Overdrive [From 18/January-2018]19/2/2020 This series of posts returns stronger than previous efforts, which is more than I can say about the two seasons I'm about to cover. The Disney seasons had already proved they could do characters right, they could do plot right, and they could build up a season in all the right ways.
Mystic Force starts wobbling on the downward path, before Operation Overdrive turns in into a full-on crash. You'll see what I mean as you read on. Mystic Force begins with a tale of the past, about a great war between good and evil, and stopping the human realm being taken over. In the present, four of our heroes work in a music store, with the fifth who will join them arriving on a motorbike. I find it kind of fitting that the main civilian base is a music store, as the music hits all the right notes with this season. The first thing to really notice about The Last Jedi is that it sets quite a bit up within the first ten minutes. Then it decides to go further. What the trailers showed us and what we see in the film is different, though many suspected that it might be. Narrative structures teased in the trailers go to unexpected places, and there are plenty of unexpected things within the film.
The characters here continue from where they left off in Force Awakens, with Poe immediately being back in an X-Wing blowing things up. That trait gets focus here, and some development in his understanding of the larger plan of war happens. BB-8 is again a standout droid, giving some great character and getting into some action of his own. Ah, here we are at last. After Ninja Storm picked up the pieces from Wild Force - and shows that Disney is capable of making good Power Rangers seasons - these two prove that under Disney, the series was still able to achieve greatness.
At least for me, of course, and I'm not just saying that because these were my first seasons. The start of Dino Thunder shows Tommy escaping from an island, which the show later tells us is where he worked. Showing this allows a look at the main evil force right from the off, though at the start he is hidden in shadow as he commands the Tyannodrones to bring Dr Oliver to him. With the end of Time Force, the series took a transition period, where the rights to the series transferred to Disney. At first, Disney were hesitant to continue the series.
Wild Force - the last of the Saban seasons (at least until they got the rights back) - showed Disney that the series was still popular, and with the ability to reduce costs by moving production to New Zealand, the series continued on. However, history lesson over, as these two seasons offer something different. Wild Force was an interesting season for me, but Ninja Storm is where I felt the series really starts to pick back up, so read on and see just what I think. Here we have two seasons that have some very powerful and serious stories to them. Two seasons which have great character development and world building. Time Force also brings forth my favourite villains from the series, and hits the top with many things I like from the franchise.
Lightspeed Rescue has a strong start, and manages to introduce the major elements in the first episode. Stunt pilot Joel, rock climber Kelsey, water park performer Chad, and firefighter Carter are recruited by Lightspeed to tackle the demons that have risen once again. The base is underwater, as that is the one place the demons cannot travel. The demons expect their queen to be waiting at their castle, but all they find is her son. The episode shows all of these, but does little to explain them, and that works to keep the pace brisk. There's time for explaining stuff when focus is placed on them. With Turbo starting the new tone for the series, In Space takes to that and crafts a very well executed story. The same can be said of Lost Galaxy.
While In Space takes previous elements from the past and fuses them with new, Lost Galaxy takes a completely new setting, and in fact a new concept for the world the Rangers inhabit. Let's start this off with Power Rangers In Space. From out of Nowhere is a strong opening, starting with a meeting of evil forces from past seasons, and introducing the new villains. A spy is among them - a Red Ranger. Astronema is chosen by Dark Specter to hunt the spy down. |