It's not spandex: RPM 1
Apr. 1st, 2013 03:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
akinoameSorry about taking forever with the next W.I.T.C.H. review batch. It's been pretty busy lately, with exhausting weekends and my rare chances to spend time with my siblings, so I hope you understand.
As an apology, let's look at one of my favorite shows ever!
The Road to Corinth (Eddie Guzelian): All right, decided to do this one a little early, mostly because I really have to rebuild my love for the series. It's been too long.
So, RPM. I think a lot of people were really skeptical about the series at first, but by the end, it won over a lot of its critics. And it's a show that really does deserve the love it gets—it had a pretty troubled production, with the end product just barely holding onto what the first several episodes indicated would happen. To be honest, the whole thing is kind of a mess, but at the end of the series, it's still a really good mess.
So let's start off with the first episode, "The Road to Corinth."
We all know the beginning, how it started a few years ago when an aggressive new computer virus was discovered, the Venjix virus. We get a quick view of what's either a flashback or a dream or something before we're introduced to our Red Ranger—or should I say, Ranger Red, Scott Truman. Who has a paralyzing fear of chickens. Our hero, ladies and gentlemen! See, a lot of people say that RPM is really "dark" and "edgy," and I never understood that because...chickens. Scott is partnered with a special machine called Auto Vajin, a bike that can transform into a robot, which of course, means he's awesome. Even if he has a horrible sense of direction. Soon after, we see Rangers Blue and Yellow, Flynn McAllistair and Summer Landsdown, who are investigating a possible energy leak under the orders of Col. Truman, the head of the Corinth's military back at the Command Center. As it turns out, in this season, the Power Rangers are a special elite team of covert operatives authorized to battle Venjix's forces. And they do it with style, smashing through a window and surprising the hell out of Venjix's general, Tenaya 7. She might look human, but she's actually a machine, and she's very good at disguising herself, being designed specifically to infiltrate Corinth. As Tenaya and her flunkies open fire, it's time to get in gear, as Flynn and Summer morph into...HOLY SHIT. THAT. IS NOT. SPANDEX.
So, yeah. Right off the bat, RPM breaks with Ranger tradition by making the suits not spandex (don't talk to me about how Sentai didn't have spandex until about Dynaman. I'm talking RPM and its running gag here). It's actually not too bad and makes the suit design look more workable—since the whole design looks more like "special mission" gear, fitting the theme. It's the same kind of material used in Kamen Rider that makes it look like leather, and like I said, I like the way it looks for the series. Not sure if I'd have wanted it to stay for the rest of the show, so maybe it's a good thing that they go back to a more traditional spandex in the next Sentai. At the very least, RPM looks very different from its predecessors.
Also! The theme! I love this theme. I know it's got some critics, given it's not one of the demos released originally (and, as always, can't live up to the original "Go Go Power Rangers"), but I think it fits the season perfectly and I love whenever it plays during battles. The switch to the new one around the time Rangers Gold and Silver joined was a little hard, but I like it too. Plus, seriously? It took how long to fit the words "It's morphin time" in a Power Rangers theme? 19 years? For shame.
The episode is really unlike most Power Rangers fare, focusing on the two "newbies" in the group. The first is Vasquez, a new operator assigned to the Command Center and Col. Truman's team. She's new to the whole thing, so they're able to infodump her and the audience at once. But because her first day on the job coincides with an attackbot of the week, she's getting a crash course in everything, aided by Summer's partner, Roger Rabbit, who's none too happy about it. There's also Optimus Primal, Flynn's partner, but he mostly spends the whole time worrying about Flynn.
The other newbie is Scott himself, who has to deal with telling his protective older sister that he's going to become a Power Ranger and save the world. And despite all the crap going on, she doesn't want him to do it, since they lost their parents when Venjix first appeared. As it turns out, Scott, Flynn, and Summer all met during Venjix's very first attack, and they were installed with special "vaccine programs" that left them immune to the Venjix virus and gave them special powers that perfectly suited them to be Rangers. And it's basically Superman's power set as given by the famous quote: Scott is faster than a speeding bullet, Flynn is stronger than a locomotive, and Summer can leap tall buildings in a single bound. Their partners are also installed with the program, which is great and allows them to power the Megazord. What's not so great is that Scott's parents and Summer's mom were lost and presumed dead during that first attack (and Flynn lost his friend, Gem, but we aren't at that part yet. Trust me, Gem and Gemma are a barrel of laughs when they appear). Yeah, this show doesn't shy away from death in the backstory. Flynn gets off fairly easy compared to the other two. Summer is resistant to Scott joining the team, since she's heard from Roger all about how Scott only does what his sister tells him to, but Flynn reminds her that Scott promised he would join them when the time came. And sure enough, he does, doing an amazing job of stopping the enemy Megazord with his own zord while the other Rangers defeat the attackbot.
Is this show different? Yes. You can tell from the first episode. About halfway through, it starts to taper off into a little more of a standard Power Rangers series, though. It's still pretty formulaic, yeah, but that's part of Power Rangers to begin with and it's what we like about it. Is it perfect? No. No chance in hell. But I think it embraces that aspect—something you see much more later on, as the writer comes to terms with the behind-the-scenes chaos.
And really, there's something to be loved about a Red Ranger who could be defeated by a guy making shadow puppets.
April Fool's!
As an apology, let's look at one of my favorite shows ever!
The Road to Corinth (Eddie Guzelian): All right, decided to do this one a little early, mostly because I really have to rebuild my love for the series. It's been too long.
So, RPM. I think a lot of people were really skeptical about the series at first, but by the end, it won over a lot of its critics. And it's a show that really does deserve the love it gets—it had a pretty troubled production, with the end product just barely holding onto what the first several episodes indicated would happen. To be honest, the whole thing is kind of a mess, but at the end of the series, it's still a really good mess.
So let's start off with the first episode, "The Road to Corinth."
We all know the beginning, how it started a few years ago when an aggressive new computer virus was discovered, the Venjix virus. We get a quick view of what's either a flashback or a dream or something before we're introduced to our Red Ranger—or should I say, Ranger Red, Scott Truman. Who has a paralyzing fear of chickens. Our hero, ladies and gentlemen! See, a lot of people say that RPM is really "dark" and "edgy," and I never understood that because...chickens. Scott is partnered with a special machine called Auto Vajin, a bike that can transform into a robot, which of course, means he's awesome. Even if he has a horrible sense of direction. Soon after, we see Rangers Blue and Yellow, Flynn McAllistair and Summer Landsdown, who are investigating a possible energy leak under the orders of Col. Truman, the head of the Corinth's military back at the Command Center. As it turns out, in this season, the Power Rangers are a special elite team of covert operatives authorized to battle Venjix's forces. And they do it with style, smashing through a window and surprising the hell out of Venjix's general, Tenaya 7. She might look human, but she's actually a machine, and she's very good at disguising herself, being designed specifically to infiltrate Corinth. As Tenaya and her flunkies open fire, it's time to get in gear, as Flynn and Summer morph into...HOLY SHIT. THAT. IS NOT. SPANDEX.
So, yeah. Right off the bat, RPM breaks with Ranger tradition by making the suits not spandex (don't talk to me about how Sentai didn't have spandex until about Dynaman. I'm talking RPM and its running gag here). It's actually not too bad and makes the suit design look more workable—since the whole design looks more like "special mission" gear, fitting the theme. It's the same kind of material used in Kamen Rider that makes it look like leather, and like I said, I like the way it looks for the series. Not sure if I'd have wanted it to stay for the rest of the show, so maybe it's a good thing that they go back to a more traditional spandex in the next Sentai. At the very least, RPM looks very different from its predecessors.
Also! The theme! I love this theme. I know it's got some critics, given it's not one of the demos released originally (and, as always, can't live up to the original "Go Go Power Rangers"), but I think it fits the season perfectly and I love whenever it plays during battles. The switch to the new one around the time Rangers Gold and Silver joined was a little hard, but I like it too. Plus, seriously? It took how long to fit the words "It's morphin time" in a Power Rangers theme? 19 years? For shame.
The episode is really unlike most Power Rangers fare, focusing on the two "newbies" in the group. The first is Vasquez, a new operator assigned to the Command Center and Col. Truman's team. She's new to the whole thing, so they're able to infodump her and the audience at once. But because her first day on the job coincides with an attackbot of the week, she's getting a crash course in everything, aided by Summer's partner, Roger Rabbit, who's none too happy about it. There's also Optimus Primal, Flynn's partner, but he mostly spends the whole time worrying about Flynn.
The other newbie is Scott himself, who has to deal with telling his protective older sister that he's going to become a Power Ranger and save the world. And despite all the crap going on, she doesn't want him to do it, since they lost their parents when Venjix first appeared. As it turns out, Scott, Flynn, and Summer all met during Venjix's very first attack, and they were installed with special "vaccine programs" that left them immune to the Venjix virus and gave them special powers that perfectly suited them to be Rangers. And it's basically Superman's power set as given by the famous quote: Scott is faster than a speeding bullet, Flynn is stronger than a locomotive, and Summer can leap tall buildings in a single bound. Their partners are also installed with the program, which is great and allows them to power the Megazord. What's not so great is that Scott's parents and Summer's mom were lost and presumed dead during that first attack (and Flynn lost his friend, Gem, but we aren't at that part yet. Trust me, Gem and Gemma are a barrel of laughs when they appear). Yeah, this show doesn't shy away from death in the backstory. Flynn gets off fairly easy compared to the other two. Summer is resistant to Scott joining the team, since she's heard from Roger all about how Scott only does what his sister tells him to, but Flynn reminds her that Scott promised he would join them when the time came. And sure enough, he does, doing an amazing job of stopping the enemy Megazord with his own zord while the other Rangers defeat the attackbot.
Is this show different? Yes. You can tell from the first episode. About halfway through, it starts to taper off into a little more of a standard Power Rangers series, though. It's still pretty formulaic, yeah, but that's part of Power Rangers to begin with and it's what we like about it. Is it perfect? No. No chance in hell. But I think it embraces that aspect—something you see much more later on, as the writer comes to terms with the behind-the-scenes chaos.
And really, there's something to be loved about a Red Ranger who could be defeated by a guy making shadow puppets.
April Fool's!