MovieChat Forums > Power Rangers Samurai (2011) Discussion > Final Thoughts

Final Thoughts

posted 11 years ago by kelso102970-1
15 replies | jump to latest

Ok, I'm going to try, and do as good a job looking over this as Linkara would.
So this is my final take on Samurai as whole,The Meiocre,The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.
As well as looking over everything else.
Story
Story wise (I know a few aren't going to agree.) it wasn't bad, not the strongest comeback for Saban,but what we do have is a Back to Basics show.(Reminicent of "Lightspeed Rescue" in some ways.)
FYI If you don't want comparisons to the other PR series, don't go here.
The Rangers
Jayden
He was probably one of the most dedicated Red Rangers to come around, he was a true Samurai in every since of the word, I especially like the way the handled his big secret, (Which I'll get to)his friendship with Antonio, and his battles with Dekker were really well done as well as leading the final battle.
Kevin
Kevin fits the mold of somebody who was thrust into the position he was thrust into,and did what he could to make the best of it.
The best character bit came when he was aked to come back to lead his team, but chose not to because of his Ranger duties.(He eventually decides to come back at the end of the season.)
Mia
Mia was really good Pink Ranger,definatly the big sister of the group, (Being a Big Sister herself as we see in a really good episode.)and thus is very devoted to the team,there was a running gag about her cooking that played through out which was kind of silly.
I did like how she played a part in Dayu's Soryline.
Mike
Mike was the supposed to be "The Bad Ass Of The Group", and did an ok job of it.
I do like they made him quite different than they usually play a Gammer Character on the show instead of playing him off as a steriotypical geek (Ethan on Dino Thunder)they actually did make him into "The Resorceful Rebel" kind of like a cross between Billy, and Tommy.(Especially whith his crush on Emily kind of like a down played version of Tommy, and Kimberly)
Emily
If Mia was "The Big Sister Of The Group" then Emily was "The Kid Sister" she was inocent, but she was also very loyal, and loving, she took on the role as Yellow Ranger to replace Her Sister who was to sick to take the role on, and I'm pretty sure (as pointed out by Scott Truman/RPM Reanger Red) she did return Mike's feelings tward her.(I suppose we'll see if this leads anywhere during Mega Force.)
Antonio
Antonio was Meh as a Sixth Ranger, aside from his friendship with Jayden there's not much more to care about with him, he did seem a little grating at times.

[–] kelso102970-1 11 years ago

Lauren
(Didn't think I'd forget her did you?)
I Loved Lauren!
Seriously she was awesome, I loved the way they didn't turn her into a complete Jerk like Alex on "Time Force" she was pretty awesome for being The First (Good) Female Red Ranger she was almost as competent a leader as Jayden was.
Here's a shocker, I think this might be the first time there were two active Red Rangers at the same time,(Lauren with the others fighting a Nighlock, and Jayden battling Dekker.)however I don't think would've lasted long considering it's effect on The Morphing Grid.
A lot fans were waiting for a First Female Red Ranger, and Power Rangers didn't dissapoint, the only problem I had was the fact that the show didn't include her in the opening credits.
Bit of Trivia, dose anybody know Lauren is atuallt The Third Female Power Rangers Team Leader?
Allies
Mentor Ji
Mentor Ji was an excellent mentor for the team almost like a proactive Zordon.
Bulk
Spike
It was fun waching these guys on screen, their subplot of training to be samurai was at times mor entertaining the subplots of certain episodes, wouldv,e liked to have seen a little more of them enteracting with The Rangers than they did, but it was great to see Bulk back on the show, and getting more screentime than he did on "Lost Galaxy".(It was also fun watching Bulk, and Skull again on screen, and enteracting with Spike tward the end of the show.)
Not much to say about the other allies, but they served thier purpose.(Maybe you'll hear more about them in "History Of Power Rangers" from Linkara.)

[–] kelso102970-1 11 years ago

Villains
Master Xandred
He was an excellent villain epspecially in the later season as time wnet on he was pretty much like Lord Zedd,he had a gaol to flood the sanzu river, and saw The Rangers as obsticles to destroy, easily able to out do any Ranger one on one it took the combined efforts of all The Rangers to defeat him.
Dayu, and Deker
These two villains (Medina's acting not withstanding) were very tragic figures which made them truly the most interesting villains on the show, they were a loving couple who were torn apart when Serrator cursed Deker making him half human, and turning Dayu into a Nighlok.
It was quite interesting how Deker became obsessed with defeating Jayden which eventually led to his downfall.(I also think some fans got carried away by thinking he was Cole Evans from "Wild Force" although misslead which I'll get to.)
Serrator
This guy was a bastard, seriously he was basiclly out for himself much in the same way as Diviot was in "Lost Galaxy" he wanted to take over The Nighlok (He kind of does briefly as Master Xandred rests in the Sanzu.)however unlike Diviot his greed was his undoing.
Seaking of "Lost Galaxy" an interesting thing to make note of was how most of The Nighlok showed fierce loyalty to Master Xandred.
Furry Warts
Hated Them, they did nothing, but hang around the ship, and repeat what the other villains they were saying they were anoying!
Moogers
These were like a cross between Tyranodrones, and Putties that could grow to gaint size, awsome footsoldiers.
Spitfangs weren't as impressive, they were just Aligator heads with bombs for teeth. Who cares?
Papyrox were giant sized already, and were tougher, too bad they weren't used as often.

[–] jasonmaier 11 years ago

Thanks for the assessments (so far; Don't know if you'll have anymore to write).

I had already watched the season finale on Netflix instant streaming (I wonder if that episode was put there by accident or on purpose to screw with Nickelodeon? . . it's not there last I checked).

As for the season itself (I'm counting Samurai/Super Samurai as ONE season) . . I tried a couple of episodes, but really wasn't impressed . . the two major things I didn't like (and this was something also mentioned on Rangerboard) were the wooden acting and following Shinkenger shot for shot.

[–] kelso102970-1 11 years ago

Ic can't count the number of times I read how this season folllowed "Shinkenger" shot for shot, (This was produced Johnathan Tzacker who was an avid sentai fanboy what did you expect?)and to be honest I'm sick of it!
Except for a youtube clip here, and there I never watched "Super Sentai", and don't care about "Super Sentai"!
So I got two words to say FORGET SHINKENGER!
That said, it's time to put Samurai, and Super Samurai to bed.
I said this before even though my DVR is recording it, I have no interest in the Christmas Episode, so I'm not watching it.
Ok here is my final assesment.
The Good
Storylines
Even though The Acting (Mainly in the first half which I'll get to.) was toeing the line between, Barely There, and Sort of There, the show's arching storyline was really good, and kept my interest.
The Bad
The Acting
This seasons acting could be somed up in two words.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjiVH-I_XO4
That's pretty much it the acting got a little better as time went on, but it still wasn't on par with "Time Force", infact alot of fans were turned off by it.
The Stupid
"Trickster Treat"
OH MY GOD I HATED THIS EPISODE!!
This makes The Turbo Episode where The Rangers were baked into a Pizza look like "Green With Evil", it was that bad, like watching a Power Rangers Episode on Acid.
This Episode, was over the top in it's sillyness,came right the *beep* out of nowhere, and after the events of the Episode were over,Nobody mentioned it again.
On thatguywiththeglasses.com they have a phrase for this Episode.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ds4xhz-xIY
Yes, that's right A 30 MINUTE LONG BIG LIPPED ALIGATOR MOMENT!(Or would that be ABIG LIPPED SPITFANG MOMENT?!)
When a Power Rangers Episode makes you think of a Power Rangers Outtake, (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Gqu9jKZ3Cc)that's how you know there's something wrong.
THIS EPISODE WAS *beep*
"Trickster Treat" not withstanding this was good season, not the best,but I've seen worse.
Overall score 1 out of 10: 71/2

[–] zaphod08 11 years ago

I was actually surprised that Dayu and Deker remained dead. I don't know if that's a plus or not.

As for Xandred, I'd have to put him as one of the all time big bads in the history of the show. He spent most of the series with a headache.

I didn't mind that Bulk was there, but this is a man who went to another galaxy. He should have grown as a person. Instead, he remained a complete moron.

In the kingdom of the blind, you're the village idiot.

[–] StuOz 11 years ago

I love POWER RANGERS SAMURAI.

I am too old to be watching a series like this, but I like the harmless nature of it all.

I have no issues with the series as a whole, sometimes I wish The Rangers would spend a bit more time talking instead of fighting, but this is an action series so that is a rather silly point for me to make I guess.

I am thrilled that Rangers have been around since 1993: Amazing length!

[–] soul_reaver265 11 years ago

My major problem with Power Rangers Samurai can - at least in part - be boiled down to the effects of the rushed production time. The entire season was produced in six months instead of the usual twelve due to both Saban's timing in repurchasing the franchise from Disney, and his desire to have a finished product on his hands roughly by the usual TV broadcast premiere date.

Consequently, this meant that almost all of the episodes were near-direct adaptions of the source material: PRS's Super Sentai progenitor, Samurai Sentai Shinkenger.

Even the personality traits of the Rangers were near-identical, excluding minor changes to try and make the show culturally easier to swallow (Kevin being an aspiring Olympic swimmer - replacing Ryuunosuke/ShinkenBlue's background in Kabuki theatrics - and Antonio being a fisherman as opposed to a sushi chef a-la his counterpart Genta/ShinkenGold, to give just two examples)

Another issue I have with Samurai as a season is that while other seasons changed what wouldn't work for the adaption process - by either tweaking what was in the Sentai footage or re-writing the story completely to better work for Western audiences - Samurai simply removes what doesn't work for the adaption, and doesn't bother to replace what was subtracted with anything of substance.

Perhaps the biggest example I can give on this front is Master Xandred himself, the Big Bad of the season. The production team had an COMPLETE season worth of Sentai footage ready to utilize, knowing that the main villain effectively sits on his ass for most of the season and does very little of consequence. Even with at least six months worth of advance warning, the writers don't even bother to try and make him a more active threat.

My second big problem with Samurai is that whenever its not trying to duplicate Shinkenger, its trying DESPERATELY to be the next Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers.

As the majority of us know, the 1990's have passed us by. Unfortunately, it would appear that Saban didn't get the memo. In that sense, Samurai exaggerates everything about the original Mighty Morphin' series (the wooden acting and corny humor in particular), culminating in a product that - combined with its nigh-rigid adherence to the Sentai material's template - seemingly has no real identity of its own and makes a blatant grab for nostalgia.

We all have our problems, some just hide it better.

[–] StuOz 11 years ago

Good post "soul".

I don't have an issue with the "nostalgia" point you bring up, but I agree, it is "DESPERATELY" obvious at all times.

As for it being rushed into production in SIX MONTHS, I did not know about that, thanks.

I know of an Australian tv series that gets about six months to make each season: but the series I am thinking of only has about 10 episodes a season! Rangers has more than 10!

[–] jasonmaier 11 years ago

Yeah I've read about the rushed production for Samurai . . .

Of course another problem along with the wooden acting, etc. is the man in charge of the season(s): Jonathan Tzachor. Point being, he's a big Sentai fan and the vibe I got from Samurai/Super Samurai was it was a near 100% cut/paste translation from Shinkenger.

But I think the biggest problem with Samurai/Super Samurai was . . . Nickelodeon.

I barely recall the network promoting it at all, you only had 20 episodes a season; you had a long gap between eps from middle of May-early October (Super Samurai was worse, a 5 month gap; with one episode actually pulled from it's scheduled airdate). And international Nick networks had aired the remaining episodes before the US . . . and I suppose it was funny that the final episode was available on Netflix streaming before it aired on TV.

Makes you wonder if Nickelodeon is intentionally underpromoting Power Rangers . . .

[–] 11 years ago

[deleted]

[–] scarlet_symon 11 years ago

I was disappointed (though not hugely surprised) with Lauren's storyline. It was all going OK, up until 'The Sealing Symbol', and then it all went tits up. Lauren fails to seal Xandred, through no fault of her own whatsoever AND gets conveniently injured. Suddenly she's all "I failed, and so Jaden must become leader" and NOBODY says "Well hang on, you didn't actually fail. The symbol failed becuase of something that your dad didn't anticipate it". Nope, they're all, "Yay, Jaden's leader again!". And Jaden's lack of support for his Sister is staggering.

And in the meantime, Lauren's role is reduced to faffing about with a disc or two, and having no real active input into the finale whatsoever. The whole thing basically came across like "Yeah, we gave you a(nother) female Red Ranger. But obviously she's gonna have to step aside for the guy for the big finale, cos she's only a girl!"

[–] soul_reaver265 11 years ago

Kind of reminds me of what happened with the girls in the SPD finale. Sky gets promoted from Blue to Red, Bridge is promoted from Green to Blue, and the girls don't move up in the ranks at all. Ya know, vaginas and all that.

We all have our problems, some just hide it better.

[–] Droncz87 11 years ago

Did Skull finally make an apperance?

http://droncz87.wordpress.com

[–] TrickyDicky007 11 years ago

Did Skull finally make an apperance?

Yes, he did. He pulled up to take Spike home in a Limo.

Facts are meaningless. You can use facts to prove anything even remotely true.- Homer S.

[–] IMDB_Vits 10 years ago

I completely agree with you. Specially with ANTONIO. The 6th RANGER is supposed to be memorable in some way. But not the dumb one!