Tremors 6: A Cold Day in HellThe first thing I would imagine everyone thinks when they see the title is "They are still making these?". Oddly enough it is true and I can't exactly blame the cynicism. The Tremors franchise has gone in a very odd direction from it's humble, landmark beginnings. I plan on doing a retrospective to explain my stance but as odd as it sounds, the Tremors movies have been getting weirdly better after the 3rd one. Granted, Tremors 3 was a really low bar and being better than it is not much of a feat but the 5th entry in the Tremors franchise was some good dumb fun that I enjoyed a tad more than I thought. Does this mean the 6th one will be good? not necessarily, but I am hopeful that even if the movie is bad it is at least fun. Let's face it, we are never going to get a Tremors movie on the same level as the first one. I do welcome filmmakers to prove me wrong about that, though.
The Reboot reboot
I was a 90's kid and aside from Power Rangers I usually watched cartoons and other awesome shows like Megas XLR, Code Lyoko and Reboot. Recently it was announced that the show Reboot was getting a Reboot. Watch the Trailer here. Now a lot of people, and I mean a LOT of people hate this saying "It isn't capturing the heart of the original", "Why is it live-action?" and my personal favorite "The CGI looks so much worse!" ...yes because the original Reboot was the pinnacle of CG animation
I'm not going to sit here and pretend this reboot of Reboot is the best thing ever but I do believe that a lot of the hate is pretty unwarranted. When I saw the trailer I got vibes from a lot of shows; Code Lyoko, Samurai Cyber Squad and VR Troopers to name a few. It feels like this show could just be an homage to all of the tech-based super hero shows of the 90's and early 2000's. I say that it deserves a shot but it is fair to approach with caution. I remain as cautiously optimistic about this as I am about the next Tremors movie, if not more so. The only bad thing I could say about it is that they called it Reboot. If it is an homage it would of worked better with a different title or even under the Cody Lyoko umbrella. All I am saying is, give everything a fair and honest chance. After all, if we didn't give weird and/or obscure things an honest chance, many of us wouldn't be fans of Tokusatsu or Science Fiction would we?
LupinRanger vs. PatRanger: Re-imagining the Sentai formula
I would imagine there was a lot of skepticism from the fans when it was announced that the next Sentai would have two teams that are at odds with eachother. After the 40th anniversary I think it is fair to say that the creators of Super Sentai and Kamen Rider are taking more risks with their property. Kamen Rider is slowly going back to a more series tone and the tried and true sentai formula is being re-written. Kyuuranger gave us more heroes and a very grounded and sometimes dark story. The newest Sentai, Lupin vs. Pat for simplicities sake, is showing fans that the heart is still there despite massive style changes. In just three episodes I'm seeing things I don't recall seeing in any other Sentai.
There is, of course, the two teams that are at odds. The PatRangers wanted to defeat all of the Ganglars and the LupinRangers trying to recover the stolen LupinCollection so they could potentially revive those lost by the Ganglar. The being that froze and destroyed their loved ones, and so many others, is shown in the intro, which brings me to the thing that has me most astounded. I don't recall a time where the intro seems to be foreshadowing and laying out the future plot for us. Usually the intro changes as the show changes but this intro shows/teases so much regarding the villains and the heroes. It is certainly different but I can appreciate it since so much is still in the dark and we don't know the role of many of the things shown in the intro so far.
This new show changes the dynamic for the heroes completely and I believe that the next few seasons are all going to be "testing the waters" so to speak to see how far and away from typical Sentai they can travel while still keeping the heart of the show. KyuuRanger was a successful experiment but this one is a lot more drastic. In many ways it feels like and old 80's serialized anime (insert Lupin III reference here) but in all of the right ways. I am excited to see a Sentai that is different from the norm and even more excited to see where the future of Super Sentai is heading.
Are Reboots a good thing?
This question plagues fans of just about anything and there is no clear answer to this. To be honest a lot of people have put their 2 cents towards this topic and made very good points. In general I do believe that Rebooting or Re-imagining something is fine, especially if some concept can be expanded upon. The Robocop remake, for instance, focused more on the family of the main character instead of just the pain that murphy was going through. The film wasn't perfect but in addition to the new angle, the heart was there. most remakes don't capture the heart of the original property.
Occasionally I find a gem in these remakes. The recent Magnificent 7 remake, for instance, was fantastic. The 2012 remake of The Thing, while not the best movie, did keep enough of the heart. Sure it was bad but they respected the source material and really tried, which is more than I can say for a lot a of companies. Despite the occasional gem I don't need to remind anybody that most remakes range from awful to meh. I am open to people trying to remake just about anything but first and foremost, they have to actually TRY.
I also believe that there should be some rules about what can and can't be remade. Some things are timeless classics and just don't need the modern Hollywood treatment.
*see somebody wants to remake Neverending Story*
*gets ready to throw computer*
*Sees Peter Jackson is most likely at the helm*
...I may need to rethink my stance on this.
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