Well, the gritty reboot of Power Rangers just hit theatres. I'd been making the joke that I hadn't seen Power Rangers taken this seriously since the fanfic I wrote in high school. So imagine my surprise when I actually see the movie and there's a scene from my fanfic in the film.
(The film: Zack takes his Zord out for the first time and causes some damage. So our leader Jason begins reprimanding him and it turns into a brawl between the two.)
Yeah, Power Rangers was full of great Easter eggs like that. The best one was how the third act follows the same formula as a typical episode. Rangers fight the Putties...Rangers call up on their Zords to fight Rita's giant monster...Rangers form Megazord to take down the giant monster.
When I got home, I was on a nostalgic trip, so I dusted off my old DVD of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: The Movie and gave it a re-watch. And, yeah. Rather than save the typical formula of an episode for the third act, they pad it out to 90 minutes.
Some construction workers unearth the ancient evil Ivan Ooze, and he sets about trying to take over the world. The Power Rangers swoop in to stop him, but Ooze manages to destroy their HQ, robbing them of their powers and critically wounding their mentor Zordon. So, the Rangers go on a quest to a distant planet to get their new Ninjetti powers, and stop Ooze.
And, yeah. That's pretty much it. Re-watching this film and a lot of the old episodes of the show on Netflix, I can't believe how bad the acting is among the kids. But you can tell they're trying hard, so we can fault them too badly. The standout is legendary British actor Paul Freeman, best remembered as Indiana Jones' rival Belloq in Raiders of the Lost Ark. He plays Ivan Ooze. To see him in this film, well, he must owed a loan shark some money or something. But he does chew the scenery pretty good and have fun being a cartoon villain.
But of course, we have our giant monster fight at the end, but this time, the Zords are CGI instead of people in suits. Wow, the CGI is bad. Even for the early 1990s, when it was shiny and new and mistakes were being made as they figured this out. Seriously. Reboot was on at the same time, and Reboot had better animation. And let's not forget how they ditch their sword for their ultimate finishing move, and instead go with a giant robot kick to a giant robot crotch.
And that's it. Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: The Movie. is a wonderfully bland slice of nostalgia. Oh, what we had to suffer through before superhero films hit the big time.
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