Now, I need to say a few things in the interest of full disclosure. I fucking love this movie, unironically, unapologetically. I saw this movie multiple times when it was in theaters, bought it immediately after it came out on VHS, and have probably seen it a hundred times. Nostalgia has completely impeded my ability to give any sort of objective review to this thing. That being said, I'll at least try not to sound like an idiot fanboy - despite my nostalgia, I genuinely believe, for a Power Rangers movie, it's everything it needs to be.
I assume anyone reading this is already familiar enough with Power Rangers to not need me to explain the plot, but I do need to say one thing up front. Much like, say, most of the Dragon Ball Z movies, this movie is totally non-canon. It's a stand alone story that exists purely to be awesome. Anyway, onto the movie!
Like I said in my earlier blog post, the movie starts, after a brief overview of the history of the Power Rangers, with a goddamn skydiving scene set to the Red Hot Chili Peppers covering Stevie Wonder.
This scene has absolutely fucking nothing to do with anything that comes after it, yet to me, it's emblematic of why I love the movie so much. It's ridiculous spectacle (emphasis on ridiculous), it knows it, and it revels in it. This is why I, and so many others my age, fell in love with Power Rangers in the '90s, and the movie nails it in literally the first scene.
During this initial skydiving scene, two of the divers, the lovable idiots Bulk and Skull, wind up landing in a massive construction site, where workers inadvertently unearth the prison-pod of an ancient force of evil called Ivan Ooze. Zordon tries to warn the Rangers about Ooze, but Lord Zedd and company end up freeing him before they can do anything about it.
A word about this guy. Yes, his name is dumb, and hardly suggests the primeval galactic terror the movie makes him out to be. But honestly, he's probably one of the most effective Power Rangers villains I've seen, especially thus far in the series. See, most Power Rangers villains, though billed as evil, come across as more goofy and incompetent than threatening, because it's a kids show and we can't scare those precious precious childrens watching every week! Lord Zedd is the perfect example of this philosophy in action: at the beginning of Season 2, he was legitimately frightening. So frightening, in fact, that parents requested that they make him less scary, and, goddammit, Saban caved. After that he basically became the male Rita Repulsa.
Ivan Ooze, for whatever reason, completely avoids that pitfall. Sure, he's goofy and cracks jokes, but he's also genuinely psychotic. This is a guy who will reference The Brady Bunch reunion while causing massive collateral damage, and who will eventually order a group of brainwashed adults to commit suicide because he's bored with them. Seriously. His bizarre sense of humor seems less like they're trying to tone him down, and more like they're trying to make him a genuine threat - the goofy references he makes completely divorce him from the moral darkness of his actions. There are probably a good number of real life psychopaths who act kind of like he does.
Anyway, he wakes up, and sends his ooze henchmen to fight the Rangers in the construction site. This is the first real action scene of the movie, but damn, do they keep coming after this. The majority of this movie is action scenes - I count six actual action scenes, but if we include things like the skydiving scene, the rollerblading scene (again, completely unnecessary, but ridiculous spectacle), and the parent suicide scene, we can bump it up to nine, and I may have even miscounted. Again, this is good - the filmmakers know exactly why one watches a Power Rangers movie.
At this point we get to see the big-screen versions of the Power Rangers suits. Here they are.
As you can see, they look a bit more metallic than the TV versions, but unlike the upcoming movie, which radically alters the original design, these suits keep it close to what we see on TV. They even duplicate the ridiculous whooshing sound every time one of them moves one of their arms, which is a small but awesome touch.
While these fights are going on, Ivan Ooze invades the Command Center, destroying it, and nearly killing Zordon in the process. Yes, Zordon is actually brought to the edge of death here. Therein lies the main thrust of the plot - the Rangers must travel across the universe to the planet of Phaedos, retrieve new powers capable of reviving Zordon, and use those powers to kill Ivan Ooze.
Now, besides being among the most epic plots ever conceived for a children's film, notice what the filmmakers did here. They created a plot in which their mentor almost fucking dies, but does it in such a way that doesn't seem dark or edgy. Zordon's death is simply treated as sad, and the Rangers react as if, as Kimberly mentions, they're losing a father. This is all we need - to introduce an element of cynicism into the equation would just ruin it. Instead, it drives the Rangers to do what seems like the impossible, and the rest of the movie is, in fact, them attempting their epic quest.
I don't know how much more I need to say about the plot - obviously, the Rangers make it to Phaedos, and succeed in their trial to get their new powers. One of the fights on Phaedos sees them pitted against reincarnated dinosaur bones - again, no logical reason for it to be there, but it makes it that much more awesome.
On Earth, Ivan Ooze brainwashes a bunch of the local parents to dig up and reassemble a pair of giant robots that will, of course, because this is Power Rangers, be used in the final Zord battle. After they're done constructing them is when he flippantly tells them to commit suicide by jumping off a cliff - of course, they're saved in the end, because I don't think anyone on planet earth would allow a theatrically released children's film to feature a scene of mass suicide.
The final battle, as I said, is between Ivan Ooze's two massive robots and the Rangers' new Ninja Zords. There is, unfortunately, an issue here, and it's because the filmmakers decided to use CG for all the robots in the movie. Remember, this was made in 1995, so if you're expecting it to look good, then no.
Yeah, it hasn't aged too gracefully, and I'm pretty sure that primitive CG is the reason why the robots move around so stiffly. It would have probably looked better if they had just stuck with physical models like the TV show did, but then, I suppose they wanted to show off their big budget, and in 1995 this was the way to do it. Maybe it worked back then, but 22 years later? Not so much.
I'm willing to forgive it, though. After all, the fight ends with the Rangers and a massive Ivan Ooze/Robot hybrid flying into space, with the Rangers using a fucking comet as a weapon to kill him. Yes, we've already been across the universe once, but going back into space one more time is the proper way to end the fight. And I couldn't be happier about that.
As we all expected, Ivan Ooze is killed and Zordon in restored. The movie ends with the entire city of Angel Grove in celebration, watching a massive fireworks show while Van Halen's Dreams plays in the background.
You wanna know another reason why this movie is great? It's the only thing on planet earth that can turn a Sammy Hagar-era Van Halen song into something positive. That's something I never in a billion years thought could ever happen.
So yes, this entry is becoming unwieldy in its length, and honestly there are probably a lot of things I could still add. But I don't want to bog everyone down - really, I just wanted to talk about why I love this movie. It's not a masterpiece, but it isn't attempting to be in any conceivable way. All it's trying to do is be entertaining, action packed, epic, and a little bit absurd. Or, to put it another way, all it's trying to do is be a Power Rangers movie. And it succeeds on every level.
Oh my god! This post made me nostalgic. I used to watch this at my cousin’s place every weekend. Ah! Time literally flies. Now, I watch shows by Andy Yeatman with my kids. I am glad they are grasping good things from these shows and improving in life.
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