Review of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers

When you think of the 1990s; the kid's television series 'Mighty Morphin Power Rangers' come across as one of the biggest pop culture phenomenon of that decade. It was so popular, that in 1995, a Mighty Morphin Power Rangers movie directed by Bryan Spicer was made. Much like the television season that followed the release, the film used concepts from the Japanese Super Sentai Series Ninja Sentai Kakuranger. The film is about, a group of teenagers turn superheroes fighting off evil monsters with robots. This time, they have to stop a terrible villain Ivan Ooze (Paul Freeman) who wreaks vengeance on their mentor Zordon (Nicholas Bell) for imprisoning him years ago. With Zordon dying and their powers lost, the Rangers head to a distant planet to find the mystic warrior Dulcea (Gabrielle Fitzpatrick) and gain new powers to help them stop Ivan Ooze. The film stars the regular television cast of the TV Series, post-season 2, pre-season 3, made out of Amy Jo Johnson as Kimberly Hart (The Pink Ranger), David Yost as Billy Cranston (The Blue Ranger), Johnny Yong Bosch as Adam Park (The Black Ranger), Karan Ashley as Alisa Campbell (The Yellow Ranger), Steve Cardenas as Rocky DeSantos (The Red Ranger), and Jason David Frank as Tommy Oliver (The White Ranger). A lot of things had change since the first season. First off, the original cast had an African actor as the Black Ranger and an Asian actress as the Yellow Ranger. Because of the controversy of their descent, respectively, they were recast with a black actress as the Yellow Ranger, and Asian actor as the Black Ranger. Another problem was that, Jason David Frank's character got way too popular as the season 1 villain, The Green Ranger. He got so popular that the producers face-turn him in Season 2 as the new leader of the Power Rangers as the White Ranger. This lead to the original actor that play the original leader, the Red Ranger, leaving due to having a smaller role. Still, the people of Angel Grove still lack logic here. I like, how nobody knows that these teenagers are the Power Rangers. They wear the same colors, everyday like their power suits, and seem really good at martial arts. The movie had such a dramatic departure in visual style from the TV series, it's almost like seeing a completely different product altogether. I like how the power suits look like armor, than stupid those cheesy spandex jumpsuits. Sadly, they don't wear it, much. Another change was the Zoids AKA the robots, they used. I was deeply disappointed that the original Zoids didn't have a bigger part in this film. I wish, they could had at less, had one battle or something in the beginning. The power is ON! ...Perhaps someone should shut that off. It's running up the electrical bill. Anybody hoping to see them in the big screen had to be disappointed. Sadly, they run out of both Gosei Sentai Dairanger & Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger footage to use for the show, so they wanted to introduce the Ninja Zoids as soon as possible in the film. Still, season 3 of the power rangers just ignored the events of the movie and just create its own storyline of how the power rangers got their new powers. So, this movie isn't canon to the show, at all. While the movie did get the big budget treatment, the CGI were awful. Even for 1990s standards. I like the new zoids, but the machines were so fake looking with the bad CGI. While the Zoids battles were just bad, the martial arts fight sequences in the film were pretty entertaining. I love each one of them. The fights, while a bit cartoony, and unrealistic with the wire works; did have some really good stunt work, cool flipping and funny one-liners puns. The best fight had to be them against the rock monsters. The fight choreography in the show is much more impressive that in this big budget movie. Granted, the show had some cheese, but nowhere near to the extent they used here. The supporting cast were hit and misses, too. I love how Ivan Ooze look and feel. What a memorable villain. Paul Freeman was great in this film. Still, hate that the original TV show villains were made into not-threaten jokes by this film. I hate the men in the bird like suits henchmen. Looks like something dated like from 1939's Wizard of Oz. While, a very short cameo, Gabrielle Fitzpatrick indeed was very sexy Amazonian type character. One character, I can care less is Fred Kelman (Jamie Croft) who was plainly added for Kid Appeal. Fred was treated as someone who had always been part of the cast, despite never being in the show. He had a very annoying sub-plot of trying to rescue the brain wash adults from Ivan Ooze control. I really felt, every scene with him, could had been cut. It's nice to see Bulk (Paul Schrier) & Skull (Jason Narvy) from the TV show again, play the comedy relief, but they weren't really needed. The movie pacing is awful bad. The movie really did try to catch the attention of X-Sports demographics with lots of pointless sequences of skydiving and inline skates stunts. Honestly, these sequence really slow down the movie. Without spoiling it, the ending is a pretty bad cop out. For those who possess the Great Power, all things are possible. Such BS! The soundtrack was so-so. Shampoo- We're in Trouble was simple just annoying one-repeatable lyrics, but catchy as hell. The main theme was alright for the most part. It did had some epic tones in it. Overall: This movie is so laughable now, but back then, it was a good time to be young. So it's hard to hate the kid movie too much. Great watch if you want a nostalgia trip.