I was a huge fan of the original Mighty Morthin Power Rangers TV show when I was growing up. I practically owned every action figure and Zord configuration available in the UK. So naturally when I heard about this Power Rangers special I was excited to see some of the original cast return for a reunion set in Angel Grove.
The Power Rangers TV show was a low budget kids TV show based on a Japanese TV series. The show used fight footage from the Japanese show mixed together with original scenes shot exclusively for a western audience. The show was very cheesy and very low budget with many of the actors being paid very little despite the shows increasing popularity.
This one off special was produced and financed by Netflix one of the leading online video streaming services in the world with enough money to make a half decent Power Rangers special with modern special effects. Unfortunately however this modern short film somehow manages to look even cheaper and low budgeted than the original low budget show from the nineties.
The special effects in this special are extremely cheap and underwhelming to the point that it makes the original nineties show look more futuristic and visually pleasing. The sound quality and ADR work in this special are abysmal many of the voices don't sync up properly with the actors in the suits actions on screen. The scenes of the characters standing around talking to each other sounds very echoey. I have seen fan made Power Rangers movies with better mic and ADR work than this and this is meant to be a multi million dollar Netflix special.
The plot of the special revoles around the death of the yellow Ranger Trini and how it affects the other Rangers. Rita Repulsa sorry "Robo Rita" uses this tragedy to her advantage to capture the remaining Power Rangers who are older, weaker and grief stricken to capture them, shrink them down to size and use a machine to extract their power essence. The Rangers gather their strength back through the power of friendship and let's face it nostalgia in order to find the strength to defeat robo Rita once again saving the world.
I actually found the scene of the Yellow Rangers death rather comical due to the fact that Rita had attempted to kill the Power Rangers so many times in the shows original run but failed every time but it's this time that she finally succeeds in killing one of them, not with a giant monster or one of her clever schemes, what finally works for her is just casting a simple death spell that one of rangers heroically dives in front of in order to save one of their comrades that finally lands her a kill.
This special relies heavily on the audiences knowledge of Power Rangers lore and not just the original Mighty Morthin Power Rangers lore but many of the other Power Rangers TV shows lores aswell. The ability for the Power Ranger's to talk and work together through multiple different dimensions and points in time is very clumsily and lazily explained leaving the audience asking eh "How does that work again?" But you just have to kinda role with it with a brief explanation of how it works.
There are a lot of little easter eggs and slight nods for fans of the series to enjoy but casual viewers will probably be thinking to themselves "Where's the action?".
The special isn't all bad it is enjoyable enough for me to recommend to fans of the original Mighty Morthin Power Rangers TV show and it does deliver in many ways. The action while not anything special is still fun and enjoyable with a lot of classic Power Rangers flips, kicks, punches and an excessive amount of "It's Morthin Time!" moments. The costumes aren't too bad and they do capture the spirit of the original show by having costumes instead of CGI which is nice. The Zords are cool looking and again look very similar to original show.
All in all this special is what it is a very low budgeted Netflix special that attempts to cash in on the nostalgia factor in the hopes that fans will tune in for a quick if rather underwhelming and uneventful Rangers reunion.
The Power Rangers TV show was a low budget kids TV show based on a Japanese TV series. The show used fight footage from the Japanese show mixed together with original scenes shot exclusively for a western audience. The show was very cheesy and very low budget with many of the actors being paid very little despite the shows increasing popularity.
This one off special was produced and financed by Netflix one of the leading online video streaming services in the world with enough money to make a half decent Power Rangers special with modern special effects. Unfortunately however this modern short film somehow manages to look even cheaper and low budgeted than the original low budget show from the nineties.
The special effects in this special are extremely cheap and underwhelming to the point that it makes the original nineties show look more futuristic and visually pleasing. The sound quality and ADR work in this special are abysmal many of the voices don't sync up properly with the actors in the suits actions on screen. The scenes of the characters standing around talking to each other sounds very echoey. I have seen fan made Power Rangers movies with better mic and ADR work than this and this is meant to be a multi million dollar Netflix special.
The plot of the special revoles around the death of the yellow Ranger Trini and how it affects the other Rangers. Rita Repulsa sorry "Robo Rita" uses this tragedy to her advantage to capture the remaining Power Rangers who are older, weaker and grief stricken to capture them, shrink them down to size and use a machine to extract their power essence. The Rangers gather their strength back through the power of friendship and let's face it nostalgia in order to find the strength to defeat robo Rita once again saving the world.
I actually found the scene of the Yellow Rangers death rather comical due to the fact that Rita had attempted to kill the Power Rangers so many times in the shows original run but failed every time but it's this time that she finally succeeds in killing one of them, not with a giant monster or one of her clever schemes, what finally works for her is just casting a simple death spell that one of rangers heroically dives in front of in order to save one of their comrades that finally lands her a kill.
This special relies heavily on the audiences knowledge of Power Rangers lore and not just the original Mighty Morthin Power Rangers lore but many of the other Power Rangers TV shows lores aswell. The ability for the Power Ranger's to talk and work together through multiple different dimensions and points in time is very clumsily and lazily explained leaving the audience asking eh "How does that work again?" But you just have to kinda role with it with a brief explanation of how it works.
There are a lot of little easter eggs and slight nods for fans of the series to enjoy but casual viewers will probably be thinking to themselves "Where's the action?".
The special isn't all bad it is enjoyable enough for me to recommend to fans of the original Mighty Morthin Power Rangers TV show and it does deliver in many ways. The action while not anything special is still fun and enjoyable with a lot of classic Power Rangers flips, kicks, punches and an excessive amount of "It's Morthin Time!" moments. The costumes aren't too bad and they do capture the spirit of the original show by having costumes instead of CGI which is nice. The Zords are cool looking and again look very similar to original show.
All in all this special is what it is a very low budgeted Netflix special that attempts to cash in on the nostalgia factor in the hopes that fans will tune in for a quick if rather underwhelming and uneventful Rangers reunion.