Not soo mighty once you’re grown up!
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie (1995)
Directed By: Bryan Spicer
The Prologue
Like any other eleven year old I use to hurry home from school and watch FOX. If you can believe it, back in the day FOX was THE channel for a kid to watch. They had cool stuff like Mighty Morphin Power Rangers! And I loooved me some Power Rangers, even if it was a bit racist to have a black man as The Black Ranger and a Asian woman as The Yellow Ranger (WHAT?! No Indian for Red??). The show was a hit needless to say and when 1995 rolled around the show had made a few changes (due to contract disputes with three of the original cast) and new toys did need to be sold. That brought us the Rangers hitting the big screen with, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie. Sadly, when you find yourself at age 28, things just don’t seem as great as they once did when you were eleven/twelve.
The Movie
Six teenagers Tommy, Kimberly (kicking ass in pink short shorts), Adam, Billy, Rocky and Aisha have discovered the power to fight the forces of evil. A giant egg is unearthed in Angel Grove. Lord Zedd and Rita Repulsa investigate the egg, and release the creature inside – Ivan Ooze, whom Zordon had trapped him inside the egg six thousand years ago. Once released, Ooze left to seek revenge on Zordon. And now Zordon in his crystalline deathbed is dying because he has no power, without the power then Zordon of Eltar will never existed. Now the fate of the universe is in their hands. But this time the Power Rangers head for a distant planet to meet up with a bikini-clad warrior babe named Dulcea (Heeeellloooo, Dulcea) who imparts ancient wisdom and power. But now that they have their powers back and becomes Power Rangers once more they will now get back to business and defeat Ivan Ooze at all costs.
The behind the scenes contract stuff left us without Jason, Trini, or Zack (original Black, Red, and Yellow Rangers) but on the show we hadn’t seen them since they left for a Peace Conference (or something along those lines). New rangers stepped in, and that’s what we get here. Now of course a good hunk of character dialogue and what have you is left to Tommy, Kimberly, and Billy and with good reason since they are the O.G.s that are around. A lot of the monsters do their whole gimmicks from the show but as you can guess the dialogue and pretty much everything else is as corny as you’d expect from a 90′s kid show turned movie. Just a little more corny at this point for the BIG screen. A lot of the stuff that happens here makes my eyes roll. And just think, I loved this back in the day…Ahh, time..you have passed me by.
And while this is a motion picture version of The Power Rangers, I could have sworn there had been more than one two or more part episodes that were a lot better than what we get here. We get a new bad guy in Ivan Ooze, and while I see why they wanted a new big bad dude to be the villain and all, I think this was a bad move going with him. I’m more than sure the ooze factor helped with any ooze action toys but as far as the film goes, it’s pretty lame. To make matters worse for any adult trying to watch this with a higher IQ, the ooze monsters we have seem to make fart noises when they are hit. I wasn’t too amused by this needless to say. As far as the movie goes, things happen quick enough, perhaps too quick. If you had never let the Rangers speak a word at all you’d pretty much end up with the same result as you get here.
Which I understand people didn’t want to see this for character development. I GET that. But just look at the fun standpoint of of it. The show never was the same without all the originals and it hurts the movie by them not being here. The newer Rangers just stand around and try not to get in Tommy, Billy, or Kimberly’s way. When they get their new “Ninja Ranger” stuff it’s nowhere near as interesting or cool looking as their original stuff is. I mean come on now, one of the guys gets a frog as his new zord..a FROG! They try to cover up that lameness and address it in the movie but I’m not buying it. I don’t even think me at age eleven would buy it. To put it simple, it’s just too corny, too predictable, and too much lame things without any fun. Give me season one over this any day of the week. I could look passed the cheesy effects with the original cast.
The Conclusion
I think they waited too late for a movie. They should have pumped one out while they still had all the originals. The show would go on to make even more movies and evolve a zillion times more over the years. There was still Power Ranger shows being made in February of 2011 with Power Rangers Samurai. As it goes, none ever captures the magic of the first couple seasons, not even this movie. Tommy ( real name Jason David Frank) still pops up on Power Rangers shows now days. He’s also an MMA fighter. Kimberly (real name Amy Jo Johnson) stars in CBS’ Flashpoint. Not sure what happened to everyone else, but sadly, Thuy Trang, who played Trini died in 2001. Keep with the memories and Netflix for the original stuff, kids. Just skip this movie.
The Rating (4.5/10)
