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Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie, a review

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(Disclaimer: The following is a non-profit unprofessional blog post written by an unprofessional blog poster. All purported facts and statement are little more than the subjective, biased opinion of said blog poster. In other words, don’t take anything I say too seriously.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie, a review

"Smells like... Teenagers." -Ivan Ooze

The year is 1995. Saban's Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, a japanese Sentai Show localized for the United States, has become a cultural touchstone and financial smash hit. With Ratings hitting record highs (not to mention the plethora of merchadise selling like hot cakes), the next step becomes obvious: To hit the big screen and make even more money.

It's also one of the few movies to star the original cast from the television show! (Okay, the original cast after Austin St. John, Thuy Trang and Walter Jones left the franchise over contract disputes and were subsequently replaced by Steven Cardenas, Karan Ashley and Johnny Yong Bosch).

And so, 20th Century Fox releases Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie, in attempts to make even more money out of this franchise. Can such naked commercialism succeed even in the big screen? Let's find out!

The Rangers (Rocky DeSantos, Adam Park, Billy Cranston, Aisha Campbell, Kimberly Hart, and Tommy Oliver) participate with Bulk and Skull in a charity skydive for the Angel Grove observatory, in anticipation of Ryan's Comet which is scheduled to pass by in two days.

The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers movie will not win any Academy Awards any time soon. But, if you were a child growing up in the 90's (Hint: I was), then your nostalgia will more than cover up the massive flaws in this film.

Bulk and Skull miss the target landing zone and accidentally land on a construction site where a giant egg has been unearthed. Lord Zedd, Rita Repulsa, Goldar, and Mordant arrive at the construction site and crack open the egg, releasing Ivan Ooze after 6000 years, a morphological being who ruled Earth with an iron fist before he was overthrown by Zordon and a group of young warriors. Ivan lays siege to the Rangers' Command Center and incapacitates Zordon, robbing the Rangers of their powers. As the Rangers return to the Command Center, they find it destroyed and Zordon dying. Zordon's assistant Alpha 5 sends the Rangers to the distant planet Phaedos to obtain the Great Power and save Zordon.

The Film had a notoriously troubled production. Since shooting was limited (the actors only had a brief time to shoot on breaks from the TV show), the production team had no idea what to do with them. For a good portion, the movie had the actors acting with helmets without visors!

But, I liked the journey the Rangers had to take. They actually had to work and earn their powers while Ivan Ooze is off rampaging the world. While it's far from original, there's a sense of mysticism involved that pulls me in. (Plus, they were also wearing their Ninja uniforms which is a nice bonus).

Sadly, it's the subplot surrounding the civilians that makes up the rest of the movie. I get that there had to be something for Ivan to do so he wouldn't just take over the world instantly, but there had to be a better way than just waiting for the hypnotized parents to dig up the ancient weapons of mass Destruction. If there's a saving grace, it's Paul Freeman as Ivan Ooze that steals the show. Freeman is just having the most excellent time as Ivan Ooze, giving constant quips, making pop culture references and just moping around like a lazy despot. I like the fact that if a supervillain were to take over the world, he'd be this hedonistic figure bossing everyone around.

It would all end in a massive climatic battle in Angel Grove... With Really outdated CGI.

MMPR Movie Zord by Burnouts3s3

(Believe it or not, this looked really good in 1995).

And maybe that's it. The Power Rangers is stupid. It is dumb. It is just a giant commercial to sell toys. But, by god, did it work!

I'll take idiotic optimism over dour pessimism any day.

The Film actually didn't do that well in its opening weekend. Coming in Fourth in its debut (Losing out to Batman Forever and Pocahontas), the film would eventually earn back its 15 Million Dollar Budget and Earn 66 Million Dollars. The critics weren't kind to this movie, though. Roger Ebert infamously gave the film half a star, stating "as close as you can get to absolute nothing and still have a product to project on the screen,".

The film was so successful, it eventually earned a sequel in 1997. But that's a review for another day.
"I'm a frog"

"Yes, a frog. Like the one you kiss to get a handsome prince!" 

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie is available in physical formats and digital outlets. Please support the official release. 
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