If you know me, you know I've fallen out of love with the franchise over the last few years. My interest just dried up due to how much I've really disagreed with the direction the franchise has been heading. Due to that I was just going to wait and watch this whenever I felt like it, then a friend of mine who isn't big on Power Rangers said he enjoyed it and that I'd probably get a kick out of it. He was right.
I could go over how much this feels like Power Rangers, all the small easter eggs and callbacks, the rebuilt sets, the sheer level of threat Robo Rita poses, etc but first I'm gonna talk about one simple thing that I really held my interest about this special: It is exactly what I wanted from a more adult Power Rangers story. Its just a story about friends mourning their comrade and trying to do their best to take care of her family. Its about a daughter who lost her mother wanting revenge, having to be stopped before she actually gets herself hurt, and learning what it actually means to be a ranger. Its the characters going through all of that while trying to kick the villains in the teeth. Best of all, it manages to keep to the spirit of Power Rangers while doing that. Sure, the franchise has done this already once or twice to a degree but it imo its never really tackled it in the way this special does.
Ok, now for all that other stuff. First, even though I saw the juice bar in the trailer, I was still somehow surprised they recreated it as a set. Its admittedly smaller than I expected but I'm still impressed they went that far for it. The jokes and quips felt very much like something the 90s era of PR would've done so kudos for that. Robo Rita feels like a damn good threat. I knew they'd be hyping her up because she is the villain for the special but it still surprised me. Hell, her obliterating Trini was in the friggin' trailer and that still hit like a truck. I kind of expected Minh to annoy me but she was fine. Her lashing out at Billy hurt to see and it was really unfair to a degree but I totally get where her head was at. She missed her mom and really wanted to stop RoboRita as a way to avenge her. She took her anger too far and pretty much admitted how cruel she was. Thats a pretty adult way for a teenager to look at a situation.
Overall, this was pretty solid special. Did it rekindle my interest in PR? Not really. Did I enjoy it? Yes, very much so. There are some minor things that feel like they should create continuity issues but they really don't impact the special at all so I won't bother mentioning them. It feels a little off and like an unintended insult to say that MMPR has grown up but thats its exactly what this special feels like. Normally I'd end a post like this by saying whether or not I recommend this to people but this time, I'm not going to bother doing that. Why? Well...because its Power Rangers, its lasted 30 years so the audience is there no matter what I have to say about it. People already know if they want to see this or not. So uhhh...yeah, thats a weird point to end this on but here you go. I don't think that my word matters much given my current relationship with the franchise but I enjoyed it and thats pretty much all I can ask for these days.
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