Power Rangers Dino Supercharge Review

Sadly, I'm not impressed with Dino Supercharge. There is a very notice-able difference in quality between this and Dino Charge. It just feels like a completely different show compared to Dino Charge. With that being said, do I necessarily think its bad? Well read on and find out.

Characters: 

The rangers are still simply ok. They're not bad but they're also nothing to write home about and my opinions of them haven't really changed since the first half. I'm honestly a bit disappointed that Graphite and Aqua aren't used that much despite all of their appearances being American footage and Saban Brands having the suits on hand. It just seems like a waste to me. Due to that, we don't really get a feel for Prince Philip and Tyler's dad this half. Its especially disappointing for Prince Philip since he was introduced in Dino Charge. Kendal also hasn't fought much in this half. Given that and Aqua and Graphite not showing up much, I can't help but think that Dino Charge went over budget in its first half. Granted thats just speculation on my part but I feel its worth mentioning because there was a lot more stock-footage used in ground fights this time. Now some people have had issues with Tyler's father just going into hiding after bonding with the aqua energem, but I don't mind it. His reasoning is sound enough in my opinion. Yeah he did have to abandon his son but the only other option was putting him in the line of fire if Fury ever tracked him down again. Unfortunately, I don't have much to say regarding Zenowing since I missed his introduction episodes and haven't had the time to watch them. From what I did see of him, he was just kind of there.

Writing: The writing this time around leaves something to be desired. Its a massive step-down from Dino Charge's writing. It sets things up but there isn't really much pay-off to the setups. One of the big pitfalls is the mystery of what happened to Tyler's dad. They practically give away the reveal the episode before it happens. It had all the subtlety of a sledgehammer to the face. They did everything but have his father's friend look at the camera and say "Hey audience, his dad found an energem too!". Its a case of them underestimating the audience's intelligence. It also drops the ball with Heckyl but I'll get to that in a bit. The subplots for certain episodes are down-right stupid and it really drags the show down at points. Like when Arcanon showed up and started controlling their zords, the sup-plot about Chase learning to bake a desert was entirely irrelevant and took focus away from the action. It was all just away to hand-wave them figuring out how to make a new megazord. It was a lot more work than they needed to do because all the rangers had to do was say "Hey, maybe we should try using the Titanozord.".

Villains:

Yeah, the villains in this half are kind of lacking. There were quite a few missteps with Heckyl/Snide. He had a rather interesting plan during first couple episodes that just gets dropped suddenly. He was cozy-ing up to the rangers to steal their energems. The sad thing is that it was kinda working until he screwed up in a way that felt really forced. He engineered a situation that resulted in the rangers being awake for days and even got everyone but Shelby's energem. Then for some reason, he left the energems sitting on a table by entrance to the cafe. Shelby showed up and caught him in the act. That seems like a slip-up thats out of character for Heckyl. Once Arcanon shows up, they build up the Heckyl/Snide has with Arcanon and they kinda drop the ball there too. Snide really doesn't end up doing much on his own. He pretty much starts working with Sledge, steals the dark energem, and goes out with a whimper. The weirdest part is that it feels like Heckyl's plot-line was leading up to him becoming a ranger. That doesn't happen but for some reason they built up to it. They even had the Spino zord end up where he was camping. If I had to guess, he was intended to become one but it might have been scrapped for budget reasons.

Singe has absolutely no presence whatsoever. He felt so much like nothing that I forgot he was even in the show each week. He also doesn't even add much to the show. He is little more than a generic goon. He doesn't even feel that strong so its kinda weird to see the rangers struggling against him. Arcanon isn't much better either. Heck when Sledge came back and killed Singe and Arcanon, I forgot they were dead after the episode ended. Like Snide, they both went out with a whimper. I legitimately had to ask a friend what happened to them because I couldn't remember.

Ironically, the biggest plus I have for Dino Supercharge is Poisondra. By that I mean the lack if Poisondra. Its like the writers realized that Sledge was the only reason she had to be in the show. Unfortunately, they decided to reveal Sledge was alive just so they could close her plot-line. Some people have asked my why I hate Poisondra so much. Its because she is utterly irrelevant to anything other than Sledge. She is the only villain I've ever seen whose goal can be accomplished by literally doing nothing at all. I can only actually remember a single episode out of Dino Charge and Supercharge where she did anything other than get in the way. It was the episode "Catching Some Rays" which is an episode I'll talk about later. Basically while the rangers were on vacation, she tried to party with them so she could swipe their energems. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing her get sent into the sun in the finale. It was fitting end for such an annoying character. The rest of Sledge's crew don't feel like much this time around since they get down-played in favor of Heckyl. Even Fury takes a backseat to the new guys.

Worst Episode: I have disliked quite a few episodes of Dino Supercharge for various reasons, however, the one I dislike the most is definitely the episode "Catching Some Rays". Not only is it the worst episode out of this half, its one of the dumbest PR episodes I've ever seen. It is filler in every sense of the word. Basically, all that happens is that Koda accidentally unleashes an ancient monster whose power is to make people go on vacation. There is virtually nothing to the threat because the episode doesn't show the consequences of people just dropping whatever they're doing to relax. Granted there is the stuff about Poisondra partying with them so she can steal the energems but Poisondra was never a threat herself so I really don't care that she tried this. Out of all the Kyoruger episodes they had left at that point, why did they choose to adapt the vacation episode?

The Ending:

I don't really mind the ending and I don't think its all that bad. It carried a heavy consequence to destroying the dark energem. I give it props because the obvious choice ended up being the worst possible choice they could've made. Plus it sufficiently justified bringing in time travel as the ultimate solution in my opinion. I get people's frustration with the idea that Dino Thunder could be non-canon now however, unless they say otherwise, Dino Thunder is still canon. However, what this technically means is that Dino Charge itself never happened since the fight took place before the energems were scattered. I do sort of find it odd that some are angry that Dino Charge might be in its own separate universe. I get why they're annoyed but I don't mind it as its not really a big deal in the grand scheme of the franchise. I sort of like the idea of a PR multiverse. I do like that Koda and Ivan get to go back to their original times.

Final Thoughts: I had a feeling the quality would sink this half. Its why I went in with so many reservations and didn't just go with it just because Judd Lynn is the producer. Its a shame because Dino Charge's first half was so consistent and gave this half so much potential. While I still enjoyed it here and there, it was kind of a let down. Though I still sort of get a chuckle out of hearing people say its worse than Megaforce and Super Megaforce. This half and Dino Charge overall didn't hit that level of bad or laziness. It is gonna take a complete train wreck for me to say something is worse than that season. Overall, I don't think its necessarily good, but its not bad either. It hits square in the middle for me with a lot of wasted potential.

Power Rangers Dino Supercharge First Impressions

Dino Charge was decent. It had some problems here and there but it was enjoyable. I could definitely tell they were trying which is all I ask from Power Rangers. Time to take a look at my thoughts on the first three episodes of Dino Supercharge.

Episode one opens up with Tyler doing a recap of the first half. After the recap, we cut to Sledge's ship. Sledge was apparently killed in the crash. Unfortunately, Poisandra survived so now she has even less reason to be here. Its also weird that she seemed to forget about Sledge the second food was mentioned. The episode had some really nice tension with Ice Age from the first half picking off the rangers one-by-one. It also shows Heckyl trying to get close to the rangers while in his human form. Its actually a nice plan that sort of works.

Episode two was ok. Weirdly enough like Dino Charge episode two, this was a Riley-centric episode. Its basically Heckyl trying to wipe the rangers memories so he could swipe their energems. Its actually a rather smart move on his part and its something I'm honestly surprised Sledge didn't try. It has a sub-plot with Riley standing up to a guy who used to bully him in high school. I've honestly never really cared for this trope in PR as it usually just comes out of nowhere. Though I did like that it sort of shows just how much energy the energems put out. Riley challenges the bully to the climbing wall and uses the energem to give him an edge. The energem actually puts out so much energy that it flings him over the climbing wall and makes him land in the tree right behind it. The main plot of the episode involves Heckyl trying to wipe their memories so he can steal the energems. When that doesn't work, he has the monster wipe his memories forcing them to take him to their base to fix it. That part of the plan works but by the end of the episode he gets that bit of his memory wiped away.

Episode three was the weakest of these episodes. Its sub-plot features an overbearing parent trope which is something that has kind of annoyed me over the years because sometimes its not exactly handled well. Its also a bit weird to see her father show up now. It doesn't really feel all that impactful of an episode. My real issue with the episode however is sort of how they handled Heckyl's stuff but I'll get to that in a bit.

These three episodes had something interesting with Heckyl but the pay-off is disappointing. Heckyl does something that I haven't seen many villains in PR do. He basically uses his human-form and the fact that he saved Kendel in the first half to get a job in the museum so he can get close to the rangers. He does this to learn the location of their base so he can steal their energems. He finds out the location of their base in episode two which is fine but his plan from the episode backfires and it sort of wipes his memory. Episode 3 however, is where the disappointment happens. They drop that plan immediately because Shelby walks in while Heckyl is knocking everyone else out and stealing their energems. He even transforms into Snide once he is caught.

They could've honestly played it off because due to Heckyl's main plan in the episode, the rangers hadn't slept in days. If he just pocketed the energems as he was taking them, he could've just convinced everyone that Shelby was hallucinating from lack of sleep. It felt like something that should've been an over-arcing thing until Heckyl's eventual exit from the show but instead it was thrown away after three episodes.

Overall, its an ok start to Dino Super Charge. It shows off Heckyl's ability as a leader but has a few problems with hand-waving away the stuff about him knowing where their base is. Its in-line with the quality of Dino Charge. This might seem like a weird thing to bring up but it doesn't really feel all that different from Dino Charge. It does feel like the stakes have been raised and them ending Heckyl's plot-line about befriending the rangers so suddenly really doesn't help in that regard. I know that introducing Dino Super Drive mode is supposed to indicate that the monsters have gotten stronger since Heckyl took power but it doesn't feel like it was necessary or earned. Also as a personal thing, I don't like that Dino Super Drive mode gets rid of the silver mouth-bit on the helmet. It makes the suits look a bit soul-less if its just the visor on the front of the helmet.