On August 28, 1993, the hit superhero show Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers hit our television sets and was very popular with kids back in the day, resulting in one of the biggest merchandising phenomenons of the 90's and it still continues to this day. What few people realized at that time is that Power Rangers is actually an adaptation of the long running Japanese superhero show, Super Sentai. Shortly after the success, Saban, the company responsible for the franchise, joined forces with 20th Century Fox to make a movie, hoping it would make summer dollars in 1995. The film however, was doomed from the start.
Director Brian Spicer did very little research on the show and insisted that the Ranger helmets would have no visors and mouthpieces to show emotion. Realizing that the Power Rangers weren't supposed to show emotion, Spicer decided to put the visors and mouthpieces back in the helmets. And there's a major casting change during shooting.
Mariska Hargitay, known for her work on the Law and Order series, was hired for a key supporting role named Dulcea. The filmmakers decided that she was miscast and they fired her, resulting a lot of deleted material, including Dulcea's backstory and a training montage. Hargitay is later replaced by Gabrielle Fitzpatrick.
The show was also being worked on while the movie was being filmed, which is why we had episodes of the Rangers taking a vacation in Australia while the evil Rita Repulsa marries Lord Zedd. All in all, the film had a troubled shoot. But what are the results? Let's find out!
An evil alien creature named Ivan Ooze (Paul Freeman) has been freed by Rita and Lord Zedd and plans to destroyed Zordon, the Rangers' mentor, and rule the universe. As Ivan takes over the city of Angel Grove, Zordon and his robotic assistant Alpha 5 send the Rangers to a distant planet called Phaedos. Led by the scantly clad warrior named Dulcea (Gabrielle Fitzpatrick), the Rangers get new powers to save the world and defeat Ivan.
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Speaking of the writing, the Rangers barely have personalities in the film. While the show was formulaic, the Rangers at least had personalities like the nerd (Blue Ranger), the valley girl (Pink Ranger), the goofball (the original Black Ranger), and the leader (White Ranger). But ever since 3 members of the original cast left the show due to contractual disputes, the Red, Black, and Yellow Rangers were replaced by three blank slates. In the movie, we know very little of them and it's hard for the casual viewer to distinguish one Ranger to another apart from the colors of the costumes.
The special effects are atrocious. The show took footage from Super Sentai for most of the action scenes, which consists of cheap robot and monster costumes. But these action scenes have charm. Not in this film because the Zords and monsters were made of terrible CGI. They look like video game graphics and they look very cheap.
The only positive I could say about the film is Paul Freeman's performance of Ivan Ooze. He's clearly having fun with the role and appreciate him for this achievement. But that's about it.
In conclusion, this film is an example of Hollywood cashing in to what's popular and making a corporate sell out. The plot is a non canon extended episode of the show, the characters are one dimensional, and the special effects are just wretched. But of all the Hollywood sell outs of the 90's, the film is at least watchable, mainly because of Paul Freeman. Otherwise, you're better off watching the show, which had much better seasons after the Mighty Morphin' era.
RATING: 2/4
