Like any highly popular and successful franchise of the 90s, it wasn’t long before Power Rangers finally received its first feature length film with Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie. And, like many famous franchises of the 90s, Power Rangers is fun for purely nostalgic reasons but as a high quality, entertaining film certainly doesn’t deliver. But, let’s be honest, if you were looking for a high quality film in The Power Rangers Movie, you’re not really looking in the right place.
The film begins with a charity skydive event, because, that happens in every high school. During this event, Bulk and Skull land in a construction zone where an egg has been unearthed. The main villains of the series including Rita Repulsa, crack the egg to reveal Ivan Oooze. Like most of the villains in the series, Ivan Ooze wants to rule Earth and get revenge on Zordon and his Power Rangers.
To exact his revenge, Ooze breaks into the command centre and incapacitates Zordon, leaving the Rangers with no powers. It is then the Power Rangers must go on a quest to the planet Phaedos, get their necessary upgrade, defeat Ooze, and save Zordon. Meanwhile, Ivan Oooze uses hypnosis to control all the adults in Angel Grove. The Rangers achieve the Great Power with their new spirit guides and return to Earth to vanquish evil and defeat Ivan Ooze.
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie follows a lot of standard storytelling tropes, some of which by this point in time had already made it into the TV series. The command center is destroyed, the Rangers have to fix it. The Rangers temporarily lose their powers and need to regain them either what they had before or as an upgraded version. Zordon’s life is in danger which serves as the ticking time bomb for the movie. While I wish I could say these tropes feel fresh in this movie, the fact of the matter is, they don’t. Like watching the series, this movie is only going to entertain those that want to take a trip down memory lane, reliving the best moments of their childhood.
Yet, even though Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie movie is not that great of a film, it isn’t pretending to be. It’s not a Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. It’s not trying to be pretentious or trying to sell itself as good, quality film making. It knows what it is and it takes that tone with pride throughout the entire film. And, because of that, it’s refreshing to watch especially since it’s clear the upcoming reboot will try to take a more dark, serious approach to something that is once again supposed to campy in the good old 90s style. So if the upcoming reboot fails miserably, we can always look back on this film and remember what the Power Rangers was supposed to be and what it is: harmless fun for children.
But, despite all of that, Johnny Young Bosch‘s line “I’m a frog” is still funny. I could be biased though.
Have you watched Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie recently? Does it live up to the hype that you remember as a child? Share your thoughts in the comments below or on Twitter!