Power Rangers Megaforce: A Mega Surprise (ok, that was lame)

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Power Rangers Megaforce: A Mega Surprise (ok, that was lame)

Post by FangTrigger »

Today, at 1 P.M. EST, we were all graced with the first episode of the 20th anniversary of the longest running American Toku series, Power Rangers, Power Rangers Megaforce.

Now, after the atrocity that was Power Rangers Samurai/Super Samurai, Saban had to pull out all the stops and dig really deep for this one and, quite honestly, he did just that. Megaforce touched on all the things that a return to Power Rangers should have been. We get a fresh set of faces in the original Primary Color scheme of Mighty Morphing, along with some nods to it as well. Not only that, I sense some nods towards Kamen Rider Decade (in terms of the opening scene.) But enough of that. Let's get to my The Good,The Bad, and The Ugly review.

The Good:
Kamen Rider Decade-esque opening- This is how an episode of a season should start, with an intro that grabs you and demands your attention. The clip from The Legendary War was really something that made you go 'Whoa' or "WTF!?' or both at the same time, just from the sheer numbers of rangers on screen at once.
Casting- Here's something that I really didn't expect- good quality cast members. No one, in my opinion, tries to go too far into their role nor do they have voices that make me wanna damage my ear drums every time they laugh or speak. Everyone played their role accurately and didn't try to oversell it.
Weapon names and attacks- Here was another surprise for me. The weapon names (save for the Mega Blasters) and attacks were not childish at all. I mean, these were some decent, hardcore name. Shark's Bite, Snakes Venom, Phoniex Blaster, Tiger Claw, Dragon Sword: These are names you would expect to appeal to an older audience as well as a younger one.
Homage to Mighty Morphing- At first, this was going to go in 'the Bad' section, but then I realized that this actually helped the show. You have Gosei, who was trained by Zordon (although, I am curious as to when he was trained. Must have been during Turbo/Zeo Era.) and Tensou, an obvious nod to Alpha-5, but a lovable nod nonetheless. Teleporting is back, which is great because it offers a better explanation as to how the Rangers move across town so fast without the aide of vehicles or something.
Writing- Although a somewhat modified carbon-copy of 'Day Of The Dumpster' (the first episode of Mighty Morphing), it was done in good taste. There was only one pun that made me cringe, but other than that one, I can say that there wasn't much script wise that I could hate with all my heart.
Transformation/Morphing Sequence- Comparing this to Goseigers, I would say that this is a better one, in terms of CGI and effects.
Warstar keep their names as 'Warstar'- Need I say more?

Next we have The Bad-
Warstar General names- When I first found out about these names, I didn't like them. These were completely childish names and you could tell. Monsu Doreiku (Mons Drake) Became Admiral Malkor, Ryūsei no Dereputa (or just Dereputa) became Creepox- A name I beleve sounds like some kind of Minecraft monster- and Buredoran of the Comet, the most bad ass villian I've ever seen in Super Sentai so far, became Vrak. Every time I hear that name I think of Brak, the character from Space Ghost.
Cannon Fodder Names- The new names for the Bibi Soldiers is Loogies...... Ok, I'm pretty sure this is a downgrade, even by Goseiger standards. What's worse is their yellow-green outfit makes the name fit, but only in an insulting way.
Role Call during Morphing- There wasn't any real need for this, at least in my eyes. We could see the color that they were going to become from the cards they held (unless this was for those that are color blind. Then I can understand somewhat.) Speaking of the cards-
Lack of Editing- When it came to the cards, if you paid attention, you would see the original names of the Goseigers or their weapons/Headers. Actually, in the first morph, you could see that the Rangers were already holding their Change Cards, making the next scene where they are holding blank cards that change into their Change Cards pointless. This is a simple fix that could've been righted with a little motion capture software and/or photoshop.
Catchphrase- "MegaRangers, that was a Mega Victory!"....... No. Just.....No.

The Ugly:
I actually don't have anything to put here. This would be one of the few times I think I could ever leave this section empty.

Now, just from watching this one episode alone, I can tell we won't be getting Gosei Green's appearance, which stinks because I really wanted to see him become adapted into the show somehow. We also lost Datas, but that isn't something that really bothers me because Datas wasn't a strong character to me, so I'm more interested in the formation of Hyper Gosei Great (if that's going to be it's name.)

Minor misgivings and personal opinions aside, I have very high hopes for Megaforce, and I'm eagerly awaiting the rest of this season and the next (just so long as they don't space it out as they did Power Rangers Samurai.)
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Re: Power Rangers Megaforce: A Mega Surprise (ok, that was l

Post by EndlessWaltz24 »

Fang, that was a very very fair review. I do agree with most of your good and bad points. However, what kills me are the puns. The puns are so bad... again! I think what disappoints me about these puns are that considering the time-block that they're airing it at, I expect an older audience to watch the show, similar to those who've watched shows like iCarly, Big Time Rush, etc. Therefore, I expect the writing to be a little better. Oh, and of course, "Megaforce forever!"... ugh... Well, here's hoping that it'll be an improvement from Samurai. Also, seeing the ranger keys lying around in the base makes me think of what they're gonna do for their Gokaiger section.
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Re: Power Rangers Megaforce: A Mega Surprise (ok, that was l

Post by [kuronogantzryu] »

I actually thought the acting was a bit better so I'll tune into a few more EPs to see how things turn out.
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Re: Power Rangers Megaforce: A Mega Surprise (ok, that was l

Post by Battra »

Abit rushed could've probably extended this to two episodes, but it was enjoyable. I could do without all MMPR references being shoved right into my face.
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Re: Power Rangers Megaforce: A Mega Surprise (ok, that was l

Post by locuas »

to be honest, if you want good acting, PR/Sentai is not exactly the best place to look for it xD.
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Re: Power Rangers Megaforce: A Mega Surprise (ok, that was l

Post by butyoumight »

locuas wrote:to be honest, if you want good acting, PR/Sentai is not exactly the best place to look for it xD.

At least each one of them was better than the entire main cast of Samurai combined. I know that's not saying much, but there it is XD
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Re: Power Rangers Megaforce: A Mega Surprise (ok, that was l

Post by ReversedSentai »

Just watched the first episode myself, and while I do like how this isn't a copy of Goseiger, I do feel that the editing could be better. When they were morphing, you could clearly see "GoseiRed", "GoseiBlack", "GoseiPink", etc. If you paid close attention, you even saw the original names of the weapons on the cards, as well as the name "Tensou Sentai Goseiger". Sure a little kid wouldn't notice that, but to us fans who've seen Goseiger already, it is a bit lazy.

The OP theme. I understand that this is an anniversary series, but honestly, taking the OP of the series you did right before this just to change the OP a little bit comes off as unoriginal, in my opinion.

Although I must say, I do like how they try to retain the original names from Goseiger, with names like Tensou and Gosei.

The Ranger Keys shown in the lair seems different than the ones in Gokaiger, but we'll see.

Some of the Rangers really didn't feel like their Ranger in-suit counterpart. Blue is a science geek, who we saw was incapable of fighting out-of-suit, yet he was able to do a whole back flip high in the air. I know this is Goseiger footage, but moves like that really detract from his personality. Black is a soccer player, yet we don't see soccer incorporated in his fighting scenes due to the lack of such in Goseiger, unless Saban creates his own battle footage, which would be nice.

So Datas was replaced, which is good to see some originality, so I guess I like that.

The lame catchphrases reminds me of Samurai. Oh god, why? Just have them battle without unnecessary commentary.

Overall, like many people said, this episode felt too much like a revist of MMPR's first episode, "Day of the Dumpster". I must say that I'm enjoying this over Samurai, which I felt was an atrocious mess due to the poor incorporation of Shinkenger footage, stale ideas, a fake first episode and the huge spacing in between episodes.
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Re: Power Rangers Megaforce: A Mega Surprise (ok, that was l

Post by Kuchiri »

Reversed Sentai, go rewatch some of MMPR. Billy couldn't even do a kick in the first episode. Yet when he transformed he destroyed Puttys.

I don't think it's editing they were going for with the cards. I mean the past few iterations of PR they have been trying to be more like Sentai. Trying to grab the sheer number of fans that go to TV Nihon or some other sub group that does Sentai.

RPM had Go-Onger References
Samurai had a lot of Shinkenger references and plot.

I think the cards were meant to stay the same. Yeah we are trying to do our own story again. This is our source though.
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Re: Power Rangers Megaforce: A Mega Surprise (ok, that was l

Post by FangTrigger »

ReversedSentai wrote: Some of the Rangers really didn't feel like their Ranger in-suit counterpart. Blue is a science geek, who we saw was incapable of fighting out-of-suit, yet he was able to do a whole back flip high in the air. I know this is Goseiger footage, but moves like that really detract from his personality. Black is a soccer player, yet we don't see soccer incorporated in his fighting scenes due to the lack of such in Goseiger, unless Saban creates his own battle footage, which would be nice.
This isn't the first time this has happened. Remember, in Magiranger, MagiRed was a soccer player, but in Mystic Force Nick didn't make any mention towards sports in his fighting style. The same could be said for Dino Thunder, which in my opinion used a lot of original footage to make the fights (only second to MMPR).
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Re: Power Rangers Megaforce: A Mega Surprise (ok, that was l

Post by Kaheraji »

Looking on Hulu, and I notice that Megaforce is available for viewing, and I have to say, it looks a lot better on the 40" HDTV than it does on my roughly 15" Laptop.

They also have both seasons of Samurai in addition to Lost Galaxy, though that one has been known for a while.
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Re: Power Rangers Megaforce: A Mega Surprise (ok, that was l

Post by Kuchiri »

Netflix has everything MMPR other than the one episode of Megaforce if you are looking to do a Linkara and watch all the episodes.
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Re: Power Rangers Megaforce: A Mega Surprise (ok, that was l

Post by Kaheraji »

I have watched Mega Mission about six times, now. I haven't had the desire to re-watch an episode of Power Rangers since Jungle Fury.

I've missed this feeling.
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Re: Power Rangers Megaforce: A Mega Surprise (ok, that was l

Post by Kaheraji »

There was a sketch of of the Yuumajuu symbol on the wall of Mr. Burley's cryptid pictures.

Nice subtle foreshadowing, there.
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Re: Power Rangers Megaforce: A Mega Surprise (ok, that was l

Post by Digifiend »

Re the rollcall during the morph, SPD is guilty of the same thing. It's not unprecedented.
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Re: Power Rangers Megaforce: A Mega Surprise (ok, that was l

Post by FangTrigger »

Digifiend wrote:Re the rollcall during the morph, SPD is guilty of the same thing. It's not unprecedented.
SPD did it right though. When it came to Megaforces's morph, I didn't really think it was done in the right way.
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