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53%
Overall Rating
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Ranked #3,073
...out of 20,725 movies
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A giant egg is unearthed at a construction site and soon opened, releasing the terrible Ivan Ooze, who wreaks vengeance on Zordon for imprisoning him millennia ago. With Zordon dying and their powers lost, the Rangers head to a distant planet to find the mystic warrior Dulcea.
--IMDb
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Review by Crispy
Added: December 25, 2007
When I was a wee little sprite, I would watch this TV show religiously. Looking back, I realized they were the death of my beloved Ninja Turtles, but at the time I was oblivious, as was thousands of kids across the nation. Much like the Turtles, every kid loved the Rangers and so, again just like the Turtles, the jump to the big screen was inevitable.
Set in a different continuity than the tv show, we catch up with our heroes about to plunge 20,000 feet in a skydive-for-charity organization. Afterwards, we watch them roller blade around the city for a while, but then, FINALLY we get to our story. At a construction site, the workers unearth what looks like a huge purple egg in the grasp of a giant claw. Turns out it houses a supreme badass named Ivan Ooze who was locked in the egg by Zordon and a previous group of Power Rangers 6,000 years ago. With his location now revealed, Lord Zedd releases Ivan and sics him on Zordon. After preoccupying the investigating Power Rangers with his oozemen, Ivan attacks Zordon's Command Center and completely demolishes the place; the destruction strips the Rangers of their powers and leaves Zordon stranded outside his time warp, a situation that will prove fatal if not rectified. Left with no other options, our six ex-Rangers travel to the far off planet of Phaedos to gain the Great Power hidden there. In the meantime, Ivan Ooze creates the Tengu, fierce crow-like warriors, and sends them to Phaedos to attack the Rangers and buy him some time to dig up the two giant robots that he plans to use to destroy the city. The Rangers are quickly defeated by the Tengu, but they are saved at the last minute by Dulcea, the bikini clad Amazonesque guardian of the power. After realizing that they were sent by Zordon, she agrees to guide them through the jungle; but can they gain the power and stop Ivan in time?
So, yeah. Hell of a plot, huh? Now, I'm of two minds to go about this review. On the one hand, do I judge it objectively for what it is, or do I come from the nostalgic fan angle? Because, from the latter, it's actually a solid movie adaptation. Instead of just making a long episode, they really upped the ante. The storyline is still the cheese we all loved from the show, but it was so much darker and more intense. I mean, while watching this show you start to build this awe of Zordon and Lord Zedd, this feeling that they're both the ultimate mothers that you just do not mess with. And now, in walks this new guy who literally leaves Zordon clinging to life and discards Zedd like a piece of garbage in no time at all. When I saw this at nine years old, talk about a definite jaw dropper. And the storyline wasn't the only thing given a makeover. In the show, their costumes were basically multicolored spandex, but now they have a completely new look. The costumes are now pretty bad ass looking, swapping out the spandex for a PVC/metal plating armored look. They look so much more powerful this go around, plus they come with all sorts of nifty tricks, like infra-red scopes built right into the helmets. And last but certainly not least, the Zords. As I'm sure you'll remember, every episode culminated in a battle with a giant monster and the huge robot vehicles the Power Ranger would summon. This fights were usually done via models and guys in suits, but now we've made the jump to CGI. Now, while you can often hear me griping about CGI, my biggest complaint is the chronic abuse of it. In this movie, it's saved for the very end, and surprisingly, it actually looked pretty damn good, and I don't mean "for a movie from 1995." However, this really only applies to the individual Zords themselves. When they combined into their Megazord (a la Voltron) the quality dropped pretty badly. Still, I've seen so much worse, so I'll forgive them. And again, it was still leaps and bounds ahead of the show.
Now, this seemingly rave review is me channeling my fanboy nine year old self. The movie itself is bloody awful. While the plot was leagues ahead of the episodes of the source material, well, said source material was about as deep as a rain puddle. Read that synopsis, that is quite the inane hodgepodge of random ideas, and I skipped some of the best parts. As you can imagine, we got plot holes galore, characterization of any kind was a shadow, and there's a certain battle against some living statues that has so many continuity problems it boggles the mind. It would have been a great scene if the editing wasn't so far gone. And while the action scenes were quite good, if not a little cartoony, they were ruined by the accompaniment of some god awful pop-rock. Now, that's not to say the soundtrack was a complete loss, because there was a few gems found in there; the Tengu theme was extremely catchy. Unfortunately, there was not enough good to outweigh the bad. And of course, there's the infamous acting. Now, this show was the start (and pretty much the end) of just about all of these kids' careers. Before firing up the movie, I watched a few of the early episodes and my God was the acting awful. In the movie, it's obvious that they've come a long way in the two years they've been on the show, but they're all hurting pretty bad. Although, in their defense, I don't think anyone could work well with a script that actually uses the word "Morphinominal." With that said, the sole exception is Paul Freeman as Ivan Ooze. Freeman did an amazing job with the role, giving the villain a charisma that was unheard of on the show, even from the heroes. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that Ivan Ooze was literally the most entertaining thing about the movie.
So, where do I find the fine line between these two viewpoints? On the one hand, they gave me exactly what I wanted them to. They gave me the Power Rangers on steroids. After all, if you're going to pay for the movie experience, I think it should be bigger and better than just making a ninety minute episode. Hell, even watching now at the ripe old age of twenty one, I couldn't help but find myself smiling more often than not. And of course, we have Gabrielle Fitzpatrick running around wearing barely anything, as well as Amy Jo Johnson, who was a huge part of many a young boys' puberty in the early '90s. But, then again, for all intents and purposes the movie was awful. And the biggest thing weighing down the final total: who would I recommend this too? Kids nowadays aren't going to get into this movie. The Power Rangers currently get a new gimmick slapped on them every year, whereas this movie was made during a time when the series had a much more stable plot line. Since the movie jumps right into said plot line with little explanation, kids not familiar with the original storyline are going to be clueless. And I couldn't rightly recommend it to the fans of the original. They've all grown up, and while I admit I found myself enjoying the movie, I hadn't seen it in years. I certainly don't plan on watching it again anytime soon. After all, novelty and nostalgia can only go so far. 3.5/10.
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#1:
Nirrad
- added December 25, 2007 at 1:34pm
I remember seeng this in the theaters. My friends
little brother fell asleep during it which I
thought was funny. I thought the Zords were bad
ass, and the following christmas I got them. I
always thought they wer the coolest toys. I
thought the movie was alright, It did have a
darker feel to it. I just missed some of the
original cast. It was good to see fresh material
from the fight scenes as this time they weren't
ripped from the japanese show from a few years
earlier. And apparently this was the first time
the actors actually wore the suits. Too bad after
this the show went to shit. Last I heard they have
like 6 different spin offs ranging from Wild Cats
or somethig to Space.
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#2:
Crispy
- added December 25, 2007 at 3:45pm
They tried shooting the actual Rangers in the
suits, but the plan failed, so they went back to
the tried and true method of having "Hero Actors"
and "Ranger Actors" so they could film both scenes
simultaneously and stay on schedule.
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#3:
Edd
- added December 26, 2007 at 1:40pm
4?
10/10
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#4:
Crispy
- added December 26, 2007 at 1:59pm
4 was my reviewer rating, as explained. When I
actually rated it I gave it 4 stars.
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#5:
bluemeanie
- added December 27, 2007 at 5:33pm
10/10? Are you high? Maybe just retarded. Only
explanation available. Even as a kid, I thought
this show was lame and horrible. The movie
offered the same level of bad as the show did.
Paul Freeman was OK. Otherwise, total garbage.
2/10.
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#6:
effin
- added December 29, 2007 at 7:29pm
When it first came out i was young enough to be
enthralled, but old enough to know that i wish i
had the marketability. Wow did it make alot of
money. The mojo drained out when i found out that
they wern't actually in the suit, i felt like
America after Bush was re-elected. In the end
movie was laking and completely made for making
money. 3.5/10 I miss amy jo johnson.
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#7:
Rik
- added July 3, 2008 at 12:02pm
The zords were horrible and amazingly
undersized.
Althought I thought the
morphing and the new padded suits were great.
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#8:
Lucid Dreams
- added July 26, 2010 at 2:55am
I know I was a Power Ranger fan, but I don't
remember anything about any of it.
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