Series Commentary: Power Rangers: Mystic Force

Mystic Force is the first Disney season I’ve seen, and wow. I stopped watching the show at the end of the Zordon era back in the day, and I watched Mystic Force before rewatching In Space or watching any other seasons for one reason: the return of Rita Repulsa. Now, had I known that her… cameo was only in the last two episodes and it’s only through an extremely brief reference by Udonna, I might have skipped it altogether.

But I watched it, so what do I have to say? Well, I guess Disney realized in 2006 that Harry Potter was making some money. Much of the background music of Mystic Force is stolen directly from John Williams’s Harry Potter score, and so is the premise. By the way, did I mention that Disney also had a role in Mahou Sentai Magiranger, meaning they didn’t exactly have to “make do” with their Sentai footage this time around?

This series is all about Harry Potter. It’s about learning magic and reciting spells, being granted new spells as a result of their actions of bravery, and dealing with magical trials and travails of the sort that a first year student at Hogwarts might deal with.

Putting all that aside for the moment, is Mystic Force any good?

It goes through ups and downs. The series starts off pretty annoying at times, and it has some strange occurrences (such as a medieval knight whose zord is a train). How about we play to Disney’s strengths- wholesome characters and all that?

Ah, there we go. We get the Bulk and Skull-esque bitch who renounces her evil upbringing and becomes a good guy- though how she went from being an evil bitch to just being lonely was never well developed. We also get Phineas, who exists primarily as comic relief, but gets the opportunity to be pretty badass as well. The rest of the team develops a bit as well, although this development is overshadowed in the “everybody come together for the sake of good” ending. Still, Xander is less annoying at the end, Chip and Vida move on just enough that we don’t actually see a relationship develop, Nick becomes less scared of commitment and Madi becomes slightly bolder. It’s pretty cookie cutter Disney, but it gets the job done and you come to like the characters.

How about the villains? Well, honestly, the only villain worth remembering is the only one who becomes an undeveloped hero at the end. Sure, I stop to wonder how Daggeron so quickly went from being a hero to a villain to a mummy that, once locked away, was able to stand up to Koragg, but that doesn’t make Imperius a memorable villain. Maybe Cthulhu just made him that much stronger?

Oh, yeah, Cthulhu is the enemy.

The one thing that bothers me the most about this series is the graphics. I know, this is a purely subjective thing and this is my biggest complaint with Dino Thunder and will probably be my biggest complaint with other series. CGI zords just completely throws off the mood. Yes, I’m a fan of Power Rangers: The Movie, but at least their CGI isn’t as bright and flashy and it still has a ring of nostalgia to it to go with the terrible CGI.

That’s not the worst of it, though. The worst of it is eye-gouging CGI followed by practical effect zord battles. If you do CGI, don’t do something else to show me how terrible it is. You fail, sir.

This isn’t supposed to be a review, but I feel obliged to make a recommendation. This is the first “modern” Power Rangers series I’ve seen. Do I recommend it to people like me? Uh… maybe? I’m a completionist, so in the end, I can’t say no. If you like the cheesy side of Power Rangers, definitely watch it. The more serious side… eh… probably not.

Bill Silvia is a regular contributor at Fantasy & SciFi Lovin' News & Reviews. You can find more of his content at http://www.MiBreviews.com

Series Commentary: Power Rangers: Dino Thunder

When I heard about Power Rangers: Dino Thunder, I wanted to watch it. Then I saw the CGI sequences, and wanted to forget all of the things I had heard about it. Even with the return of Tommy Oliver, I didn't want to see this CGI shit-stain on my childhood.

Finally, I watched it.

Let me pitch it to you and let you draw your own conclusions.

Three high school students from very different walks of life- not my high school, where the nerds and jocks were more often than not the same people, but your expected stereotype characters (to start with). A bitch principal- and I don't mean the harsh but well-meaning one, I mean the one who feels she's best done her job on days that she sent the most people to detention. Unrealistic indulgence character, yes, but there's a reason for it, if just as unrealistic and indulgent.

Okay, if you need to know, she's one of the Lieutenants of the Pure Evil Big Bad.

The mysterious yet cool new science teacher is a man named Dr. Oliver. This is probably the most serious attempt Power Rangers has ever made to bring in older viewers. It probably would have been cool to bond with a younger sibling over episodes with Tommy, the only Ranger I've seen who routinely attacked giant monsters, successfully, with his Ranger weapon.

Our "bully" character for this season really isn't that. Cassidy and Devin are your Season 2 Bulk and Skull. Cassidy is a reporter and Devin is her friend that hangs on her every word- and of course, all reporters in this universe are eventually tasked to find the identities of the Power Rangers.

Like Bulk and Skull, Cassidy and Devin have their own character growth, just as Blue Ranger Ethan goes through the same character arc that Billy Cranston did over three seasons. This is one of those seasons that focuses on the growth of all involved (even Tommy to an extent), dedicating episodes to every protagonist and ally except for Holly, the Alpha 5 character, and a fair amount of time to the various White Rangers, Elsa, and and Zeltrax.

There were two consistent annoyances throughout this series. The first, which I'm going to have to get over, is the sudden addition of powers and minimizing of the drawbacks. Something had to be lost when the effective character growth of three seasons was combined into one, right? Still, when a new ultimate power is added with a drawback that makes it a last resort, you expect that drawback to last for more than one episode. Was this an Abaranger fault? It's possible, but if so, cutting it out completely would have been both easier and told a better story.

Moving past the rushed stories of both the Triassic Ranger, I talk about, you guessed it, the CGI. Mechs shouldn't be CGI half of the time and suits the other half. Do them practical, preferably, but if you have to do them CGI, try and shade it so it's bearable, and keep them CGI all the way. This isn't just a complaint I have with Dino Thunder, but with many of the newer Power Rangers series. Again, something I should attribute to Super Sentai? I can't know for sure until I watch the appropriate counterparts.

A related complaint is Conner's battlizer. Mainly the fact that he has CGI-fueled Namekian stretching powers. This is too many kinds of ridiculous to count. It's entirely unnecessary and completely takes you out of any scene it's in. I suppose it's necessary to make toy sales go through the roof (meme courtesy of EZ Rider), but not for any other reason.

As I said, I'll leave it to you to decide to watch it or not. Dino Thunder is basically Mighty Morphin plus CGI and camp, but there are things that might appeal more to some people than some aspects of the original show did. It all comes down to what you like in your kids' shows. I liked it- most of it.

Series Commentary: Power Rangers: Samurai

When Power Rangers: Samurai was announced, the hype was huge. Saban was taking over Power Rangers again, and they were moving to Nickelodeon. On top of that, it was a whole team of freakin' samurai! We counted down until the big reveal, and then the Rangers came.



They had no introductions, already seemed to know each other, and the Green Ranger, on whom the first episode was focused, was completely annoying. Samurai got a little better. The characters would develop some, an "honorable villain" was introduced, and... yeah, that's about all I've got.



Here's the thing with Samurai- they're afraid to take chances. The villains have no menace to them, because they're constantly cracking jokes. At 23 episodes, Power Rangers: Samurai was the shortest season of Rangers yet, and for all the development the characters get, it shows. The most developed character is... yeah, I got nothin'. Probably the Blue Ranger, because we know all there is to know about his character: He's deadly serious, is 100% focused on training, and has no time or interest for anything else. There could have been a more developed character. Farkas Bulkmeyer, veteran of seven Power Rangers seasons returns- but Saban couldn't have that. They've mentioned in interviews that this is an alternate universe version of Bulk, along with his pupil, Spike Skullovich. Cee Lo Green sums up my response to that in two words.



For fans of the early show, Bulk's presence on Samurai was like Tommy Oliver's presence on Dino Thunder: A character who had completed the Hero's Journey coming back as a mentor figure to impart their experience on a new generation. Obviously, no one expected Bulk to be killing Moogers left and right or teaching the rangers, but we expected the Bulk we've come to know and love over the better part of a decade; the Bulk who, along with his best friend, stood up to the invasion of Earth by the United Alliance of Evil. Saban's comment? "Sorry, not him." At that point, all but the most devoted fans (read: reviewers who feel compelled to slog through this crap) said, "Sorry, not my show".



Sure, the action is okay, and there are some interesting dilemmas dealt with, but this show is too shallow for anyone outside the target age range to really like. Samurai was split into two seasons for some ridiculous reason. The real end of Season 1 was Episode 18, in October. Episodes 19 and 20 were the first two episodes, displaced from the beginning of the season for no reason that anyone seems to be able to figure out, followed by a Halloween clip-show that does nothing but make fun of the Season in what has to be the worst Halloween Special I've seen in Power Rangers History, a crossover with the previous season that was yanked from future continuity, and then a Christmas-special-slash-season-finale that is another clipshow. In other words, twenty episodes, a basically non-canon special two parter, and two clipshows. Frak this season. What really cements my anger at this season, though, is the fact that it was cut in half as a cheap marketing ploy. On the 18th of this month, the second season, Super Samurai, starts. Let it ease my anger at the way this season ended and give me something fond to remember it by. Oh, and here's the trailer for Super Samurai: