Ay-yi-yi! There will be spoilers... This new Special is meant to be a love letter to fans of the original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. It has better effects than the original Sentai series... but how does it fare?
Grab your MMPR helmet, and color coded clothes cause it's Muffin' time!!
This special is a weird one... it's Power Rangers but it has a bit of an edgy feel and you'd better watch it for yourselves. But I do have a play by play summary after the jump.
You clicked, you sure you want to be spoiled? I'm gonna spoil a bit further below...
Incoming Play By Play... I'm warning you...
Not even 2 minutes in and I feel like making and old South Park quote, but with a Power Ranger... Sure the actress HAS BEEN DEAD FOR DECADES, but to kill Trini in that way was a bit rude. So, Robo Rita kills Trini and vanishes. Now Zack and Billy are arguing at Trini's house on how to tell Trini's daughter that Rita Repulsa killed her Mom. Zack wants to lie and Billy wants to tell the Truth. She walks in when Billy yells that Rita killed her mom...
No chill, Netflix...
One Year Later:
Zack moved in with Trini's daughter and now they're heading to her grave and Zack was a Congressman!? Archive sounds of Amy Jo Johnson, Austin St. John, and the late Jason David Frank were used to indicate they morphed in the background... I'd understand if they kill Tommy now, but if they kill Kim and Jason it would be bullshit! Rita shows up to threaten the Rangers... conveniently, they're morphed so we don't see the greedy one, the scammer, and the dead one... sorry, Netflix took control for a second there. But that's just an excuse to bring the Catgirl... remember, Kat turned into a Cat, whatever the Hell steve Cardenas is doing, and Mr. Voice Actor, Renton Thurston Itsuki Koizumi himself... We don't mention Eureka7 in these parts anymore. The Radbug looks different now... and they captured the 3 OGs who didn't return to bring in the replacements... also, Rita throwing shade at Trini's death... damn, Netflix, you got no chill... calm down.
Our heroes retreat an Minh, Trini's daughter, obviously wants revenge. Billy and Zack treat her like a kid, but this Teenager's got attitude and almost as much chill as Netflix, since she pulled the "this is all your fault" card and followed it with an "It stung? GOOD!" And I'm like
Rita's CGI castle is called Bandora Palace... nod to the Sentai series... also, Billy Cranston is a tech mogul or something. He has the command center UNDER his company... Ay-yi-yi! And an Alpha9 too.
Billy tried to find Zordon and Rita's evil corrupted Alpha8 and turned into Robo Rita... rember that Zedd and Rita turned human when Zordon killed himself and expunged the evil out of them. Billy accidentally brought back Rita.
Billy activates the Bandora Protocol calling ALL POWER RANGERS!? Again, BANDORA? When was Bandora mentioned in English versions of Super Sentai? We got Kat and Rocky... wonder when Zack will get captured to bring Adam? Also, Trini's kid is showing she's a Teenager with ATTITUDE! By going all martial arts on a log dummy. She takes her mom's morpher when she finds out of the global scale Putty attack and now the backups have coins... all that's missing is the green or white coins to pop up.
Rita sends her monsters to battle, Rangers get away and we get a Bulk and Skull Easter egg. Also Adam and Aisha are in space with the first iteration of Space Patrol... aka Space Patrol Alpha... the series we know is Space Patrol Delta... the fourth? Iteration of Space Patrol? It appears that Kat knows Tommy's son. Not sure if she's the mom, but Dino Thunder Black got some splainin' to do! Of course, Minh's in trouble... and she can't morph... so the angry turkeys attack. Zack and Rocky come to the rescue, which is weird... Nimh whines and Zack punishes her by teleporting her to the Command Center. She's impressed. She's still angry and Zack has a heart to heart talk woth her about being a hero, Zordon, Selflessness vs selfishness, justice vs revenge.
Billy, Rocky and Kat set up a trap for Rita's monsters, meanwhile Rita has captured other Rangers. Saw in space, lost galaxy, and the last one popped in looks like zeo yellow? The monsters fall in the trap and Minh is not happy that the Rangers aren't killing them. Of course, she doesn't know that the moment they kill them Rita will throw her wand and make them grow. Without a full team they can't operate a Megazord. Of course, Minh steals the morpher and a stealth camo prototype in her quest for revenge. She also steals the radbug and decides to help a gay man... I normally mock forced diversity, but this bait is weak. Nimh goes GTA on the putties and saves the gay dude's boyfriend, cause they're gay... on a show of a rainbow squadron of superheroes who fight monsters.
Minh reaches the monsters and wants to morph, but Rita shows up and taunts her about a dead Trini... again, Netflix, zero fucks given... Minh decides to fight without Morphin... she's so going to get her ass kicked. The stealth camo rangers reach Rita's machine and they notice all the captured rangers... including Dino Thunder White. Kat is stopped by Billy who noticed Rita's plan for contacting her past self. Oh yeah, Rota freed her monsters and captured Nimh.
She taunts the rangers about killing them before recruiting Zordon and taunts Minh with killing her mom twice... again, Netflix, what the actual fuck! Cut that shit out... Rita tries to kill Billy and Nimh pulls off a Trini and becomes a flesh shield to save Billy. I bet that shot powers up her morpher...
It's Morphin Time! Now powered up they fight... and Magic Wand Made her Monster Grow... Megazord time? Nope... Billy penetrating Rita from behind time... Now we got Zords... and we're in 1996 CGI mode... with only Billy and Minh piloting while Rocky, Zack, and Kat foght the other monster.
Ay-yi-yi! Rita's still alive! She opens the portal and you guessed it, the rangers stop her before she gets to the past. They save the rangers and they're taken to the Space Patrol Alpha ship (off camera) to recover. Adam and Aisha show up and they say their goodbyes and everyone except Zack, Billy and Minh stay. They hit the youth center where Billy and Minh have a heart to heart talk. They reminisce about Trini and archive footage plays. We get a tribute message in memory of Thuy Trang and Jason David Frank. Then we get a what the intro to this season would've been if this special was a season.
Um... I can't believe I'm saying this but I hated it. I mean, I liked the parts where it tried to feel like it was an episode of Power Rangers. I didn't like all this rubbing it in that Trini is dead. Honestly I'm not sure if the people who wrote this loved or hated Power Rangers. I'm kind of leaning towards the latter. Sure, there were nods and references, but I didn't "feel the love" for a 30 year anniversary special... at least from the writing. I did feel it from the cast though.
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