Pics thanks to the painstaking efforts of FuryDiamond of Megaforcecast.com
[Some of the summary will be out of order]
We see all the Power Rangers from the past fighting in a large war. It turns out a dream the new kid Troy is having. He wakes up on the bus and goes to class. In a class, the teacher Mr. Burley asks his students (including Emma, Gia, Noah and Jake) which species will survive. Emma says Insects and Noah says robots. Troy enters and says humans. Admiral Malkor asks Creepox about Earth. The Warstar aliens have inspected Earth and say they can invade. Gia goes to the hangout Ernie's Brain Freeze and Emma request something as she goes to see a Orange Monarch Butterfly.
So Jake has a crush on Gia so he convinces Noah to go with him to Ernie's. Vrax hopes that the humans aren't a problem, he tells Malkor. Malkor is sure they will take care of them. In a secret underground Command Center on an ocean shore, Tensou and Gosei wake up. Gosei tells Tensou to select five teenagers. Tensou has three eyes and reminds me of Wall-E and the robot from Short Circuit.
So Jake has a crush on Gia so he convinces Noah to go with him to Ernie's. Vrax hopes that the humans aren't a problem, he tells Malkor. Malkor is sure they will take care of them. In a secret underground Command Center on an ocean shore, Tensou and Gosei wake up. Gosei tells Tensou to select five teenagers. Tensou has three eyes and reminds me of Wall-E and the robot from Short Circuit.
Emma spots a monster. Jake is about to give an ice cream to Gia but Gia gets teleported away. Noah then gets teleported away. Jake gets teleported last. Troy is practicing martial arts on a building roof and gets teleported. The four enter the mysterious base and meet Tensou. The place lights up, with hundreds of statues known to fans as the Ranger Keys. Gosei surprises them and explains that Zordon left him to guard the Earth and only wake up when there is an extraordinary menace. Jake comments that Gosei looks like a Tiki from his dad's Hawaiian shirts. He explains they will be Power Rangers. Emma teleports in and shows them the monster she saw. Gosei shows them on their consoles video of the Power Ranger they shall be and the powers they will have.
Noah asks who are the Ranger Keys. Gosei tells them that they are the Rangers before them. Troy commented eariler that he saw them before in his dream as he looked at the Red Time Force Ranger Key, which we flashback to but with more footage. Gosei gives them their Gosei Morphers and teleport them to the city. They land on the ground and Loogies are attacking. They fight the Loogies and are outnumbered so they morph and fight the Loogies. They call their weapons the Phoenix Shot, Snake Axe, Dragon Sword (even though called Dragonzord in the closed caption), Shark Bowgun and Tiger Claw.
Scaraba is summoned to fight the Rangers by the Warstar aliens. They destroy him, return to the headquarters where Gosei congrats them. "We were lucky this time," was said by Zack and now Noah. Emma repeating Kim's "Helmet messes up my hair." At least she said "Just Kidding" and not "Not."
The Nick Bumpers are cute. Jake is definitely the funny one and has the best lines. Noah's actor John Loudermilk does a good job at little mannerisms and such for his intellectual character. Emma and Gia come off a bit stuck-up and cold in this episode. Jake and Noah are endearing. Troy seems bland, like Red Rangers before him, hopefully he peps up. Some lines made me laugh as intended, some made me shudder like Emma's "Pink is my favorite color. I am not sure about this Ranger thing." I did like that Noah's line of "Megazords. Power Cards." mimicked Zack's line in the first episode of "Power Morphers. Megazords." Blue admiring the robot also mirrors the first episode and also the Rangers landing and Troy saying "Gosei said this will give us more power."
One criticism would be the use of the Goseiger cards in the show when they could have reshot it with new cards. The new Power Rangers cards appeared at PMC and they started shooting this season after PMC but I guess they had their reasons. I liked the Zordon references and other references. I am glad there is no Bulk or Skull, but Ernie's name use is confusing. Emma mentioning Insects and Noah mentioning Robots foreshadows the villains this for this year. Also, the open credits include many future Megazords, the big Legend War, and Ernie (new) and Mr. Burley.
The episode was pretty much just a cut, copy and paste of “Day of the Dumpster”, a bit excessively so, but felt it was an effective way of establishing the character’s temperaments, at least compared to the first few episodes of “Samurai”. It did help that Goseiger’s first episode had only about eight minutes of fight footage primarily during the end of the third act, making it easier to include more introductions for our lead characters. I thought Troy’s optimism, while it was a trait borrowed from Alata, was well established.
ReplyDeleteIt was amusing as this is the first time I've seen a Sentai series before its PR counterpart, as it made the seams between Sentai and new footage that much easier to identify. It was also fun watching dubbed footage and think, “Oh, I know what it is you’re really saying!”
I thought there might have been a Juice Bar counterpart, but was hoping that Bulk would be the proprietor so that he could feature into the story more than in “Samurai”, maybe even recount some old stories. Alas, no. Instead Ernie and Mr. Burley, are the supporting regulars. That covers the rangers off hours at play and at school, with the later probably filling in any role Professor Amachi had in the original Sentai.
Theres has been no reference to a city name. I was hoping we’d be back in Angel Grove, especially given the theme of the original Sentai was Angels, but we’ll just have to wait and see.
We’re off to a decent start, the next couple of weeks will be telling though.
Some isolated thoughts:
ReplyDelete- I wonder if it was an intentional move by the producers *not* to change the little details from the Sentai footage like retexting all of the Gosei cards. Since this was technically impossible during MMPR, it's almost a homage or in-joke on the production side of things, especially since the folks at the top now were there when it all began 20 years ago.
- I liked how the writers departed from Day of the Dumpster by *not* having the Rangers initially reject their duties like the original five. (And the way they did it - by having Emma see the threat and photograph it *before* ever getting teleported into Command Center Mark 3.0 - was both creative and indicative that they are going to at least try to address one of the biggest flaws from Samurai in that the stories were often lifted word-for-word from the Sentai a little bit too cleanly.)
- Demerits, though, for the blatant copy of Kimberly's infamous closing moment from DOTD - not for the copy itself, but for the fact that they gave it to the *wrong* character. They established pretty clearly that Gia is the glamorous girl every guy wants and Emma is a BMX rider chick; who's more likely to be bothered by having her hair stuffed into a helmet? C'mon, writers, let's not insult little kids' intelligence here; it didn't *have* to be a Pink Ranger delivering a Pink Ranger's line, and the way it played out felt very forced.
many should have notice, when gosei talks about jake, the screen background is actually green instead of black (costume change for season 2?)
ReplyDeleteant, yes I noticed the green. I think it is an indicator. I really want them to use the gokaiger suits. But FuryDiamond of Rangercrew says his source tells him the Goseiger suits will be used.
ReplyDeleteI thoroughly enjoyed the episode. I was surprised. After watching Samurai, I honestly didn't know what to expect out of Megaforce, but I can say that while the episode had a few things that bugged me, I honestly had a blast watching it. The shoutouts to MMPR and Day of the Dumpster were great and I wasn't too bothered by the similarities between the two episodes.
ReplyDeleteI found it sort of strange that they didn't show much of Troy for most of the episode. I figured much of the time would be focused on him, but instead, it seemed like the attention was toward the other rangers. That, and his personality so far just seems so...bland. Like all the Red Rangers before him.
The fight scene with the grunts I thought was well done. Those who could fight like Troy did so, while others (namely Noah, who in the particular scene had been laughing with all his running) had to improvise.
The things that bugged me were the cards from Goseiger. It was almost jarring to me that they blatantly used the Japanese cards, as if kids wouldn't notice the differing names. Was it too much trouble for them to use the American ones? That, and I don't think I'm going to like this new Ernie too much...
All in all, I liked the episode. Can't wait for the next one and I really do hope they end up using the Gokaiger suits for Super Megaforce.
Here are my thoughts on how they did on adapting so far:
ReplyDeleteThe writing after the dream sequence was the greatest part of the episode.
Visual effects are good the way they are.
Wonderful cast. Fair selection so far. Just the first episode. Nothing special.
They didn't cut out the original wording in the cards. It's ridiculous to edit it out. It's written in English already.
Why cut out something from the original source? That's demerit and already noticeable that it was edited with a quick search.
The transformation though? Again, liked that they didn't edit out the original wording. Not like "Goseiger" was put out there. The vocabulary "Gosei" is essential and crucial to the whole of it. The Megazord's name is "Gosei Great Megazord". There's nothing to cut out from it.
Cards? Again, don't edit it. Keep it. It's fine the way it is. It's ruined if all the cards need editing.
Attack cries and battle cry for weapons? Good. Very good! They actually used attack cries in place of the words on the cards. For TV aired things, shouting things out like "Sky-Ick, Land-Ick, Sea-Ick" or "Knight-Ick" Power, can really get messy with complaints or mishearing.
Things to be mad and really mad about are the Legend War.
The trailer shown had the previous Sentai teams, all 34 fighting. The episode featured select shots of the ones known in the States. Really disappointing.
Although it was also stated that re-filming would occur, it's disappointing.
This is a cash cow Saban has a chance to chase. And it's blown in favor of "continuity". Errors always existed up until Gokaiger decided to somehow retcon every, single, little, thing. Like how Black Condor/Gai died, and returned.
Or Abare Killer/Nakadai Mikoto, Time Fire, and Dragon Ranger can still fight alongside their teams. Continuity errors always exist, but not always intentional.
Also. Did anyone else felt Samurai left out "Power Rider"? There was a mention of bring "Kamen Rider" Decade as 'Power Rider'.
I rewatched Samurai. No sign of the Decade suit used. Nor a shade of an outline from the episodes.
It's great that Saban wants to adapt Power Rider. But the whole thing most likely will be a repeat of "Masked Rider".
Let Kamen Rider fall into fan hands like Wang Bros. and other companies out there, similar to Adness Entertainment.
Final thoughts? Looking forward to episode 2. Go Go Megaforce!
Also. I think it's best the Gokaiger suits used in a separate season from Megaforce. It's for the best reasons. Plus, it will take a lot more time to re-film than adapt fight/stock footage.