Review: Ranking the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Films

Review: Ranking the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Films

With 3 films to hit the big screen in the Power Rangers franchise, I give my personal ranking with the pros and cons of each film. List your rankings (if you have one) after reading!

Review Opinion
By Dead2009 - Jun 06, 2017 01:06 PM EST
Filed Under: Power Rangers

Since it's been forever that a blog has been done, I figured it was time to write about the film franchise that was spawned from the hit tv series Power Rangers. The film franchise (so far) has spawned 3 movies (MMPR, Turbo and the reboot) and somehow, some way, the reboot was the best of them all. I'm gonna do this ranking a little bit different with a pro and con system to make it smoother and you all can let me know if it's better this way, or the way before. Let's begin:

3. Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie


Pros: The film is pretty much the first episode of the season, with them showing why Rocky wasn't in the tv series (if people hadn't seen this film by the time the season actually aired), the Zord fight, Elgar being a jackass and the 2 cameos from Kimberly and Jason. Oh yeah, and a snoring Lord Zedd, haha.
 
Cons: Lerigot, for the simple fact that he's some sort of powerful wizard but he gives in way too easily to Divatox and her band of goons when it came to his significant other and their child. Also, the lack of Zeo interaction. We see Kat partially morph when she jumps into the river and then the suit just disappears. Maligore having the roar from the T-Rex in Jurassic Park. Like, could you not of created a different roar for this villain? Surprised Universal didn't bring the hammer down on them for that one. Also, sleeping Lord Zedd.....

2. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie


Pros: The amount of Ranger battles, morphed and unmorphed (way more than Turbo's what...2?), the movie version of Lord Zedd looking incredible, as well as Ivan Ooze. If it weren't for the makeup that came with creating that character, I'm sure he would of found his way into season 3 instead of Master Vile. Also the amount of story telling in the film, we had 3 going at the same time...the Rangers looking for the Ninja powers, Ivan Ooze's rivalry with Zordon and the kids trying to save their parents thing from the evil goo that engulfed their parents. Lastly the costumes...those looked well on film but didn't translate well to the toys. 
 
Cons: The Zords. I get they were trying to go for a different look seeing as this film is completely different from the 2nd and 3rd season of the show....but all metallic? Plus the Ninja Megazord when fully formed, looked like a transformer. Not a big fan. Not to mention the movie toy of the Megazord didn't even look like the one from the film...it was the one from the tv show. Also Mordant...another character that for some reason didn't make it's way into the show, probably for a good reason.

3. Power Rangers

Pros: An original story. Instead of Zordon just randomly choosing 5 teenagers, the teenagers found the powers themselves, and thus turned into Teen Titans with dinozords. Rita Repulsa being dark in this movie and actually trying to kill the Rangers blew me away because I thought this was supposed to be a kids movie. Goldar didn't bother me as much as I thought he would, and he served his purpose well as the big monster at the end of the film.
 
Cons: Funko essentially spoiling the beginning of the movie with their Rita/Zordon POP set. Without spoiling it in this post, they give away a kinda major plot point involving the 2. The lack of Ranger battles takes me back to Turbo where there weren't many as well, and the Rangers having their faces shown while using the Dinozords. 
 
What would your order be? Would you rank them the same way as I did? Or would you tweak them a little bit. Let me know in the comments below!

POWER RANGERS Series Dead At Netflix; Hasbro Seeking New Partner With A Different Creative Vision
Related:

POWER RANGERS Series Dead At Netflix; Hasbro Seeking New Partner With A Different Creative Vision

POWER RANGERS: The Original Blue Ranger Is Back In Netflix's Upcoming Season 30 COSMIC FURY
Recommended For You:

POWER RANGERS: The Original Blue Ranger Is Back In Netflix's Upcoming Season 30 COSMIC FURY

DISCLAIMER: As a user generated site and platform, ComicBookMovie.com is protected under the DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act) and "Safe Harbor" provisions.

This post was submitted by a user who has agreed to our Terms of Service and Community Guidelines. ComicBookMovie.com will disable users who knowingly commit plagiarism, piracy, trademark or copyright infringement. Please CONTACT US for expeditious removal of copyrighted/trademarked content. CLICK HERE to learn more about our copyright and trademark policies.

Note that ComicBookMovie.com, and/or the user who contributed this post, may earn commissions or revenue through clicks or purchases made through any third-party links contained within the content above.

ThouBear8
ThouBear8 - 6/8/2017, 3:37 AM
1.MMPR: The Movie - Yes many aspects of this movie don't age well (the zord battle technology in particular). & yes it is cheesy as hell, & a lot of my love for it is based in nostalgia. But the movie is a lot of fun, & through much of my childhood, was one of my absolute favorite movies. The new suits were huge improvements over the show's spandex, it had an actual coherent story with stakes (Zordon dies, kinda), & much of the acting was an improvement over the show as well.

Unfortunately, because of the contract disputes, Jason, Trini, & Zach don't get to appear in this film, but the others (Rocky, Aisha, & Adam) do better to replace them here than they do on the show. Lord Zedd is always great, & Ivan Ooze was a fantastic new villain created specifically for this movie. This movie may not stand the test of time all that well, but it's still a good time to this day.

2.Power Rangers (2017) - I actually enjoyed this film a lot more than I expected, & I seriously considered putting it at #1, until I thought about how much the original film meant to me growing up. This is probably the better film (between this & the original), & if they get to do a sequel (with the Green with Evil story presumably), it almost certainly will be the best Power Rangers film of all time. The suits looked great in action, as did the zords (except for maybe the mastodon, which curiously looked more like a giant beetle), but we don't see as much of either as I'd like.

There is a lot of build up, & some of it feels a bit slow, but the payoff is worth it 100%. When the 5 zords were running side by side, & they played the original "Go Go Power Rangers", suddenly I was a kid again. One of the biggest feelings of joy I've had in a theater in a while. The surprisingly scary Rita shouting "make my monster grow" was another welcome surprise to me. Some of the characters weren't developed that much, & the very first "it's morphin' time" left a bit to be desired, but those are both issues that would probably be resolved in a sequel. I like the balance they found of paying tribute to the original while making it their own, & I really hope they'll get to do more.







3.Turbo - This is a distant third place out of three. I enjoyed this movie some when it came out, but it's inferior to the other 2 in basically every way. If it gets bonus points for anything, it's probably that it actually features the original red ranger, Jason (Austin St. John). Including him & Kimberly together for the first time since early season 2 of MMPR was a great decision.

The new suits are decent I guess, & the zords are fine, but neither feels like an improvement to anything from before. Especially if the last thing one watched beforehand was the original series, not Zeo (like myself). Tommy gets good spotlight in this (of course), & Adam gets some time to shine too, but one of the biggest issues is the transition from Rocky as the blue ranger, to Justin, a child. Even as a kid, I remember thinking, "this is so stupid". That's a jump the shark idea, even for Power Rangers.
View Recorder