Featured TV on DVD Review: Power Rangers: Megaforce: The Mysterious Robo Knight
January 8, 2014
Power Rangers: Megaforce: The Mysterious Robo Knight - Buy from Amazon
Megaforce is the follow-up to Super Samurai and the latest incarnation of the Power Rangers. I was never a fan of this franchise growing up, but there have been some installments that I liked. (Most notable would be RPM.) Can this version improve upon the Super Samurai installment? Can it approach RPM in terms of quality?
While this is the first DVD from Megaforce I've reviewed, it is the second DVD released for this installment. The first was Ultimate Team Power, which I didn't get a screener for. I don't think the plot will be too confusing to catch up to.
It's the usual Power Rangers setup. There's a force trying to destroy the Earth, in this case it is an alien army called The Warstar Empire led by Admiral Malkor. He has two generals, a competent one, Vrak, and an idiot, Creepox. With their arrival, an ancient power, Gosei, summons a new generation of Power Rangers to fight the bad guys. There's the Red Ranger, Troy Burrows (Andrew Gray), the leader. There's the Blue Ranger, Noah Carver (John Mark Loudermilk), a tech head. The Yellow Ranger, Gia Moran (Ciara Hanna), who is a type A personality, but also a really good friend, especially with the Pink Ranger. The Pink Ranger, Emma Goodall (Christina Masterson), who is the outdoors type and environmentally aware. Finally there's the Black Ranger, Jake Holling (Azim Rizk), who is the athletic type.
Nearly all episodes begin with Admiral Malkor getting a new ally, who attempts to take out the Power Rangers with a wide variety of plans, these plans fail, so they use Zombats to turn the villain huge and the fight begins anew. The episodes start with...
There are no extras on the DVD, but the DVD comes with a Mega Blocks figure for the Red Ranger.
Power Rangers: Megaforce is the better than most Power Rangers shows are and arguably the second best I've reviewed. There are no extras on the The Mysterious Robo Knight DVD, but the package comes with a figure, while the price-per-minute is acceptable for this type of release. Fans of the franchise will likely want to pick it up.
The Show
This is the first time I've seen Megaforce and while I don't think it is as good as RPM (I liked the self-aware humor in that series), this is still one of the better incarnations of the Power Rangers I've seen. In fact, it might be the second best of the ones I've reviewed, behind just RPM. While the action and the plot are repetitive, that's a hallmark of the series. The characters are better written this time around and the acting is certainly better than in most installments of this franchise. If you are a fan of the franchise, it is certainly worth checking out.
A queen bee, Beezara, comes to Earth to enslave all of the men with her Royal Jelly. On the other hand, her Royal Jelly will cause all of the women to fight each other. Her first targets are Gia and Emma. This is even more tragic, as their long friendship allows them to fight so effectively as a team.
Admiral Malkor sends Dizchord, whose power is music, really loud, and really, really bad music. The first attack shakes up the Power Rangers so much that any loud music causes them to have a painful headache. When Vrak comes to act as backup, things look dire, except the Power Rangers have a surprise secret weapon.
The episode begins with Troy standing up to two bullies. He doesn't let them get to him, but when they pick on a smaller kid, he intervenes. Meanwhile, Vrak goads Creepox into attacking the Power Rangers. Clearly he wants Creepox out of the way.
Now that Creepox is gone, Vrak is in charge of recruiting a couple of Earth mutants, Bluefur and Bigs, to join their cause. However, the Power Rangers might also get a new recruit, the titular Robo Knight. The Extras
The Verdict
- Submitted by: C.S.Strowbridge
Filed under: Video Review, Ciara Hanna, Christina Masterson