Well here we go! This is my first Power Rangers Megaforce episode review and I am pretty excited! First of all I have to say that this episode lived up to every expectation I had for the series. There was so much Mighty Morphin’ Fan Service while also supplying us with ample knowledge of who the Rangers are as people. Many PR seasons throughout the last twenty years haven’t really set up the Rangers because they were busy attempting to escalate the battle to the Zords. In this episode we got to know who each of the Rangers are, how they become Rangers, how they fight and kick ass and the episode ends. AND we got to see Episode 1 first! LOL. Fabulous, it make me wanting more and I cannot wait to see episode 2 so that we can see the Mechazords and the Gosei Great Megazord in action. So let’s go through the story!
The story opens on Troy’s dream of what we all know is the Mega-War (or Legend War as we also know it) for some of us it seemed that this would be all we would see of the Mega War, but THAT IS NOT THE CASE. Obviously the writers are setting us up for future episodes or even the finale of this season where the ultimate battle must take place. Otherwise, why is Troy dreaming about it? It’s a premonition.
As we’ve all come to know is that the Rangers this season (the first time in 8 years) takes place in a High School. We first meet Emma, Gia, Jake and Noah in class answering a question about which species will survive all others. Emma insists it’s going to be insects, while Noah thinks she is “wrong wrong wrong” and that it will be robots. LOL.
In this scene we get a sense of how much of a badass Gia is, how into nature (and apparently insects) Emma is, Noah seems like a bit of an adorable know-it-all and Jake seems to be the cool headed jock type.
Eventually Troy joins the classroom and suggest that humans will be the species to survive because we can overcome anything. An awesome line for a Red Ranger to make.
This was one of my favorite scenes because it establishes that Gia and Emma are great friends. The two of them plan to meet at Ernie’s after Emma takes some pictures of Monarch Butterflies in the woods. Gia even knows which drink she prefers and makes a joke about hot fudge. I love them already.
Before this scene we first meet Admiral Malkor and his servant Creepox who are scoping out Earth. It was a small and subdued intro to the Villains. I want to know more!
Instantly we get to know Jake and Noah and it is again established what great friends they are as well. I love their relationship and Azim and John Mark seem to be able to deliver this very well. Maybe they are good friends in real life? As we are quickly establishing things we get to be familiar with Jake’s affection towards Gia. First, in the classroom when he calls her “Beautiful and Smart,” and then he can’t keep his eyes off of her in the hallway. Later he heads back into the classroom and grabs Noah so they can follow her to Ernie’s.
Gosei awakens and tells Tensou that an evil is coming and Aliens have already landed on Earth.
He calls upon Tensou to find him “The most energetic and unstoppable group that exemplifies the enduring human spirit.” AKA Teenagers.
Tensou, like Alpha 5, seems to not enjoy this idea.
The Rangers head to Ernie’s Brain Freeze where Jake and Noah get some ice cream cones. Yes, Gia is there and yes Jake can’t take his eyes off of her while she simply does some homework.
There were a lot of MMPR references in this episode and I actually really enjoyed that the Rangers hang out at Ernie’s Brain Freeze. However, I am not a huge fan of “Ernie”. In fact I kinda find it disrespectful to the memory of Richard Genelle who played the original Ernie and passed away in 2008. I accept and love the idea of Ernie’s Brain Freeze, but why name the owner Ernie again? It was in poor taste. They could’ve given him a different name and I probably would have liked the character a little more. It just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. This was probably one of the only few things I did not like.
The Rangers get teleported to the new Command Center and Jake ruins his ice cream, awwww. Before that though, I really liked how they were teleported. The graphics were really cool and I loved seeing Troy practicing his martial arts all alone on the top of a building. Random, but cool.
Gosei explains what is going on and how they’ve been chosen to save the world in the long tradition of the Power Rangers.
Many of you must be wondering what I thought of Tensou. I actually really like him, I think he’s cute with just enough sass mouth to make him likeable. Does he compare to Alpha? Of course not, but I think he’s pretty cool even though he looks like a mix between Wall-E and Johnny 5.
What is so cool about this Command Center is that there what we’ve come to call “Ranger Keys” of each Team of Rangers adorning the walls. So Cool, right? We’ve been speculating about this for so long and it is so awesome to see them. I just really want to know what kind of role they will play either in this season or in Super Megaforce. With an awesome close-up of the Red Time Force Ranger Key, Troy flashes back to his dream! More set up!
Gosei explains why each of them were chosen, each for different skills and personality traits. He gives them their Gosei Morphers and sends them quickly into Battle. Now, in Goseiger I had a dislike for the Tensouder because it was so bulky and at first it was just so weird looking for me. Now, that it is on Power Rangers (and I have the toy) I love it a lot actually. I also loved all of the tiki references both Noah and Jake made when they first saw Gosei.
We actually got a pretty badass unmorphed fight as the Rangers stumble upon a pack of Loogies picking on citizens. A lot of the Rangers used their personalities to face the Loogies which I liked a lot. Noah seemed to avoid the fight just as Billy had in MMPR and was instead fixated on how fascinating the Loogies were. Emma snapped photos of them with her camera, Jake uses his soccer ball too! Gia and Troy seemed just to be awesome enough with their martial arts to take on the new Space Aliens.
The Rangers use their Gosei Morphers and morph with a fantastic morphing sequence that I just can’t get enough of watching!
I’ve said it seems like a mix of Samurai, SPD and Wild Force! LOVE LOVE LOVE
The Rangers use their Power Cards to call on their weapons and even combine attacks which was very cool. The Goseiger footage looks really good here spliced in with US Footage.
The War Star Aliens send down a monster to test out the Rangers’ skills. Basically this monster was super useless. It threw one attack at the Rangers and rolled around on a giant rock ball. He was destroyed by this:
The Megaforce Blaster looks cooler to me for some reason here. I don’t know why. Basically the useless monster was destroyed and the Rangers’ first battle was won!
Ranger Analysis based on Episode 1
Troy, was a little stiff at first. But I think that Andrew Gray has a lot of potential as a Red Ranger. He seems brave, determined and can kick a Loogie’s ass! But, I want to know more about him. He seems to be a very deep character but in the first episode we didn’t get much of a glimpse! I want more, and I am sure we will get it!
Emma, I really liked her. She seemed smart and ambitious and I don’t remember many other photographers in Power Rangers. Her relationship with Gia has so much potential for buddy episodes. While, I thought it was cool she used Kimberly’s line at the end of the episode I don’t think that Christina Masterson delivered it right, or maybe the editors used the wrong take. It could have been better but I still liked it all in all.
Noah, he seems to be getting a lot of dislike among the Power Ranger fans but I absolutely love John Mark’s portrayal of Noah! He is intelligent, not played like Billy, but intelligent and is all around cute. He just is. Looks wise and personality wise. Even when he was raising his hand against Emma it was still adorkable. I mean come one! “She is wrong wrong wrong!”
Gia, she just seems like really awesome character. I’ve said it before but Gia is a badass. She doesn’t need the other Rangers to save her like other Female Rangers we have had in the past, she can take care of herself. Beautiful and confident, it doesn’t seem like she even notices or cares that Jake is drooling all over her, because she doesn’t have too. I can’t wait to see some Gia focus episodes!
Jake, last but not least. If you have followed my site at all you know how much I love Jake. This episode just made me love Jake even more. Not only is he very good looking but his character is athletic, hopelessly in love, a soccer star AND he has a huge witty comeback or comment for every situation. Jake is another character, like Mike in Samurai, that is going to shine through past the others. Basically, in my book anyways.
WarStar, while the suits are really cool and the insect motif is going to be pretty awesome for the show, I wish we had gotten to know more about the villains in this episode! I didn’t really see a threat from them and their monster seemed pretty lame. I really want to know more about Vrak! His character, based on the description, seems pretty interesting. Plus how are they going to connect this to Gokaiger footage? Did anyone else notice that they show his final form in the intro? A final note, I can’t stand Creepox’s voice.
Final Thoughts
I am in love with Megaforce so far. Yes, it’s only episode 1 and how can I even have an opinion yet? Well I just do. I never felt this way about Samurai. I did enjoy it but I never had the urge to watch the episode over and over again. I’ve watched “Mega Mission” 6 times so far and after this is posted I am most likely going to watch it again! I highly recommend seeing this episode even if you didn’t watch Samurai. In fact if you were turned off by Samurai and stopped watching, COME BACK! You won’t be sorry!
Episode Scores
Story: 9/10
Action: 9/10
Monster: 6/10
All Together: 10/10
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