Welcome to my “Hey Let’s Remember Back a Few Months to Silver Lining” Re-Cap Article!
Below I am going to share with you my opinions of both parts of the previous two episodes of Super Megaforce.
What I’ve been doing for the past two seasons is reviewing and recapping the final episodes after the hiatus / before the return to give us a little refresher without summarizing the entire episode! Below are some of my thoughts about the episode in which I hope to refresh you on what was good and what was bad before Super Megaforce returns on August 30th!
Who is this person? Orion’s initial entrance was very well delivered except for the fact that the Rangers and Gosei are completely confused as to who could be doing this? Doesn’t Gosei know that the 6th Super Megaforce Key is out there? The Rangers even say that no one has power like they do to be able to douse the X-Borgs like that, Umm…20 previous years say otherwise.
Long Long Megaforce Morph, I don’t know about you but I am severely tired of these Megaforce morphs. I am even tired of repeating that to you right now because I know I’ve said it numerous times before. These are clearly time wasters to eat up time, which annoys me because many more events could be taking place to pay homage to other seasons. Fights, themes, Morphs! The full Megaforce morph is used in this episode. Really?!
What a waste of original US Footage!
Original Lost Galaxy Footage, Regardless of what I said about wasted footage, the Lost Galaxy morph is pretty epic. Not only do we get this original footage but the Rangers actually use the Galaxy Rangers’ Trans Daggers and attack! Now that is pretty awesome! Jake even took out a Quasar Saber and used that! Not to mention that the suits and helmets look amazing!
I will concede that this footage is amazingly added to this episode, it only saddens me by what was taken out from the Sentai.
A scene including an all 6th Ranger Change was cut out of this episode because I suppose it wouldn’t have made sense since it hadn’t yet been established that 6th Ranger Keys exists, but it’s still sad to see it not included.
The Silver Spear, While the Silver Ranger’s arsenal is super mega impressive, I am a little concerned with the writing team when they call an obvious trident a spear. This gives me flashbacks to Samurai when they turned an obvious Shamisen into a Harmonium.
However, the footage used makes up for these mistakes when we first see Orion’s Final Strike and his fancy footwork with the “Spear” itself!
Orion of Andrasia, When the Rangers first meet Orion for real we get our first look at Andrasia, Orion’s home planet!
Orion explains that his planet was much like Earth and that it was destroyed by the Armada. Here we get to see not only a reason why the Armada is badder than we think, but Orion’s story grows us closer to a Ranger we’ve just met. Something the writers actually accomplished this season.
I was a little perturbed why, being a 21st Anniversary Season, no planets already mentioned in the Power Rangers Universe were used.
This would’ve been a fantastic opportunity to use KO-35 again. Onyx or even a tie into Lost Galaxy with the use of Mirinoi.
Orion meets Tensou and Gosei, It was a rather warm welcome into the Command Center when the Rangers brought Orion to Gosei.
It was cute but rather strange how Tensou began speaking in Andrasian, a language that was not shown to be spoken on Andrasia. Orion spoke English during the flashbacks we’ve seen so this barely made any sense. But nonetheless, it was cute.
Here, Gosei attempts to explain how he didn’t know a Silver Ranger existed, Because he believed the Key and Morpher had been destroyed along with Andrasia. Very convenient, Gosei! At least we got that explanation.
Also, am I the only one bothered by a few scenes later when the Rangers show Orion how to locate the Command Center? I mean, what happened to teleportation in the first episode of Megaforce?
But, I must say how cute is Noah’s interest in Orion, not to mention Jake’s jealousy!
Orion Finds his Key and Morpher, As Orion was a miner on his home planet, it made sense for him to find it while digging. It was a tad bit lazy considering the Sentai explanation, but I digress.
I found it a little strange that even though Orion’s pickax could not break the crystal container, he somehow was able to free both the Morpher and the Key with no explanation. Something Super Megaforce is famous for.
Although, I will admit that the flashbacks with the Legendary 6th Rangers helped move the story along adding epicness to the scene, but still I suppose I wanted more.
Let’s not forget how Orion got off of Andrasia, he shot and Armada ship down with a slingshot. Yeah, I’ll leave it at that…
Orion’s Backstory, including the flashback scenes, were very well executed. Original footage that was not seen in Gokaiger was used for this sequence and I am not shy in saying that this backstory is one of the better written and visualized original scene in the Neo-Saban era so far. I’m sure it actually cost a pretty penny to CG the Armada Ships into the New Zealand landscape AND create a ship for Orion to fly to Earth.
When Orion realizes that his entire family and friends have been wiped out Cameron Jebo actually gives a heart-wrenching reaction and I’m sure that his “Nooo!” will go down as one of the best among many.
It was original, different and told a story that we desperately needed in order to warm up to Orion. Even his vow of revenge was perfectly displayed in both acting and voice over.
Sadly, other explanations and writing opportunities seem to have been sacrificed in order for this to work.
The Makeover Scene, While Troy, Jake and Noah attempt to understand what Orion’s Morpher may do Gia and Emma take Orion for a little makeover.
You know what that means?! MAKEOVER MONTAGE!
I have to say, while Samurai’s montage was similar, I feel like this montage is MUCH better and adds the comedy of Orion’s facial expressions as well. The girls put him in some seriously hideous outfits until they stumble upon his signature silver jacket (that I would kill to own in real life!)
Cameron Jebo is surely shining in his first two episodes in not only dramatic but comedic timing as well. I see a bright future ahead of us when he finishes out the season.
The All Samurai Change, Another missed opportunity. Maybe it’s the Gokaiger lover in me, but one of the funniest jokes in Gokaiger was GokaiSilver getting the Key wrong in this scene. GokaiRed tells him to use the Rangers “with the Kanji on the face” so he accidentally uses the KingRanger aka Gold Zeo Ranger Key! Hilarious!
But this was skipped and instead the morph works correctly. That’s cool, I guess.
6th Ranger Keys, Oh look! Suddenly keys that were never there are there now! Now now, we could say that Orion unlocked the 6th Ranger Keys and that’s why they appeared randomly on the wall. Or we could not explain it at all, yep that seems to work.
But let’s talk about the effect for a moment. The minute you see the 6th Ranger Keys glowing, MMPR Green/Quantum/White Dino Thunder it is very exciting even though you get no backstory really.
Intro of the Q-Rex Megazord, Oh here we go again, miss opportunities. The Q-Rex Megazord, bearing the same name from Time Force was also said in the dialogue to come from Time Force and was shown visually in the Year 3000. Now how hard would it have been to ask someone from the Time Force cast to do a voice over or film a small cameo outside of New Zealand to be used for this intro? Jason Faunt was in New Zealand filming the Legendary Battle! Why not ask him for a voice over as Alex? So sad, would’ve been great.
As for the Q-Rex itself I absolutely love the fact that it is powered by the powers of MMPR, Dino Thunder and Time Force and the footage here is beautiful!
Prince Vekar, I feel like every time I do a review of Super Megaforce I have to mention how much I love Prince Vekar. If I could come back at the end of this season and say one character, that was not a Ranger, was my favorite it would have to be Prince Vekar.
Plus, in this episode he said one of his most famous lines to date!
“Who Told You You Can Be Taller Than Me?!”
Final Thoughts
With the exception of “Samurai Surprise” & “Spirit of the Tiger” this two parter is the best that Super Megaforce has to offer!
I am really hoping that with the remaining episodes we see this similar style.
As I’ve said earlier in this recap/review I am really disappointed with the missed opportunities, deleted Sentai scenes that really would make the episode & the lack of explanation of certain things. We got a huge backstory for Orion which we did not see similar for Antonio or RoboKnight which I applaud the writers for, but there were explanations that were sacrificed. I know many Gokaiger fans were sad that the 6th Rangers didn’t pass on their Powers to Orion directly. But this cannot be helped now.
I can say that even though certain Sentai footage was cut out, what we got in return was decent. The Lost Galaxy scenes were beautiful and so was Orion’s scenes on Andrasia. As it should be, Cameron Jebo as Orion shined the most throughout these episodes and I hope that he continues to do so in future episodes.
Based on these last two episodes I do have a little faith that Super Megaforce’s last half will be at least entertaining. It’s been hit or miss so far!
Scores:
Story: 10/10
Action: 9/10
Monsters: 7/10
All Together: 8.6/10