Sunday, January 24, 2016

Dino Charge first-half wrap-up

The season continued on with more straight up good episodes... Nothing too spectacular but much better than anything from the past couple years. Ivan becoming Gold Ranger was solid (along with the buildup to it and flashbacks), and putting together his own Knights of Amber Beach for a minute was funny. I liked the classic style plot of Bones "removing" courage in the form of backbones.

Chase had another decent focus episode and Prince Phillip had a fun episode becoming Graphite Ranger. The Rangers trip to New Zealand was alright. I liked Albert's episode and how they showcased the Purple Energem but then got kinda bored with the Dr. Runga plot.

Really enjoyed Heckyl's debut, especially as it would serve as sort of a setup for him to break free and takeover for Sledge (who I have to assume will return seeking revenge either before Dino Super Charge ends or in a teamup with Ninja Steel). Lastly, it was great to have an actual mid-season finale again. Kendall finally earning Purple, the zord fight and girls teaming up were done well. I loved how Tyler said the catch phrase as he was about to take the plunge off the ship. But the pacing got kinda out of hand and I thought they could've done some thing differently, like having a longer fight on the ship, or if Tyler had deliberately destroyed the console to send the ship to Earth to wipe out the prisoners. I also didn't really care for Get-bot as an easy plot device to get the Red Energem under the console, or how we probably won't ever see Kendall making sure no monsters survived.

Grades: "WHEN LOGIC FAILS/"THE ROYAL RANGERS" 4/5, "BREAK OUT" 5/5,  "KNIGHT AFTER KNIGHTS" through "WORLD FAMOUS! (In New Zealand" 4/5, "DEEP DOWN UNDER" 3/5, "WISHING FOR A HERO" 5/5 and "ONE LAST ENERGEM" 4/5. And for more, check out shyranger.com.