When the season started, it felt good to be excited for PR again... to actually WANT to talk about it. Besides RPM (which is pretty much in a league of its own) it was the most decent start to a season since Jungle Fury.
The MMPR references got to be a little much but "MEGA MISSION" was night and day to Samurai. And I enjoy the theme. Yeah, the cut to the Samurai
portion in the beginning is bad and the roll call is stupid but I feel
like they did enough with the new parts. I like how MEGAFORCE is
emphasized throughout and "Go Go Power Rangers" works better being the
20th anniversary. "Rangers Forever, Megaforce Altogether" is an
improvement and has more bite than the Samurai Forever tagline. I like the way they incorporated shots of the war & other clips and I can forgive the
blandness of the logo for dropping the gold lightning bolt. It still pumps me up for the episode, even now that we're well in the season.
With "HE BLASTED ME WITH SCIENCE" I liked the approach they took with the focus on science and the
Insectoids wanting to study the human race. Goseiger footage was
utilized pretty well. Enjoyed the return of the sentai cockpit footage. Also this had some great foreshadowing. Finally, the writers seem to know what they're
doing and (presumably) where they're going.
"GOING VIRAL" further continued to make the Rangers look like real high school teenagers and had one of my absolute favorite moments ever, when Emma asked Gia about Jake's crush. I thought Jake with the axe at school felt very PR-ish to me and there were some great lines, especially at the end. Also I liked the original footage and the matching.
It was kinda weird when Noah tore down the cement block and the
civilians just casually walked away. And a quick line from Gosei about
how they'll earn new zords would've been nice.
4/5 for all 3 episodes. It seemed like we were on a roll, until things started to take a turn in "STRANGER RANGER" with fight scenes than began to get closer to Goseiger.
Troy vs Creepox was good but I couldn't get past how
watered down this was from Alata's training and pushing himself to
master the bars. I did like that Troy got the group training going,
however learning to use their senses was just OK. I felt like they kinda
pushed it when the Rangers could tell Jordan was approaching and they
had time to morph.
And with Jordan acting like he was a Ranger, you'd think someone would've
asked to see his morpher. Also I liked we still got some Gia/Jake in the episode to setup the Land Bros intro.
"UNITED WE STAND" got weird in parts between Beezara making the guys her slaves and some odd Goseiger moments, otherwise it was a decent episode for the girls. And the Sky Brothers got the best intro so far.
I looked forward to "HARMONY AND DIZCHORD" to see how they'd recreate the plot from
Goseiger but I wouldn't have expected it'd become Samurai-level translating. I liked Emma's song and it was an improvement over Eri's I thought. Having Troy and Emma have a stronger reaction than the others made no sense since they haven't really touched on the Rangers elements.
Things got better in "WHO'S CRYING NOW?" which had some pretty awesome fight scenes with Creepox. Troy facing the bullies should've happened sooner but it was still a decent plot to go with the action. The morphing got excessive and they could've cut back on the action a bit, and done more with bullies. Why were Troy, Emma and Jake so late to the fight?
3/5 for the next couple episodes (which kinda hurts) and 4/5 for "WHO'S CRYING NOW?". I wanted to be generous but there is a decline in episode quality. Plus there have been no command center scenes since the premiere, Troy is pretty emotionless and Emma looks like is taking after Emily in Samurai. Ciara Hanna is easily the best actor since RPM and the Gia/Jake plotline is a saving grace.
Check me out on Ranger Bar Radio for more in-depth discussion on all things Megaforce.
