That’s not the Zord we’re looking for. Thank you Hollywood for ruining our childhoods. Wasn’t the point of making a Power Rangers film is to bring back a little nostalgia? Then why ruin it? Did some Hollywood suit drug Haim Saban to get him to approve of their goth take on the Power Rangers especially their new goth Megazord? It’s a horrible abomination compared to all the Megazords that came before it.
The Power Rangers is a long-running TV series that continues to this day as long as Japan produces Super Sentai series. At any point since the series was first released, most movie audiences would have seen an incarnation of the series as a child. There was the original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, which the new movie is based on, then Power Rangers Zeo, Power Rangers Turbo, Wild Force, Samurai, SPD, Dino Charge, the list goes on. The Power Rangers are made up of three to five teenagers with special qualities which are often positive, meant to be role models to their kid audiences while from time to time there’s a misbehaved misfit, but not the entire team. Then there’s the Zords and Megazords of the series which are always fun to watch, though when CGI became heavily used for action sequences, those battles quickly became lame, at least for this author.
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Call me old-fashioned as I grew up watching super robots like Getter Robot, Daimos, Voltes V and the all-time favorite Voltron. Seeing those shows, you’d have to wonder what they’d be like in non-cartoon form and we got that from super sentai and tokusatsu shows like Chodenshi Bioman, Hikari Sentai Maskman, Chojin Sentai Jetman, X-Bomber and Space Sheriff Shaider. There’s a certain satisfaction seeing them form into a man-in-suit robot fighting another man-in-suit robot or man-in-suit monster. It’s even more fun seeing their individual components fight the enemy first and getting their ass handed to them before combining, much like Voltron. There’s a greater sense of realism and a little silliness when watching costumed robot versus monster fights enhanced with practical effects. Thanks to Haim Saban, the US got to enjoy such fights in the form of Power Rangers and other metal hero shows.
However, along with extensive CGI effects, the Megazord designs also became more and more ridiculous as the robots looked too heavy and bulky for practical purposes. Also, what’s the point of making them humanoid if they have arms with no hands? Anyway, some designs look great while some designs don’t and while this new design looks streamlined, it’s no Megazord. It doesn’t look like any robot of old with small thighs and large feet and lower legs like all Megazords that came before it.
We get that it’s supposed to be modern and heavy reliance on CG will give this Megazord all that folding/converting ability to have a more humanoid look. The new Megazord looks more like the newer, more complex giant robots featured in Evangelion and Aquarion. It also looks more organic resembling the robot suits in Escaflowne and the Magic Knights in Rayearth. It just doesn’t look like a Zord worthy of a sentai show/film. Could these be what they’re gunning for?
When I saw the first Power Rangers film, my eyes hurt even I saw their awful CGI Megazord. I wasn’t watching a super sentai film, it looked more like a cartoon. I skipped the Power Rangers Turbo film in fear of seeing another such fiasco. This time? Hollywood doesn’t seem to have learned its lesson. WHetever the new Megazord is now, it’s no Megazord. It looks more like Go Nagai’s Devilman. It looks more like those sleek end bosses the Power Rangers are supposed to destroy. If Goldar wore a full-face helmet, this would be him.
The point is if they’re basing the film on the original Power Rangers. The least they could do is give us something that looks similar to the original Megazord to really pump up the film’s nostalgia value and give the audience a sleek, yet clunky robot-looking Megazord that super sentai is known for. A sleeker version of this wouldn’t hurt.
Because of this non-zord atrocity, I feel like I want the new film to fail as much as many fans wanted the Fantastic Four reboot to fail. This is also the reason why toys and film images must never be leaked before the movie or official trailer is shown. Back then when there was hardly an internet, audiences didn’t know they would be given a crappy CGI Megazord. They didn’t know the lame villain would be using the Ghostbusters’ purple slime to control the world.
Perhaps, the movie and this robot would be more awesome than we think, and not as messed up as we currently perceive it to be due to the initial trailer and this strange take on the Megazord. I can visualize this robot glowing in looking alive while walking on miniature hills and mountains or a miniature city. Fighting as a man-in-suit against a more monstrous villain. Then maybe it will work. But if everything gets done in CG there’s hardly any point in watching, since half the time of shows like Power Rangers and other super sentai rely on Zord action.