Power Rangers Double Feature - Dvd

Any true Power Ranger fan has seen both Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers The Movie and Turbo: A Power Rangers movie, but finally the long anticipated DVD duo of both Morphin' and Turbo has arrived. Both long available on VHS, the DVD version is a welcome arrival, both for the fact that picture and sound are vastly greater and also because both films come together for the price of one. A great value buy and worth buying for the archives even if you already own both films already.

The first film, the only big budget hollywood Power Rangers production, sees the Morphin' Rangers Tommy, Kim, Billy and new recruits Rocky, Aisha and Adam go face to face with an old nemesis of their mentor Zordon. Ivan Ooze is truly one of the greatest enemies they have ever faced, managing to destroy the Command Center within mere hours of his release. Now powerless the Rangers are forced to go on a possibly one way search to find new Ranger powers to combat this new evil. Stunning visual effects, a great storyline and some... interesting acting make this a true Power Rangers classic!

As for Turbo, well cheesy is a slight understatement, with a similar storyline - new powers, new bad buy and a few new Rangers, but also a clearly much lower budget (imagine a movie filmed for the same cost as a single episode). But regardless of its flaws, Turbo is yet another classic piece of Ranger history suitable for both old fans in search of nostalgia, or new fans interested in the past of the Rangers.

Bottom line, buy this DVD now!

The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers movie is set as an alternative story as to how the rangers receive their ninjetti powers at the start of season 3; if you watch the series you'll find they receive their ninja powers in a different manner. This doesn't mean, though, that if you've watched the series you shouldn't watch this, far from it! As other reviewers have said it's Rocky, Aisha and Adam in the movie, not Jason, Trini and Zack, but that's the same as in the latter half of Season 2 that I think was airing at the time they were filming the movie.

The Turbo movie is okay, maybe not quite as good as the first power rangers' movie, but there is a fairly decent plot to this one too. In this one you'll find the same actors from Power Rangers Zeo in it, but Steve Cardenas who played Rocky decided to bow out at this point, and is replaced by a young boy called Justin, who is a touch on the annoying side, simply as he is a lot younger than the other rangers.

All in all I'd recommend this to old and new power ranger fans alike! If you have children and they are more familiar with the later seasons like Operation Overdrive, Jungle Fury and RPM, I recommend they watch the original power rangers to see how the legacy began, as they really are worth a watch! And hopefully they'll watch them over and over again, and it'll keep them entertained for a while!
Or if you're an old power rangers fan, who has these on video - upgrade to DVD, you have nothing to lose, and a lot to gain!

Some nostalgic twinge ahoy with this dual release featuring the two feature length Power Rangers movies. The DVDs are quite good, with numerous subtitles and clear picture. I will review each title individually.

MIGHTY MORPHIN' POWER RANGERS
This movie is worth the purchase, a blast from the not-so-distant past. The six power rangers lose their power at the hands of the evil Ivan Ooze and they must travel to a distant planet to find the Great Power in order to stop Ooze and save their leader Zordon, and the city of Angel Grove, from destruction.

This is a fun movie with entertaining characters and dialogue. Never mind how knowledgeable Ivan Ooze is on our culture having been imprisoned in an egg for six thousand years; it doesn't matter. This is good clean fun, the sense of adventure is rampant and the film climaxes in a great way. This movie gets 4 stars.

TURBO: A POWER RANGERS MOVIE
This movie is just embarrassing, and nowhere near as fun as the first one.

The plot centers around an extraterrestrial wizard named Lerigot, who goes to Earth in order to avoid capture by a crazed alien queen, Divatox (no, seriously). She plans to use Lerigot to open up a portal so that she can marry an evil dark creature, Maligore, and unite their powers. Naturally, the Power Rangers must stop this.

Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie is nowhere near as much fun or cool to watch as the first movie. Most notably, Aisha and Billy are completely missing, with no explanation, and Kimberly is no longer a Power Ranger either for some reason, even though she has an important part in the film, thankfully, along with old regular Jason. Rocky is technically there, but he suffers an injury at the start of the film, as if trying to get him out of it, which is sad. Then we have a new blue ranger, Justin, who really is much too young to be a Ranger.

A more serious problem is the Zords. The whole mythology around the Power Rangers is much lamer here. The Zords are no longer kinds of animals, they are now all cars, called "Turbo" powers, which just feels nowhere near as imaginative. At a pivotal point of the film, the car Zords merge into what I find hard to describe as anything but a Transformers rip-off. Even worse than that, though, is the fact that the Power Rangers, in Power Ranger form, have so little screen time.

Furthermore, the plot is terribly paced, and not very fun to follow. The Rangers have to travel to another dimension via an old pirate ship. Seriously? In the first half hour, a lot of time is wasted with the Rangers trying to find Lerigot, and some insufferable scenes of him wandering around the jungle. Nothing hangs together at all. Remember how central the very concept of being a Power Ranger was to the first movie? Here, it feels like little more than a gimmick.

Lerigot is a body-sized puppet who looks like an extra from The Dark Crystal. With his wide doe eyes and nonsensical slurring, he gets on your nerves very quickly, and he just does not stop. The rest of the supporting cast is just as bad. Divatox's henchmen are just laughably embarrassing, especially the insufferable Elgar. Remember Goldar, and Mordant? Those were entertaining henchmen. Maligore, for a supposed unstoppable force of evil, is incredibly ungainly and ineffective. Divatox herself is amusing and Hilary Shephard Turner clearly has a lot of fun with the role, but her overacting gets a little over the top. All the puns are so self-conscious as if the writer were self-aware how bad it would turn out. The special effects are much poorer than in the first movie, too, especially Zordon (he barely looks like he's talking) and Maligore's crater (amateur bluescreen mistake there). Thank goodness Alpha is as good as ever.

The best part of the movie is an amusing cameo from Rita and Lord Zedd. That's about a minute in length, and it made the movie for me. Too bad that the rest isn't as fun to watch. Not even having Kimberly and Jason there can help, really. There's none of the spirit of adventure from the first movie. Incredibly lame. 1 star.

OVERALL
The first movie is worth the purchase. Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie is, at beast, an amusing thing that comes with it. Hey, this is a cheap set, so you can feel safe with satisfying your nostalgic twinge with buying it and enjoying the first disc.