ME! GA! FORCE! POWER RANGERS... MEGAFORCE!
A group of aliens decides to conquer Earth! Gosei and his robotic aide Tensou now summons a group of energetic and unstoppable individuals that exemplifies the enduring human spirit. Yes, he is referring to teenagers with talent and attitude. This, my friends, is a start of a new Power Rangers season!
Before talking about the actual episode, I will first compare it to its original source show, Tensou Sentai Goseiger. All I can say is Goseiger is better when it comes to the first episode department. I will not go further with it because I don't want this review to end up sounding like "Super Sentai is better, Power Rangers sucks" kind of thing. Also, comparing Goseiger and Megaforce is like comparing two kinds of apples with their own set of flaws and merits. Now that I am done with the "required" Sentai comparison, it is time to review this show in its own merits!
The episode begins with Troy's dream of a great war with some space aliens. To those who watched Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger, most of the footage in this scene came from the show's first episode. Some of the clips came from some episodes of Goseiger and a scene coming from another episode of Gokaiger. Though Toei mentioned that they have plans to refilm the Legend War scene featuring Power Rangers exclusive characters, I guess we might see it in a later episode. Speaking of original footage, we have this quick new scene. I guess the filming of the new Legend War footage is underway!
We are then introduced to Gia, Emma, Jake and Noah who are answering some brain teaser about which species will survive at the end. Much to my surprise, their answers basically foreshadowed the enemies that the Megaforce Rangers will face in the future! One thing that I like about this scene is that we have a clue about our characters, Noah is a nerd, Gia is smart, Emma is well, the chick and Jake is in love with Gia. As for Troy, I don't see why I should root for this Red Ranger yet. I guess I could blame it with the actor's stiff acting that I don't see anything special about him.
As for the aliens, they are ready to conquer Earth and we then proceed to the opening sequence. The new opening theme once again, did a remix of the "Go! Go! Power Rangers" theme and retained Power Rangers Samurai's Ranger name call. To be honest, the opening part of the song gave me this feeling that the theme song is akin to the Power Rangers Zeo theme. But nope, the theme is similar to Power Rangers Samurai theme. The opening sequence featured a couple of stock footage and much to my surprise; Alata's jacket is seen in the opening sequence! More about this episode’s lazy editing later.
We are then introduced to Ernie's who owns a refreshment bar. To put it simply, this guy is a tribute to the original Ernie and his juice bar. Speaking of tributes, we are then introduced to Gosei and Tensou, which is basically Olmec and Wall-E, I mean, Zordon and Alpha. Just like Zordon, he orders Tensou to recruit teenagers. Compared to Zordon, his reasons of recruiting teenagers are justified when he ordered it. I am starting to like Gosei a bit more.
Meanwhile, Emma we saw her do her hobby of taking pictures of wildlife. I guess she is more than just "the chick" in this series because more "chick" characters are not into wildlife and stuff like that. Since she is in the wildlife, she saw Creepox, one of the aliens under the command of Admiral Malkor. More about my impressions of the villains once the series fleshes them out a bit more because if this episode is an indication, I find them a bit generic to be honest. Emma, who saw Creepox in the forest hides as she is then teleported to Gosei's Command Center.
Same with the four teenagers we saw in this episode, they are also transported to the Command Center thanks to Gosei. The first thing that we saw is Tensou and a row of small Ranger statues (for those who watched Gokaiger, those are Ranger Keys). One thing I noticed about these items is that there are skirt lines in the female Ranger items. The problem with it is that some of supposed male items have skirt lines, like the case of Mystic Force Yellow, who is a guy in the original series. Also, during the scene where they flashed all the items, I can't help but notice that right row of items is just the left row flipped to the right!
As for Troy, he is fascinated with the items and suddenly remembers his dream, with some additional content. Again, I can't help but notice the pre-Zyuranger teams plus Dairanger in the shots. Thankfully, these shots are so fast that you will barely notice it unless you are keen when it comes to small details. Now that we are done with these items, Gosei formally introduced himself as Zordon's student. For some reason, this introduction felt a bit out of place. If Noah's query about the past Rangers is an indication, it seems that they are not aware of Zordon or the past Rangers. Oh well, I guess they added that sentence for the fans!
This scene also fleshed out Jake a bit, that he is more than just a guy who is love struck on Gia. He is a jokester of the group as he poked fun on Gosei's appearance of a giant tiki head. Emma finally arrives and answered Jake's skeptism about aliens invading Earth. Now that our heroes are complete, it is time to know the reasons why they are chosen. Comparing it to Zordon's reasons why he chose the original Rangers, I like Gosei's version a bit more. It's a bit detailed and has footage that showed us their strong traits on why they are chosen from hundreds of teenagers.
After receiving their morphers and given a briefing about their new powers (and see more barely edited Goseiger stock footage), their first mission as Power Rangers begins. They are then transported outside the Command Center to fight some enemy foot soldiers attacking the city. The out of suit fights in this episode is... interesting. Their fight styles reflect their personalities and basically, some of them used the things that they can use as a weapon. In Noah's case, his nerdy movements turned his bag into his weapon, the flash of Emma's camera is used for her advantage and Jake's soccer moves are seen quite useful in battle. As for Troy and Gia, they barely have any unique action in this episode.
Because they can't just beat the Loogies easily, it is time to morph into Mega Rangers! The morphing phrase is quite generic while as for the morphing movements are basically the ones used in Goseiger. Now comes the part that frustrate me as a viewer, I can't help but notice that Troy's close-up hand shot is basically Alata's hand and they just digitally recolored his jacket! It's so lazy that it hurts as it feels like they have no budget to film a short close-up hand shot! As for the morphing sequence, its fine I guess. The only problem I have with the morphing sequence is the backflip; it is not as intense or awesome as the Dino Thunder morphing sequence, which featured one heck of a backflip morph.
The suit fights barely has any new footage in it. The sad part is that they didn't film any new footage featuring the American cards released in the market! Instead, they used the same Japanese cards in the new footage. I know, it is for the purpose of making it consistent with the Japanese stock footage but if there is one thing that I learned from Power Rangers RPM is that you can have a 32-episode series with 3/4 of it are original, Power Rangers exclusive footage. I mean, Megaforce is the 20th anniversary series, so obviously they will have more budget in filming new footage for the new American stuff but nope, they tried to stick with the Japanese stock footage as much as possible.
Also, I can't help but notice the bad scene transitions when it comes to the American and Japanese footages. Power Rangers has a long history with this sort of problem but later shows were able to fix it by trying as much as possible to film a scene that looks similar to the Japanese footage or if they can't do it, just film a new scene! The transition from Japanese to American footage is really noticeable when they featured Troy saving his team from an army of Loogies.
Because Loogies are not enough to defeat the Power Rangers, Admiral Malkor summons one of his monsters in battle. Compared to the previous scene, the editing of this one is actually better. The transition from American to Japanese footage is quite seamless. As for the fights in this one, it is basically the same impression I had with Goseiger episode 1, it's good. The only complain I have with this scene is that the new footage that showed us Gosei commanding the Rangers to summon their Ranger Blasters felt like he is trying to shove us that there is a new toy, and that the Rangers should use it now.
At the end, they defeated the MOTW and now our heroes are back in the Command Center. With all five teenagers assembled, they are a force to reckon with because they are the Power Rangers Megaforce! Overall, the first episode is better compared to Power Rangers Samurai's "first" episode and the actual Origin episode. Unlike Samurai, it feels like I am watching not a Goseiger clone, but a Power Rangers show. Since this is an anniversary season, the first episode had a lot of nods to Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Heck, some of the lines of this episode are directly lifted from the script of "Day of the Dumpster", the first episode of the series! Guess this means that we should watch out for more past Power Rangers references!
The Legend War scene at the opening of the series already assured us that they will indeed adapt Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger. The only thing we need to do is wait and see how this will turn out. But if I will base it in the first episode, Power Rangers Megaforce is on a good start, the only thing they need to do is to improve on some low aspects of the series such as Troy's acting as he feels monotonous, or should I say, a brick.
