Season 18, Episode 1: Origins, Part 1

 

"Origins, Part 1"

Episode 1

Air Date: October 15th, 2011

Well, this will be a an easy review! Finally, I have reach the Neo-Saban Era.  An era that only exists thanks to Disney's bastardization of Saban's original series with the MMPR revision in 2010 being an atrocious and highly laughable re-editing of the first 32 episodes of the first season with needless new captions, bizarre comic book special effects and making the show overall cheesier than it was originally intended.  So Saban fired back and bought his franchise back as well as rushed the continuation of the ongoing story with a new show, Power Rangers Samurai.  Sigh.....and you can tell this was rushed into production as Origins, Part 1 feels more forced and too the point than even Day of the Dumpster was back in '93. Sure the introduction of our newest red ranger, Jayden, is badass and filled with some dope action but outside of that, dear god talk about flat.  And I'm not even talking about the abomination that is his very early 2010s Justin Bieber hair he's spotting.  Alex Heartman.....ummmmmm, wow! O_O For someone as overconfident as Jayden initially is, having an actor as bad as Alex delivering his lines is beyond embarrassing.  Jayden's suppose to be the latest in a long of line of Samurai Rangers to lead a new team against the evil Nighlok who exist in a dimension parallel to ours.  They can only travel through the cracks and gaps of our world as the Nighlok are being to rise again and the fear of their powerful leader, Master Xandred, running to our world is making Jayden's mentor....uhhh...Mentor Ji (Ehhhhh -_-) reminding him that his time to lead is here despite his reservations about it.

Honestly, this is the first time in a while where the villain scenes were far more entertaining than the ranger stuff that seems to be happening but with no real purpose, depth or excitement behind it.  I gotta say, the Nighlok are a breath of fresh air around the surrounding incompetence of the rangers fumbling about to assemble against them.  Octoroo in particular is hilarious and gets some of the best lines this episode, like when Master Xandred appears with a headache and a bad attitude only for Octoroo to make a confident rebuttal about speaking with his mouth closed.  Seriously, HA!!! There's also Dayu....who just plays her guitar as well as the monster of the week, Tooya who Octoroo chastises for his dress with a mouth on it. This guy is awesome! :)  Anyway, soon his subjects reveal that the Samurai Rangers haven't exactly been defeated and tasks Tooya to force them to reveal themselves so they can be destroyed before stopping him from coming to our world, blah, blah, blah......  I'm gonna have to start talking about the other rangers aren't I??? -_-........sighs......  Well, let's talk about Kevin, our future Samurai Blue Ranger...and possibly the worst young actor to grace the screens of kid's television! O_O  Now, this is Power Rangers and we've seen some truly horrendous displays of emoting on this show (the cast of Wild Force, Jennifer Yo as Vipra, even  original cast of MMPR had some seriously laughable performances during the first season)  But you would think...you WOULD think! By the 18th season in the franchise, we may have outgrown the horrid acting of the past and would want to make the return of the show strong with at least a decent cast of actors.  NOPE!!! Najee-De-Tiege....is the prime example of when an actor is given no direction and the character is lost in a massive dump of insufferable performing.  The forced soft spoken voice, the weird gesturing, etc...... I hate Kevin.  I already HATE him and this is just part 1 of the premiere.  I just don't know what else to say besides all his scenes are unbearable and even small children watching this show probably noticed how ungodly stupid his "acting" seems. O_O

Even one else besides Mike, played by Hector David Jr., is either just as bad (Mia) or act a lot younger than they should be.  After being messaged by Mentor Ji with magical arrows apparently, the team unites in the city during the biggest Nighlok attack and run into each other....  I just.....nothing about this scene can be taken seriously....especially Jayden coming in on that horse and announcing himself to his team mates as the red ranger while the others are in pure awe! WOW!!! You know this would have been a great, even perfect time for an Asian character as red ranger since I find it truly hard to believe these guys are descendants of an ancient line of Samurai warriors.  I mean at this point, it's been almost 20 years since the show began and not one, NOT one Asian Red Ranger???!!! Are you kidding me??? O_o Omg!!! Anyway, Jayden gives the other rangers their Samuraizers (aka their morphers) which are pretty cool since they are like technological art brushes they use to draw "Power Symbols" they can use to morph into their Samurai Ranger suits.  Tho one wonders why the rangers had to change into some random training suits BEFORE morphing while the city is continued to be attacked.  Force epic arrival for the sake of epic arrival....not so epic! Anyway, the ranger morph and fight off the Nighlok...while beginning this era's unfortunate need for the rangers to relentless talk and quip during the fight scenes.  The morph sequence is serviceable and kinda too elaborate for my taste.  The Samurai suits along with their individual weapons are cool...even if the heavy Japanese symbolism and ascetic is being utter disrespected by the American translation of it all.  Seriously, not even a Japanese actor to make this stuff seem somewhat plausible for the show's theme and apparent ancestry of the team???  

To wrap this up as quickly as possible, after Jayden destroy Tooya with his....fire smasher! -_-  The Nighlok soon grows since Jayden reveals they have two forms, of course the second one is more powerful and grows, it's Power Rangers here! The rangers need to summon their folding zords as apart of their training and do so.  The folding zords are....interesting to say the least.  Clearly making waaayyy more sense in the context of Shurkinger unlike here in the states.  They do look more unique and original for these type of zords, but the whole boxed form and then folding out to become their specific animal (turtle, lion, bear, etc.) just looks bizarre from this side of the world.  The rangers of course use their new zords to make quick work of Tooya and destroy him once and for all. "Samurai Rangers, victory is ours!" Hahahahaha....oh boy, this is gonna be a long two seasons! -_- And then the rangers meet up at the Shiba House to finally be introduced to their mentor...Mentor Ji before doing their annoying, "Ranger together! Samurai Forever!" garbage slogan. Yeah....onto Part 2....no words. O_o

Final Morph: D+