Power Rangers Megaforce Overview

Power Rangers Megaforce: Season 20

Air Date: February 2nd, 2013-December 7th, 2013

Episode Count: 20 + 2 Specials

Well, this should be a very quick overview because there is literally not much or anything at all to talk about here when it comes to Megaforce.  Once again Jonathan Tzachor takes an adaption of Sentai footage to new miserable heights but this time, clearly there was absolutely no effort put in it.  The original footage is pretty much the rangers just fooling around or at Ernie's Yogart place or whatever! I mean we know nothing about these characters in their regular civilian modes as they are just fooling around most of the time to grow through any substantial change in character.  Honestly, I really don't know what to talk about this season when it comes to the rangers!?!?? O_O  I guess I'll start with the worst offender....Troy.....young Andrew Gray......I know....I absolutely know that it is NOT his fault that his character is about as exciting and lively as a bar of soap. O_O  The only thing we know about Troy is that he's the new kid at school and apparently loves practicing martial arts.  His choice by Gosei on being a ranger doesn't matter because we NEVER see any traits in him that make him such an amazing ranger......let alone the RED RANGER!!! Troy spends most of the season....just being the most robotic faced individual you have ever seen.  It definitely has to do with the direction because there are surprisingly moments where Andrew can actually emote like a normal human being but then there are a vast number of moments which are far from unintentionally hilarious because of how emotionless he is being.  Troy goes unchanged throughout, with only his sudden need to find Robo Knight at the end overpowers his senses that he would run off during an incoming invasion to find him.  Uhhhhhh!!! O_O  Oh and he also has a random dream about the legendary battle with all the previous teams joining them for the biggest fight ever....that is never really talked about or mentioned to Gosei by him when their base is literally surrounded by ranger keys that look EXTREMELY similar to the various rangers he's dreaming about! -_-  UghhhhhhhhHh!!!

As for the rest of the rangers, they are performed perfectly fine with two dimensional personalities: Jake the athlete, Noah the stereotypical nerd, Gia the stoic badass and .......Emma who just loves photography and the environment.  Well, these are more obvious things about them than personalities but the actors like I said, do a hell of a lot better than Andrew is at Troy.  Maybe cause they wanted Andrew to be more of the no nonsense leader but it just comes off as the poorest type of acting imaginable.....well, outside Jennifer Yen as Vipra.  O_o  For the rest of the rangers the most character development we get is Going Viral when Noah is feeling severely insecure about being as good as Jake in terms of fighting and strength but it's just some contrived lesson about using what he's good at to save the day.  Ummmmm, doesn't make sense to me and feels like something that didn't need character development on.  But I guess I should be just thankful that ANY sort of development was attempted.  Then there's that episode where Noah needs to learn how to lighten up and take a joke or laugh rather in Last Laugh when the rest of the rangers' unmaintainable laughter lead them to getting captured like the rest of the city; leaving only Noah and Robo Knight to work together to defeat the monster.  Yeah, there was also a sub-plot of Robo Knight and Noah learning to work together which ends up with them making up a joke that makes the monster laugh which is a creative, unconventional way to win the day even if the joke ironically wasn't funny.  .....That's it on the character development front for the human rangers!!! -_-

Next we have Jake, who clearly is fun loving, humorous as the green or black ranger usually is.  He has a crush on Gia that is clearly there but he never gets the chance to show her how awesome he is.  She's mostly playful yet dismissive of him; knowing full well he likes her but would rather tease him and keep his romantic enthusiasm for her in his.....suit! :P  The show does highlight his very noble and loyal friendship to Noah; always finding the good in him that makes him so essential to the team instead his nerd persona making him feel isolated from the others.  I honestly can't think of anything else of relevance for him...... he plays soccer! Moving on....-_- Gia, like I said was the more determined, straight laced of the group.  Definitely someone who knows who she is and is self confident.  She reminds me a lot of what Trini was like in the first season but more in your face about who she is and not taking crap from anyone.  It's funny how she's best friends with Emma who is so sweet and obsessed with nature.  We learn they've been friends for so long but the only time their relationship is really highlighted is in United We Stand when they are both under a spell that turns them into enemies for an episode.  They relearn how to love each other and strengthens their friendship, blah, blah, blah!!! *Rolls eyes*  Also, I have no idea what was going on in Harmony and Dizchord when Troy discovers she can sing to make nature magically flourish around her.  I just don't get this show!!! What's the purpose and context of this crap??? They have these random, never explained abilities: visions of the future, Disney princess powers, etc.  What the hell!???  There's even an episode where Troy has this amazing ability to not cry because how it'll make him look because of standing up to a bully that couldn't make him cry.  Funny enough, this makes the most sense given Andrew Gray's consistent stagnant performance of making his face complete immobile and devoid of any human emotion.

Ironically, the character that gets the most development per say is Robo Knight! It's literally the main story arc (if you can even call it that, more a recurring lesson that needs to be jammed into our heads about a machine learning how to live among humans by understanding them as well as accepting them.  It's pretty much the driving force of most episodes with Robo Knight after his debut.  First learning about working with the rangers in Prince Takes Knight and even being tempted by one of the villains, Metal Alice into possibly turning on humanity and joining up with his kind to takeover the world.  Then there's that episode Robo Knight trying to understand human nature like love in Staying On Track which seems like it would be the end of this need to better understand humans but they even devote an entire Christmas special, A Robo Knight Before Christmas, a ludicrous if not mildly touching story of Robo Knight understanding Christmas as well as telling children in a village in America about all he has learned from humans.  Yay!??? O_o  By the end of the season aka Endgame, he self sacrifices all his energy to restore the rangers' powers before going missing....for the moment.  As for the rangers' mentor and sidekick???  In keeping with the pathetic attempt at making things full circle for the 20th anniversary, Gosei is some mysterious protegee of Zordon's but there's never an explanation of how he came to meet or know Zordon, not to mention if his mission is to protect the environment than where the hell has he been for the past 2 decades of endless threats from space, the future, mystical dimensions, etc.  Oh please and he just spends the season handing the rangers zords every. single. episode instead of teaching them ANYTHING!!! Seriously, who is he and no explanation of those ranger keys all around them??? Nope! That's not needed yet! But yet, all of these power ups, zords etc. this season and Gosei has an even greater power set for the rangers, maybe the greatest powers of ANY ranger team yet....he just gives them these powers that are meaningless in the grand scheme of things.  -_-  Tensou....just a CGI version of Alpha but waaayyyy more annoying than he EVER was. So that's it for the good guys!

The Warstar insects aka our main baddies are about the most vacant villains in terms of stakes or any real threat to the rangers on any level.  They are generic monsters with voices that we've heard thousands of times on this show with far better intimidation.  Vrak seemed like it'd be the most interesting but he never does anything that succeeds or beats the rangers until arguably the finale but Robo Knight fixes that before Vrak just goes into hiding.  Admiral Malcore and Creepox....why even bother??? Just stock villains until the real threat arrives with the invasion.  Metal Alice is the only villain that does some serious damage to the rangers that can be considered effective.  Trying to turn Robo Knight against the rangers and making her plans more ambiguous than the other villains sending out monsters to stop them all the time.  Or the Loogies (.........I hate Tzacher! -_-)   By season's end, she's so disposable and it's such a shame.  Tho her plan with inconveniencing a train not withstanding.  I'm not even gonna talk about the zords since they'll immediately amount to nothing by the beginning of the second season so...who cares!!! -_-  Ewwww I'm sorry but I'm done.  Next season and my god, HELP US ALL! O_O

Pros:

• The actors (outside of Troy) do consistent jobs as their characters.
• MMPR Nostalgia
• ......."Rico the Robot"......???? 

Cons:

• Andrew Gray as Troy (My god, the most robotic acting I've ever seen.  Almost like he perfected it! O_O)
• Poor references and tie ins with the original MMPR
• Numerous Sentai action scenes put together with no real story! -_-
• NO character development of any kind really out one or two episodes!
• The incredible laughable handout of zords this season.
• Robo Knight gets most of the development than the human rangers! HA!
• Horrible writing, some of the absolute worst of the show
• No sense of stakes or real threat
• Pointless villains outside maybe Metal Alice.
• Gosei and Tensou.......

Best Episodes:

1. Rico The Robot-The only episode this season that felt like the most effort, even heart was put into it.

Worst Episodes:

Everything else......-_-

"A season that shamelessly prides itself in being just a series of Goseiger footage dubbed over with a nonexistent story that holds it all together.  Megaforce is a complete waste of time for both kids and long time fans of the franchise.  The majority of the cast seem like they are capable of building on their 2 dimensional personalities but nothing comes of it.  Nostalgia elements just come off sorry and pathetic when trying to remind viewers this was the 20th anniversary when the anniversary stuff is being saved for the 21st season, so the writers essentially had to give us a complete filler season of Power Rangers just to get to the fan service we were promised.  You can literally skip all of Megaforce and nothing really matters!" O_O

Final Season Verdict: D-