So what do we think?
 

Megaforce is three episodes in so far. And I think that's enough time for us to get some idea of where the show is going, how the acting is, and how we feel about it. So how do we feel about it?

You all know what I'm going to say. I love it. The acting is more than one step above what Samurai was, and the actors themselves (especially Ciara) seem to really give a damn about the show. Loving the nods to the original season like Gosei's voice, him being a student of Zordon, and Ernie's.

And on a personal note. You can not like the cards are the Japanese cards and no one notices. But not liking the whole show for that reason is nitpicky. They'd have to reshoot alot of scenes and cg to change all of that around to make them the american cards.

Well if they were going to be lazy enough to not change the cards (based on your logic of it being difficult) then why even create a set of American cards to begin with? Why even make those up if every bit of source material you have uses Japanese cards AND those are the ones you use in the American footage as well? It just doesn't make sense to go through the effort.

Thus far the characters seem pretty flat compared to their Goseiger counterparts but I think that was to be expected. US actors are rarely as convincing as the originals. It's better than Samurais acting was but that really doesn't say much. That's like saying a tropical storm isn't as bad as a hurricane. They're both still bad, just in varying degrees.

Its good. Not quite Dino Thunder, SPD, or the first Saban era good, and definitely not RPM good, but its mostly heading in the right direction.

What I hope for the rest of these 20 episodes is that we really get to know the core cast, before everything goes all crazy for the anniversary Gokaiger-ish stuff. Just hope Andrew Gray improves and Troy becomes interesting and that the ADR gets better.

Because card games make money? Because the Tensouder/Gosei Morpher Gimmick is a good marketing tool? And I doubt too many kids will be reading the cards in the show, but would be pretty confused if the card they got out of the toy said "Gosei (Ranger)" on it, since they call themselves "Megaforce (Ranger)" in the show.

I mean, I'm sure you all realize how much card footage there is right? If they wanted to use English cards, they'd basically be re-shooting most of the morphed footage and cockpit footage. At that point, there really wouldn't be much sentai footage used at all.

Don't get me wrong. It bothered me at first, but meh. If cards are my only complaint, how bad can the season be? And nothing is as good as Goseiger. NOTHING.

I'm just glad it isn't Ninja Storm horrible. Noah is the one that needs the help. There's potential there, and this last episode he really came through. I'm just hoping for more.

I like it a lot. In the long run with Super Megaforce, it looks they're changing stuff up more, but being an anniversary series, I think it's good change. The Japanese card thing I understand now, so it doesn't bother me.

There wasn't a lot of localization type changes that bug me either, unlike Samurai. There's nothing exceptionally Japanese about Goseiger unlike Shinkenger. The only minor complaint I have is Tensou. I would've preferred a more humanoid robot like Alpha. Datas would've been nice, but I completely understand that change. And then I don't like how his name is "Ten-soo." It might be that I like "Ten-soh" more, but "Ten-soo" just sounds kind of stupid to me.

Overall, I really like it. Which is nice since it's been so long since I've actually liked a PR series. I think it helps that the toy line is actually getting better and the fact that Goseiger is not a series I'm super attached to.

I don't know. I loved Short Circut so anything that looks like Johnny 5 is awesome with me :lol

See, I'm in the camp that loved Go-Onger and hated RPM.

The only thing I didn't like about RPM was how they completely ignored the Zords. Namely how the mouths kept moving like they were talking, the eyes kept moving, and no one noticed.

I really don't know. The glimpses of story is nice, but the characters enacting it? They need some work. And acting lessons. Granted, they don't need them as badly as the Samurai crew did, but it's still not great. If Samurai is the worst, the Megaforce team is tying for 2nd worst (Along side first season MMPR).

That aside, it's adequate. If they don't drop the ball in terms of story as hard as say, Ninja Storm did, they should be fine.

I think it's great so far. I actually want to keep watching which I cannot say the same for certain other seasons.

It's fun. Cards aren't a big deal to me, though I do wonder why they colored Alata's jacket for his first henshin and used that for Troy's first morph. It's like the American actors can't use the cards right or the producers don't want to go through a bunch of them or something. In fact, I've noticed that quite a bit of "insert card into Gosei Morpher" footage is actually from Goseiger.

This also explains the card issue. Again, not a problem for me though.

So far so good I guess, but its still too early to tell. Outside Troy (who makes Jayden seem emotive) the cast is excellent and the set up good, but there's still a lot of important stuff to establish that could make or break the show.

The biggest question is how its going to handle three sets of villains since it seems they'll be running around at the same time. Boukenger and Operation Overdrive did an awful job of it, so there isn't much precedent for success in that department.

Apart from that one episode where they addressed why the zords have anime faces.

I've only seen the first 2 thus far and I didn't mind the second at all. The acting's blah but its pretty rare that you get a PR that has great acting but the second episode gave me hope that the series will get into the swing of things and turn out decent. They were nowhere near as strong as the first episodes of some seasons like In Space, S.P.D. and especially Time Force, but I am keeping my standards low, at least for now and the second episode didn't disappoint me. Also, the fact that no one can pronounce "Tensou" bugs me to no end.

But the first, dear god, I was sick of the MMPR references. Yes, I get that it was the first PR season and whatnot, but adult PR fans seem to be so stuck on the nostalgia of the first three seasons of PR and I hate how Saban is catering to that completely. I don't mind one or two nods but pretty much the entire episode was re-used lines and nods to the first episode of PR and it was completely lame. Be your own thing, Megaforce! There are so many far better, far better written seasons with far better characters then MMPR, don't get locked into catering to nostalgia! I am so glad that episode 2 seems to have dropped it, I hope episode 3 has to.

I just pray that Jason David Frank doesn't return in season 2. He's a pretty terrible actor and is completely over-rated and would not suit Gokai Silver's in-suit scenes at all. He was fine in Dino Thunder, but that should be his swan song; we don't need to see his face unless they do something similar to Gokaiger in "Super Megaforce" and have tribute episodes to the various seasons (PLEASE not just MMPR) and then he can be in one or two episodes and hopefully they can refrain themselves from the "greatest ranger" BS. No offense to MMPR fans, but when it comes to scale on what rangers did, Tommy must be pretty low down, with Andros being top. So yeah, rant over.
tl/dr: I hope Saban ignores the fans begging for JDF to be Gokai Silver's equivalent.

Working for me so far, but I try not to make up my mind about something this early into it (unless it's either really amazing or exceptionally terrible, neither of which fits Megaforce).

Pretty much what Switchblade said. I probably won't have any strong feelings one way or the other for at least a few more episodes. Until then, it's just watchable and enjoyable for the most part.

Its pleasant enough for now. Im really falling for that yellow ranger. She is awesome. Im liking all the cast except the red ranger as there has been no real development for him so its hard to have any feelings either way at this point. Im looking forward to seeing how this season plays out. :)

My hope is that he gets more flushed out the closer we come to the switch. But even as he is now he's still a million times better than Jayden. Million.

So Rocky and Aisha are a hundred times worse than the entire Samurai cast but Troy is a million times better than Jayden? I question you sometimes.

Megaforce > Samurai > Rocky and Aisha

It's pretty simple :P

Where does Cole fit in to this? :p

i am really enjoying it the card gimmick i stated on there thread on this site and it due to the fact them ether reshhoting or Edting the cards to be english but then japanese in the stock footage so that dont bother me the acting better then samurai as well. i do say the first few seconds of megaforce you do see alata jackets and hand proper in his colours.

Here is my 2 cents

Troy - pretty dull so far , but he hasn't had much time to shine. Hopefully he gets more into the role

Gia - the clear favorite for me. On and off the show... Certainly doesn't hurt that she is easy on the eyes

Noah - black billy.... That's all I got. My hd tv really brings out the guys acne ( not that it has anything to do with the plot, just an observation )

Jake - my 2nd favorite. He comes off as likable and a decent actor.

Emma - total hottie. The BMX thing seemed unneeded when Gosei mentioned it, but whatever

I'm just glad nobody is like Kevin. That guy was the worst... And I wish Everyone would stop with the bad puns. I know that's pretty much every season.

I was expecting big things from MegaForce considering that the series is celebrating 20 years of Power Rangers. But so far I'm a little disappointed.

The acting is kind of so-so, but not to fault the actors, I think it has a lot to do with the characters they were given to play. They're so cliché it borders on annoying. We have the mysterious new guy, not too original. I know the blue ranger has often been more of a geeky type character, but Noah couldn't have been closer to the definition of a nerd if they had given him a pocket protector. He's perhaps the most disappointing because it seems like they try to make him seem as uncool as possible, I assume in an attempt to reinforce the nerdiness. Not all nerds lack self esteem, or get annoyingly passionate in a science class, etc. Not in the real world, and not even in other Power Rangers shows.

At first I thought Jake was going to be the typical jock. Somewhat thankfully, he turned out to be more of a cross between a typical jock and a typical ladies man, making him slightly more interesting (especially since the latter is a bit more rare in Power Rangers). He really shined in episode 3, but I can't help but feel like his constant flirting with Gia will start to get annoying in a few episodes. Speaking of Gia, she strikes me as a complete Mary Sue. Emma's "I love the environment!" bit is annoying too.

I hate to seem so critical, but it's like they didn't even try to make the characters interesting at all. And again, not that the rest of the show is bad, it just seems to fall short of expectations for what I always thought would be an extra special 20th anniversary series. Little things like the text on the cards just seemed to slip through the cracks. I'd rather have seen them put a little more effort into things like that, rather than just tossing in a bunch of nods to previous shows.

The first episode seemed to me like a fast paced parade of toys they're selling, and the second was just a little too typical of Power Rangers, following a 20 year old script. The third episode I found a lot more original and redeeming, so I hope that things are taking a turn for the better.

Last but not least, what happened to Gokaiger? I thought MegaForce was supposed to be based on both Goseiger and Gokaiger. But other than some ranger keys on a shelf which have been nothing more than a decoration so far, I can't find a trace of it.

Again I don't mean to be harsh, but it just seems like they could have done a lot better with MegaForce so far than they have done.

you do remember the gokaiger elements in the series will be taken effect in the second half of megaforce titled super megaforce.

Err... nope, I didn't remember that! Thanks for the reminder. ^^

But still, from what I understand Gokaiger was pretty great. It's kinda frustrating to watch an underwhelming MegaForce knowing that Gokaiger is on the back burner. I think it would have been nice to see more of it included in the beginning.

I'm hoping for US!Gokai Silver to be a new character who is half Human/half Aquitian and shows reverence to Noah because US!Gokai Silver's dad was a Blue Ranger.
Try and guess why.

... Sure. Okay, I think I'm going to start with the begining. Cause that's what you do. Man, you better get used to those references. Being it's an anniversary series and all. Because that's all it's going to be from here until the end next year.

And how, in the name of Hell, is Andros better then JDF? Jason atleast gives a damn about fans and the fandom, and about the series. And was such a better actor. Yes, when he first started, it wasn't very good. Then he grew. I hope they bring him back. For more than just an episode or two.

Perhaps the Morphing Grid even bestows the mantle of US!AkaRed on Tommy.

That is what I am sincerly hoping for, Wonder.

well tommy should the embodyment of are rangers due to the fact he is 2 reds a black a white and a green ~

Now, I fear I must disagree with you here. You see, I would much rather have Billy be the American AkaRed. Yes, he was a Blue Ranger, but I don't care- of the original five, he stuck with the show the longest, despite all of the backstage troubles, and I think Billy deserves to be a Ranger once again.

I really don't have any complaints about Megaforce at the moment. Like others, I think Troy is only uninteresting at the moment because we really know nothing about him. His character has had nothing in the way of development and hopefully that's remedied soon. Of course a series not pushing all the focus on the red ranger is kind of refreshing, especially after Jayden & the Samurai.

ditto.

I don't think that at all. Noah isn't "not cool" he's just not sure of himself. When you're charged with saving the world, I'm sure it's going to cross your mind eventually.

And no, not all nerds lack self esteem, or love science, etc. etc. etc. but there are those that do. Remember, Power Rangers tends to have a message behind it. I recall in a David Yost TV Guide interview that he said one time, a short, chunky kid came over and told him that because of Billy, he felt like he could do anything and gave him a hug and thanked him. Billy, being the "nerd", showed kids that the can get through anything, even a fear of fish apparently! :D

Not sure what a Mary Sue is, so you'll have to explain that one. Also, in the three episodes I've seen, I don't recall Emma being like that at all. In fact, I haven't really seen much of Emma at all, especially for form that conclusion.

So what are your expectations then? If it's the 20th anniversary, nods to previous shows are expected. But I don't see how this makes any difference to the card issue, when most likely the editing/completely new card issue had it's costs moved to other things that we don't know about, like possible returning actors. Regardless, the card thing is still nitpicky though. We have names for these characters, like "Tensou" and "Gosei." I think the bigger gripe should be the names on the Power Cards themselves. We have for example Sky, Sea and Land Brothers, but other Power Cards show the same thing, but with a variant name, like Aero, Oceanic, and Terran Brothers instead. So it's not much of a stretch to see Skyic, Seaic and Landic on the show itself.

Here's the thing for me here though: You don't want a typical Power Ranger script, but yet you want the nerd to be the typical nerd from other seasons?

This has already been answered for you, but Megaforce is combining two seasons, Goseiger and Gokaiger, to coincide with the 20th anniversary.

Lastly, those aren't Ranger Keys on the walls. They're three to four sizes too large for keys and have no waist joint. It's not to say that they won't do... something, but as it stands, they're not Ranger Keys in that form.

Don't worry, he doesn't know what a Mary Sue is either :p

PS To be fair, TV Tropes even has a hard time defining this one.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MarySue

That's because Mary Sue is a concept, not a description. What makes a character a Mary Sue in Lord of the Rings might be the norm for a character in Harry Potter, for example.
A Mary Sue is a little on the difficult side to properly describe, since it's not a catch all, but varies from series to series on what makes the character so "Perfect."

My issue is not that they included a nerdy character, it's just that all of the characters seem so stereotypical. The glasses the attitude, it's like they just went though a super generic check list for things associated with nerds and called it a day. In other installments, that was never the case, for good reason I think. Sure, there have been nerds, but they at least had some self confidence and unique traits. But the MegaForce characters all seem so generic.

A Mary Sue basically means a character that's too perfect. Gia is smart, beautiful, popular, etc. Again she just seemed like another generic, shallow character.

Did you watch the first episode? In one of the first scenes, in response to Mr. Burley's question, Emma says that only insects will survive all the awful things humans are doing to wreck the environment. I'd have to go back and watch it again to be sure, but I think about midway through the episode she even says the line "I love the environment" or something very similar.

For a show like Power Rangers, changing text on a card should not be rocket science. Yeah, it would take some time to do the editing, but heck to me that seems like part of the job of making a Power Rangers series. Why not make it right? Again, this is the 20th anniversary of Power Rangers we're talking about. If there was one series to pay a little more attention to, put a little more effort into, and not to cut corners on, I'd hope this would be it. I guess 'cause they think the show is just for children who won't care anyway. Maybe my expectations were too high, but I was expecting this season to be epic, not hovering around average.

I never said I wanted anything typical from other seasons. I was just suggesting other seasons as examples of more interesting characters and stories. That doesn't mean I just want clones of former rangers. I just want to not feel like I could see pictures of the current cast in the dictionary under "nerd" "jock" etc.

There's just nothing special about MegaForce right now, that's my big gripe.

But at least I've got hope. Going Viral at least showed that Jake and Noah aren't completely 1-dimensional, so hopefully as we get to know more about the others, they'll be less bland.

The Power Morphers from Season 1 say Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger on them when the remove their coins to form the crystals. Unedited footage is really nothing new and has been a staple of Power Rangers for 20 years.

Also, the whole Emma thing. Yeah, I watched the first episode. But it's only been one time. Your initial post made it seem like this was something she did incessantly, which it's not that way really.

Season 1, a whole 20 years ago. Both technology and the show have come a loooooooooooooooooong way since then.

And when there's only three episodes total so far, something that's consistent in one episode is pretty significant. It was the first episode, which introduces us to the characters in the first place, and that's pretty much the one and only thing about Emma that I've learned so far. And other than that, as you yourself pointed out, we "haven't really seen much of Emma at all."

Yes, 20 years. And a budget that only goes so far, especially if they plan to do much more next season, like bring back Veteran Rangers for cameos.

And how is something that happens in one episode consistent? Again, you're acting like Emma needs to continously remind us that she's a treehugger. I don't get that from her, yet. If we get some focus eps and shes going on and on about it, then yeah, it would be something that she's forcefeeding to us.

I see, well, I have my own theory on how Billy will be integrated into Super Megaforce.

In other words: Billy will be the dad of the half Human/half Aquitian US!Gokai Silver I mentioned above. And he'll be the guy who built the US!GoZyuJin and Gokai Cellular.
Isn't wild speculation fun?