[Locke]

So watched a bit more of MMPR and here are some general thoughts.

I know it's a tired criticism of MMPR but taking it a bit seriously, I realise now why Billy was my favourite character as a kid because minus being MacGyver in dungarees....he is the closest one to normal. He isn't a professional martial artist, he hasn't harnessed the power of the swag, he doesn't have some huge world changing plans (other than being a superhero), he is just a nerd.

I think it would have been great, especially as a kid, if MMPR actually followed through what it suggested it wanted to be about and balance the battles of the Rangers, to their daily battles with high school. Because let's be honest, if you were a bit of a nerd in school, probably the kind of kid who enjoyed Power Rangers, high school fucking sucked and it was fucking hard, wasn't it? And the last thing I wanted to see is my heroes that got me through my shit school days to be embodied by the kids who were bullying me.

Our 'dweebs' are made up of a gymnast, a guy so cool I can only hope to be half the man he is, an eco warrior and a dude whose problems consist of bench press challenges. Basically the head bully, his girlfriend, her best friend that the head bully hates but allows to be around and the bullies right hand man, I'm sure anyone who has been bullied knows the types and how well the characters fit into this types.

How cool would it be if the five teenagers saving the world in their giant robot...were actually as insecure, confused and scared as the rest of us? They even still had to deal with bullies (actually bullies not an obese thirty year old man and his heroin addicted sidekick). I could relate to the show then.

Also considering Zordon wanted to keep the Power Rangers hush hush, the communicators sure are dumb huh? Not only do they blurt out to everyone around them what is being said by Zordon (so even a public phone would be more private) but Zordon doesn't even try any subtly or code he's just like 'BY THE WAY ZACK, TRINI, KIMBERLY, BILLY, JASON...THE POWER RANGERS THEY ARE THE POWER RANGERS....' Zordon is a fucking d-sack.

And the final thing is there really is no attempt to gel the sentai and american footage at all is there? They trim down the sentai fight to a tiny condensed couple of sequences, making sure that every story beat is removed so it is about nothing so they can just throw it in anywhere, so they can add whatever corny message they want to the episode and it really pulls me out of the experience because although they have removed all element of the plot to the fight from the sentai they don't shoot any new footage to make the fight about what their episode is about so it's just a random fight devoid of any feeling.