Netflix's "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers; Once & Always" is less a movie and more a TV special, clocking in at less than sixty minutes, and has some of the worst acting, special effects, costumes, sets, dialogue and fighting this side of a 70's Godzilla film, and it is glorious. Just watching nameless grunts fall down before they're hit just tickles that little part inside of you that's just begging to come out to play, a faint light to let yourself go and just have fun, ignorant of all the horrible things this world is becoming. Perhaps it'll only work on those of a certain age, but I'm happy I fall into that camp.
I especially liked how as soon as the Rangers don their famous spandex, all the paunch on the vintage actors immediately disappears. Either stunt-people are doing all the heavy lifting, or I need to find myself one of those suits.
Staring much of the original cast from the 1993 show, just called Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, this "movie' assumes you either religiously watch the show, have fabulous memory of the show, or can just go-with-the-flow, with so many callbacks, cameos and characters that really don't amount to much outside of "ooh I remember that!" What does concern the plot is that blue Ranger Billy (David Yost), in his attempt to resurrect Zordon accidentally brings back the teams' mortal enemy Rita (voiced by Barbara Goodson) in the form of "Robo Rita." After "go go'ing," a cheesy fight breaks out and right when Rita thinks she's gonna kill Billy, yellow Ranger Trini sacrifices herself, Rita escapes and the group, well, regroups.
Billy and black Ranger Zack (Walter Emanuel Jones), now need to contemplate how to tell her daughter Minh (Charlie Kersh) about her mom; do they expose their secret Power Ranger identities? I'd be more curious to know how they explained it to the authorities, but oh well.
They do end up spilling the beans to her, who swears revenge like anyone would, but I digress. On the anniversary of Trini's passing, all the Rangers go to pay their respect but, uh-oh, Rita's back! She ends up capturing a few Rangers to power her "time travel machine" that'll allow her to go back in time and fill her younger self in with all the knowledge she has now. She'll also knockout the Rangers before they're Rangers as well, but I mean that just goes without saying. What is worth saying, or rather, asking, is that whatever info Rita has now wouldn't exist if she told Rita then, since that would have changed the future. Does that make any sense? Eh, forget I bothered.
Look, I could go on (and golly I do hope I got the Ranger names, actors and colors right), but does any of this even really matter? Both of the film and my critique? Fans will no doubt adore every nostalgic-soaked moment, but everyone and anyone should be able to a fleeting reprieve from all the crap of today with about an hour of cinematic empty calories. If this ends up being a rating success, I halfway expect but truly hope that a full-blown series follows; this could easily become the streamer's next Cobra Kai.
It also helps that it is infinitely more watchable than the dreadful 2017 reboot, serving a purpose of bringing back fond memories rather than exploiting them. At least until the Once & Always Happy Meal toys and kid's (adults?) Halloween costumes show up.
