Power Rangers R.P.M.

I grew up with the classic "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers", "The Movie" and "Zeo" afterwards it was mixed-bag. "Turbo" and it's dumb movie sucked!, and i never liked it even back when i was 8, "In Space" was a huge improvement, "Lost Galaxy", "Lightspeed Rescue" and "Time Force" were decent, but afterwards i just didn't care anymore, because i got older and felt it's not for my demographic anymore being really cheesy, inconsistent writing and sometimes plain childish, too much pointless subplots and filler. the only power rangers seasons that was surprised me with some effort were "Dino Thunder" and "SPD" but then it went back to being dumb, childish and annoying. in 2009 Disney announced that "RPM" is the final season of the franchise under their ownership. i didn't care at first, but then some friends who are fans told me to watch it, it's nothing like the other shows and it's one of few power rangers series that's better then the original super sentai it's based on, "Engine Sentai Go-onger".

so out my curiosity i saw the first couple episodes of RPM and WOW! for the first time ever i doesn't feel lazy, cheesy or childish power rangers at all, the mature writing, elements of realism (which is rare for 'power rangers' standers), the episodes are serialized with very little filler, the tone is more serious and dark, the casts performance is one of the best i have seen in power rangers series, the action scenes are also pretty cool, the characters are all likable and developed. my only nitpick with the show is the zords, they look really silly and they even have eyes!, in the sentai version they even talk. thankfully the staff that worked on RPM also hated the zords design and muted their voices to fit a much serious adaptation. overall this might be the best power rangers series of all time!!!

You make lemonade and that's what this season is all about.

I have watched the Power Rangers since the start in The Netherlands and watched most of the seasons albeit not in their entirety. But I know what Power Rangers is about.

And somehow I was reading up on Power Rangers the last couple of days with the intention of watching one of the seasons I haven't watched yet. And I stumbled across R.P.M. with an extraordinary high rating, where the other seasons only score five plus ratings.

First of all what makes Power Rangers R.P.M. so great is that this season doesn't take it self to serious, they even make fun of their Zords, morphing sequences and spandex suits. Great way to break the fourth wall.

Plus it has decent acting, fun action, a great story and interesting characters. It was nice to see who they were before they became Rangers and it changed their life. I almost shed a tear with one of the episodes, so that says something.

Come to think of it, the acting and great story was what kept me hooked. Not the stupid Zords and so on.

So do yourself a favour and give this season a chance.

Even tho I didn't watch some of them until the end (Samurai, Megaforce and Mysticforce), I had seen pretty much all the Power Ranger Series before. But strangely enough, I never saw and didn't know anything about RPM up until last month. I did PR marathon 4 years ago and somehow, I skipped this series. But after tied-in with Beast Morphers Season 2, I knew that I have to go back and watch it, and today I finished this, and hot damn, RPM is god-tier, easily my top 5 series of the franchise. It is more matured, darker and serious take on Power Rangers series. Terminators and Mad Max: Road Warrior inspired apocalyptic world and occasionally popped up meta jokes that make fun of the franchise itself alone make RPM quite standout from the crowd. Not to mention it's heavily plot-driven, absorbing central story. I liked that even in filler episodes there is something always happening to push the story forward, and characters are well rounded too. Even tho the main focus is on Dillon/Black Ranger other characterz don't get neglected too. They all go through personal growth during the series and the cast is so great and instead of feeling like watching something, it's more like hanging out with them. Ziggy is on up there with Sky from S.P.D as the most funniest green ranger ever. Serious tho this one is incredible and can't undertsand why it is so overlooked by the fandom. Deserved much more love.

You might be wondering why I watched a show like this. I mean, Power Rangers started when I was a kid and I still shouldn't be into it, right? Well, I continue to watch shows if they continue to be as great as this one is. I've never seen Disney produce a better Power Ranger season then this. It may be considered dark to some, but I find it to be some of the greatest plots that ever came out of the Power Rangers franchise. Normally something can't be as serious as kid appropriate as this turns out to be. But this is much better than most seasons of late and probably the best season since the classic rangers ended a long time ago. I highly recommend this to people of all ages knowing that it is a great series that should be watched by anyone who was ever a fan of Power Rangers.

This is an entry that has speed under the radar and personally this is my forth favorite in the franchise if you can believe that. This was you could say the final show of the Disney era, and I personally felt they finished at first place.

The only speed bumps this show has are in the cinematography of the fights, I really didn't like the fact they used the shaky cam technique in some places, personally I felt it looked stupid and is a bit of a cheat for action scenes, I prefer to see the punches and kicks connect, though there really isn't that much shaky cam so it's not a big problem. Anohter are the zords and mega zords which I found unmemorable and kinda lame the designs look a bit too kiddy, their not horrible but as a fan of the franchise we can do better.

Other than that everything else was fine. The action was really good as usual, like seeing them all use the weapons and powers. The music and theme song were decent. However strangely for once this was kinda secondary.

What I really felt power this show was how once again it really was on the dark side of things like with Space, Lost Galaxy, and Time Force, and I love that because it really shows the Power Rangers being challenged and at their best emotionally.

The plot I thought was great, it's sort of uncannily similar to the 80s show "Captain Power and the Soilders of the Future", just like with that show we see the human race has lost to a machine empire and humans are becoming an endangered species and there is only one human civilization left.

I even like how there are a few sci-fi references like Dylan's car is shameless an homage the V8 Interceptor from the "Mad Max" franchise. And of course a little reference to "Aliens" as there are a couple of characters named Hicks and Vasquez. And the character name Ziggy sort of a reference to the computer intelligence from the TV show "Quantum Leap".

The plot does develop and things at times take an unfun turn which really makes it feel like what happening matters. The Rangers really struggle and they don't always win which just all the more makes us want them to win.

I really like the characters and each of them had a certain amount of depth.

Ziggy/Green Ranger he's my second favorite. He's sort of like Scott Lang/Ant Man just like Scott he's a person that's really not a bad person just on the wrong track. He was a former thief that has been imprisoned but has been given a second shot in life. I really like there is just this fun non serious persona, I like that despite good at his job he's not that good sometimes he get overwhelmed by the odds or even stumbles a bit which I felt just made his character seem more human and it makes sense since he's has less experience being a ranger. I also like his romantic interaction with Dr. T which I always found both sweet and funny, both of them really are great together because they balance each other out it's sort of like a heart and brain relationship, it's a shame both didn't have enough episodes together but oh well.

Even like the Dr. T character whom is dressed almost like Romania from "Doctor Who" with that preppy outfit and straw hat. Her character is sort of on the shy side, brainy, doesn't really get out much. Really liked seeing how much Ziggy challenges her by at times giving her some unintentional grief. But after a while she really does warm up to him even opens up a bit which she's never done with anyone.

Dylan/Black Ranger he's awesome my favorite Ranger of the bunch, he's sort of half human and machine. This character you really feel a sympathetic vibe toward as he is just in constant struggle from the machine side of him trying to override his humanity, his responsibilities as a Ranger to stop the machine empire, but most of all trying to find a way to save his sister from their control if possible. It's once again a complexity in the good guy and bad guy dynamic as one is forced to be on the other end of the fence and the other is faced with harder choices.

The villainous played well by Adiline Kane whom is just a beautiful actress and I'll admit looks really really good in that tight costume. Ahem but she's a solid villain that I actually don't hate, she's got charisma and menace. She is also one that has a sympathetic vibe despite what she does and says it's not at her own will, she is by her nature just a puppet for the main villain to use. Which just all the more makes us hope a way to free her exists.

Well, nothing more to say, "Power Ranger R.P.M." is in Top Gear.

Rating: 4 stars