Saban’s Power Rangers recently opened on the big screen, and I caught a matinee showing. I grew up on the original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, during the golden age of Saturday morning cartoons and TV. I’m talking “get up early because the new episode is on” original, and saw the original 1995 movie in theaters (I think).
This movie came out at a time where I’m fairly hyped for original MMPR. I recently completed my set of ab-crunch addicted MMPR Legacy figures.
I also have a growing collection of Fisher-Price Imaginext figures that I share with my four-year-old son. He and I have recently started watching the original episodes on Netflix, which has put me in a fresh mindset to evaluate some of the differences and similarities between the new movie and the classic show.
Now, to be completely transparent here, I had very low expectations for this film going in. As an avid toy collector, I often find a strong correlation between the quality of a movie’s tie-in merchandise and the movie itself. The movie toys are awful, look as if they’re made of cheap plastic you’d find in a kid’s sand pail, and are priced too high. Between the merchandise, the Zord designs, and some lackluster trailers, I set my bar low and considered waiting for the rental instead of paying for a movie ticket.
I’m glad I didn’t wait.
