Brian Camp
"Power Rangers Super Megaforce: The Legendary Battle" is easily my favorite Power Ranger special. It's the last episode of the two Megaforce seasons (2013-2014) of the now-23-year-old franchise and is a remake of the Japanese all-star production, GOKAIGER GOSEIGER SUPER SENTAI 199 HERO GREAT BATTLE (2011), which brought together quite a number of older sentai stars, including some from the original cast of "Goranger" (1975), the very first sentai series in Japan. ("Power Rangers Megaforce" and "Power Rangers Super Megaforce" used footage from the "Goseiger" and "Gokaiger" sentai seasons, respectively. Those teams star in the Japanese movie.) What's most remarkable about the American production is how little footage it uses from the Japanese original. Instead, it recreates and restages lots of the big action setpieces and the results are quite impressive. There are scenes of urban devastation after an alien attack that are quite realistic and involve dozens of extras. Some Japanese footage from a separate "Gokaiger" TV episode is used here, but is edited into the scene very smoothly. The big finale with dozens of past Power Rangers reuniting to help the Megaforce team in the final battle with the alien hordes is also pretty spectacular and is just as good in its own way as the counterpart sequence in the Japanese original.This episode starts with the sixth Ranger, Orion (Cameron Jebo), leaving Earth to go back to his home planet, having assumed that the Power Rangers' victory in the previous episode means he isn't needed anymore. Within minutes of his departure, the Rangers get word of a new alien armada, consisting of hundreds of thousands of ships, on its way to Earth under the direction of the evil Emperor Mavro. Before they know it, the Megaforce team is overwhelmed by the sheer number of opponents and desperate for help. Orion gets wind of the invasion and turns around and heads back to Earth. Following another pitched fight, Orion and Troy (Andrew M. Gray), the Red Ranger, devise a brilliant strategy to turn the tide of battle. Finally, the six Rangers confront a massive army of X-borgs, the villains' nameless, faceless warriors (this season's equivalent of the "putties" from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers) outside of their town in one last sprawling fight scene, the only sequence to use a significant number of shots from the Japanese original, but, again, seamlessly edited with the expertly shot and staged new footage.My favorite moments involve the return to action of several past Power Rangers. We first see them, out of costume, helping out during the aftermath of an alien attack, rescuing people (and their dogs) from the debris and a trapped elevator. I was delighted to see the Red Ranger and Pink Ranger from "Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue" (Sean Cw Johnson, Alison MacInnis) in their everyday roles as Emergency Medical Technicians from that show. I was overjoyed to see my favorite Pink Ranger, Cassie (Patricia Ja Lee) from "Power Rangers in Space," alongside one of her teammates, Red Ranger T.J. (Selwyn Ward). In the finale, we see gatherings of eleven teams from earlier seasons on the hilltops overlooking the battle site as the Megaforce members look up and excitedly call off their names, "Mighty Morphin!," "Zeo!" "Turbo!"...all the way to the season preceding Megaforce, "Samurai." Then, as the small army of past Rangers marches forward to join the Megaforce team, we see eleven of them take off their helmets to reveal themselves. At the head of the column is none other than Tommy Oliver himself, the Green Ranger from the original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Jason David Frank! In addition to those already named, the others include Melody Perkins, Danny Slavin and Reggie Rolle of "Lost Galaxy," Jason Faunt of "Time Force" and two from "Samurai." I especially liked Melody Perkins' line, "I love being a Power Ranger," which sums up the ethos of the series as well as anything. If you're a longtime fan of the PR franchise, this is quite an emotional scene and reason enough to see this special.Included on the DVD containing the Extended Edition of this episode is "Power Rangers: A Legacy Featurette," a collection of interviews with seven of the actors from the episode, including two Megaforce members, Azim Rizk and Christina Masterson, and five past Rangers, Frank, Faunt, Johnson, MacInnis, and Rolle. They offer happy memories, warm feelings toward their fans, and the sense of uplift that the franchise has always inspired. What a gift.
