The Movie

I severely doubt there was an outcry loud enough to warrant this latest release of the Power Rangers series, but low and behold, here it is. The Best of the Power Rangers - Ultimate Rangers is the latest DVD release from the popular child sensation television series, The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. This collection of five special episodes is supposedly voted the best of the best by fans of the show. Frankly, if these are the best, then I don't feel so bad for missing all the shows in between.

I occasionally watched the show back during season one, when it was called the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. I thought it was silly, and horribly acted, but thought it was kind of cool because it was live action, and offered plenty fighting action to go around. In it's first year the show was an enormous hit with children, but drew protest from parents because of its violent nature. I guess you can't blame them for disliking the show; after all, there were incidences all over the country of little Billy beating the crap out of little Nicky with his Tyrannosaurus Zord karate chop attack. But the show stayed on the air, and the toys flew off the rack. Who can forget that mad Christmas rush when every sleepy eyed father was out probing mall after mall for the infamous White Ranger?

Well after season one, I stopped watching, and boy have things changed. After the first season, the show went nuts. With every new season, came a new cast, and new show. There were new rangers, new villains, new quests, and new planets. There was a multitude of new scripts such as Power Rangers In Space, Power Rangers: Lost Galaxy, Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue, and Power Rangers Time Traveling Pet Rescue Patrol. Well, maybe not the last one, but you get the picture. In my opinion, the show got out of control, and as a result, lost its core audience. How can you keep a loyal following when everything keeps completely changing? The answer: you can't.

The Ultimate Rangers is a collection of the five absolute favorite fan episodes. Here's a brief breakdown of the episodes:

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: White Light - Parts 1 & 2: Here the Power Rangers must save the world from Lord Zedd and his seemingly unbeatable Scarlet Sentinel. The only way this foe can be defeated is with the newly constructed White Ranger. This episode is pretty darn bad, and to be truthful, it's the best of the bunch. Sadly, everything just goes downhill from here.

Power Rangers In Space: Countdown To Destruction: Astronema and Dark Spector seek to destroy all that's good in the Universe. The Rangers In Space must acquire the help of past Power Rangers to help save the day.

Oddly in this episode, there's hardly any fighting. It's almost entirely composed of special effects. Some of the flying in space scenes are so ridiculous; I almost shut off my DVD player. No one said this job was going to be easy.

Power Rangers: Lost Galaxy: To The Tenth Power: Trakeena unleashes the Psycho Rangers to kill off the Lost Galaxy Rangers. But thankfully Andros appears, along with his fellow Space Rangers, to help out their successors.

At this point I'm getting totally lost as to what Ranger's are who, and which ones are from where and what time. All I know is that there's a bunch of young people in flashy spandex uniforms beating people up. So it can't be all that bad can it? Yeah right.

Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue: Trakeena's Revenge - Parts 1 & 2: Triskull and Olympius kidnap humans to drain their energy for Queen Bansheera, yet Trakeena has other things in mind. The Galaxy and Lightspeed Rescue Rangers must combine powers to stop the evil devastation.

Okay, Lightspeed Rescue Rangers? I thought this was a joke at first, but I was horribly mistaken. This group rides around in a Hummer looking for people to rescue who happen to be in life threatening situations. What happened to the cool fighting, and flashy animal shaped ships? These Rangers don't even attempt to hide their true identity. Oh the humanity!

Power Rangers: Wild Force: Forever Red: Seppenterra has escaped from her cosmic tomb and joins forces with General Venjix to use their new weapon that will destroy the Earth. Of course, only a chillingly exciting reunion of all the past Red Rangers (all 10 of them) can save the day.

I'm glad this was the last show on the DVD, because I think I would have poked out my eyes with a salad fork if I had to endure another show trying to out due this one. I mean, how can you top having all 10 Red Rangers on the same show? Anyway, this was probably the worst episode of the bunch. Yeah it was kind of cool to get all of the original Red Rangers together in one episode, but they didn't do anything? The villains were lame, and didn't seem threatening at all. Why did they need all the Red Rangers? Does General Venjix have a deep down suppressed fear of all things rosy red? Whatever. To make things worse, the ending was the most anticlimactic finale of any show I've ever witnessed. To say this show was horrible would be an insult to the word itself.

If you're a diehard fan of the show, then I guess this DVD is something you'll want to have. However, if you're thinking you might want to try something new, I can not warn you enough. Stay away from this DVD. It's bad, really bad.


The DVD

Video: This DVD is presented in 1.33:1 full screen. The picture is exactly what I would expect from a TV release such as this. The video is a tad soft, and some pixelation can be seen, but for the most part, it looks exactly as it did when it was on TV. Not a horrible looking DVD, but then again it is a horrible DVD to watch.

Audio: Here we have a Dolby Digital 2.0 audio track. For some reason I felt the show sounded much better on this DVD than I remembered it on TV. There's a lot of music and special effects to be heard on these shows, so the audio plays an important role. There really isn't much to say here; just that it sounds decent, much like the show did on TV.

Extras: No extras to be found here.


Final Thoughts:

Well, if nothing else, Power Rangers - The Ultimate Rangers portrays the accurate, albeit sad, history of the Power Rangers series. From what I understand, the latest edition, Power Rangers Wild Force, goes back to its roots and reincarnates the energetic action that the series was founded on. This is a good thing, because the last few years have been unkind to the Power Rangers series. Unless your little one is smacking you upside the head demanding this DVD, I'd avoid it like a room full of flesh-eating cockroaches. Skip It