In a world where Power Rangers is no longer owned by Haim Saban, but instead by Disney, one question remains... which of this franchise's two owners is MORE greedy and evil?
Alternately, when the Earth finds itself under attack by the Orgs, living embodiments of pollution, Princess Shayla, the guardian of nature who lives on a floating turtle island in the sky, calls forth a team of five young heroes to form her Wild Force Power Rangers!
Wild Force was sort of a return to the series' roots, at least in terms of focus, with Wild Force placing much greater importance on the combat action as opposed to the plot and character interactions. (It wasn't as much of a return in terms of tone, though. Wild Force was overall much less cartoonish and idealistic than the original series.)
There is an overarching plot that does manage to get fairly decent into the latter half. Sadly, that's mostly just because it follows the story ofGaoranger to a tee. I know that's not exactly something new, but it's worse than ever here, with fans of both series even pointing out shot-for-shot remake moments.
The best part of the story was the friendship between Toxica and Jindrax, the villain's two lieutenants who had worked together for a thousand years awaiting their master's return and who had a lot of good chemistry together. Even that was just ripped off 100% from Gaoranger, though.
It's obvious that Disney's writers had no clue what to do here and all the stuff they made themselves was a flailing, confused mess that couldn't stop bashing you over the head with environmental messages.
Oh, also Ann Marie Crouch as Princess Shayla was a definite low point. Her line readings are stilted and wooden and never come across as sincere. She's not quite as bad as Vypra from Lightspeed Rescue, but... she's BAD.
KR Rating: [3] MEDIOCRE
| PROS: | CONS: |
| + Toxica and Jindrax are really fun to watch. | - Too scared to deviate from the source material. |
| + Decent action with lots of zords meaning there's always a new power to see. | - Environmental messages as subtle as a bag of anvils. |
BONUS!
Of course, any Power Rangers fan knows that a review of Wild Force would be incomplete without mention of the famous - or perhaps infamous - episode "Forever Red" which brought together every red ranger in the franchise (aside from Rocky DeSanto, the second Red Ranger of Mighty Morhpin') for a massive battle to stop the remains of the Machine Empire from re-activating Lord Zedd's lost zord, Serpentera.
"Forever Red" is... well, I'll just say it: it's awful. Actually, Serpentera is a perfect metaphor for this episode. Serpentera was constantly referenced throughout Mighty Morphin' as being this unstoppable menace that would conquer the Earth in a day if it was used, but whenever Zedd brought it out it always seemed to conveniently run out of fuel just before it could reach Earth or do anything of importance.
That's "Forever Red" in a nutshell. It has potential, but ultimately it was just too packed, too rushed, and way too full of plot holes. For example, Jason Lee Scott (the original Red Ranger) and T.J. Johnson (the Red Turbo Ranger) both LOST their Red Ranger powers in their respective series. Jason gave his up to Rocky DeSantos, and when Jason returned it was as Zeo Gold. T.J.'s powers were destroyed by Divatox, and he got his power back as Space Ranger Blue. So how are they both back to Red? No one knows, and the episode doesn't even attempt to explain it.
I know some people are going to say "oh, you can't complain, it's just fanservice!" I disagree with that, though. For one, yes, you can totally still complain about fanservice. Second, does this even count as fanservice when all it does is disrespect the material? Is it really serving me as a fan to pretend that I'm too stupid to remember the ending of Power Rangers Turbo?
Like I said, "Forever Red" had potential. The episode should have been made as a two-parter. The writers would have had more time then to flesh out their ideas, explain how Jason and T.J. got their powers back, and give us some more time with the characters we all loved... and also Aurico the Red Alien Ranger who just has to be there by default, I guess. Thanks for not spending ANY time on him or even showing his stupid face without his helmet though, Disney. I'm not even being sarcastic here. Screw Aurico.
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