Power Rangers Mystic Force

Super Sentai Equivalent: Mahou Sentai Magiranger (Magic Team Magi Ranger)

In a world where Lord of the Rings is a hot new property and Pottermania is in full swing, one soulless megacorporation will stop at nothing to cash in on the fantasy trend!

Meanwhile, in the city of Briarwood, a great evil is emerging. In the nearby mystic forest the dreaded Morticon is rallying his armies of the undead, preparing to emerge from his dark pit and wage war upon the world of men. The only hope of stopping him is five warriors of prophecy, humans who will take on the power of magic to become Mystic Force Power Rangers!

Going in, I honestly didn't expect a lot from Mystic Force. It's still executive produced by the much-maligned Bruce Kalish, plus it's heavily focused on magic which I assumed meant less cool martial arts. Well, the first of those two things is more or less true. Kalish' taint is all over this series; the story is basically unchanged from Magiranger, and bad CGI and kalishplosions are everywhere.

That said, no, Mystic Force is pretty solid. The focus on magic didn't have any real negative impact on the Rangers' ability to be kickass martial artists. The Rangers are all likeable and the writing is pretty enjoyable. There's also a memorable reappearance from Rita Repulsa near the end of the series. In all, this is definitely one of my Top 5 Rangers series and in my Top 5 Ranger teams too.

And the villains? Well...

Let me be real for a moment. Look, we all know the villains are going to lose in the end. That's not to say there aren't works that let the villain win, or that the story can't still be good in spite of that... just, let's face it: Power Rangers is not Chinatown. The villains are going to lose, and we want them to.

That said, even if we know the villains are going to lose in the end, if they always lose at every single tiny thing they try to do, that's a problem. It makes them look incompetent, and when they're incompetent it makes it hard to feel threatened by them or to care about what they do. That was one of the major things that hurt Dino Thunder and S.P.D. - the villains never won, not even small or temporary victories. "Oh, look, Zeltrax has a plan to destroy the Rangers. I'm sure this time it totally won't end with him retreating after taking a single--wait, he's already run away? Shocker."

On this front I'm glad to say: Mystic force does it right. The villains get their small victories, and that makes the Rangers' bigger victories more satisfying. The villains also manage to be fairly interesting... some of them, anyway. There are still plenty who are just your typical mindlessly evil monsters, but they're mostly pretty cool.

I've also heard complaints about Mystic Force giving too much focus to the Red Ranger compared to the others... and while I guess that's sort of true I also really didn't even notice... maybe because giving all the cool plots and powers to Red Ranger is something EVERY series of Power Rangers EVER has done.

KR Rating: [4] GOOD

PROS:	CONS:
+ Pretty decent action, usually.	- Plays it safe with the source material.
+ Villains are actually threatening, get their small victories.	- Still an overreliance on bad CGI and kalishplosions.
+ The Rangers are pretty good too.	- Go away, Bruce Kalish!