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#729 – Avanzers Italian Superheroes (2023)
Avanzers Italian Superheroes (2023)
Film review #729
Director: Cosmio Bosco
SYNOPSIS: Gaetanos, the last Alien ruler who survived the Marvel and D.C. superheroes, becomes obsessed with everything Italian. He demands the sacred gem “Made in Italy” or he will destroy the country. To this end, Italy’s greatest (worst) defender Nicola Furia is assigned to stop the evil conqueror, and it is agreed that a football will be held between Gaetanos and Furia to decide the fate of the country. Furia must assemble Italy’s greatest (worst) heroes to defend the might of the country…
THOUGHTS/ANALYSIS: Avanzers Italian Superheroes is a 2023 sci-fi parody film. The plot concerns the alien emperor Gaetanos, who is apparently the last galactic ruler that hasn’t been wiped out by a Marvel or D.C. superhero. He becomes obsessed with Italian culture, from the cars to the food and fashion. He comes to Earth with his army to demand the gem “Made in Italy” so that he himself can create genuine Italian products, otherwise he will destroy Italy itself. In response, the Italian government assign agent Nicola Furia, the world’s most Italian middle-aged man, who strikes a deal to play a game of football against Gaetanos to decide the fate of the country. Reading this summary, you can probably tell this is just a parody crossover of The Avengers meets Space Jam. With that in mind, there’s not much else to add to it story wise, although there’s a small crossover too with Anatar, the Italian Avatar parody from the same year. The film is structured mostly through introducing the various Italian superheroes that are parodies of other superheroes and stereotypes of Italian culture, including the Scoundrels of the Galaxy, Tonio Sterco, Roach Man, Captain Azzurro, an Italian crime boss, and a football hooligan. Moving from one character to the next at least keeps new things happening, but the overarching plot is a bit weak as it constantly focuses on new characters. While the comedy is obviously made for Italians, it’s broad enough to have enough impact to a wider audience, because everyone knows about pasta, pizza, ferraris and football to some degree.
In keeping with being a parody of The Avengers, the film clocks in at over two hours long, which is an absurdly long time for a cheap parody film such as this. There’s enough characters that it at least manages to fill out the runtime without any lulls, but the football match at the end is a bit dull, as there’s nowhere near enough competency behind the camera to make it look interesting, or choreograph anything too unique. This is a low budget affair that offers a stark contrast to the films it is parodying; sometimes it can get away with it, but other times the corner cutting is apparent: one such example is the use of stock footage of people and the use of A.I. generated imagery in some scenes which looks really bad and shows a real lack of effort. Some scenes, such as on the alien spacecrafts and the makeup isn’t as bad, and the mix of different styles just cerates a bit of a mess. The Avanzers has at least some funny moments as it lampoons Italian culture, but there’s no real consistency to any of the production, it doesn’t offer anything memorable, and it is just way too long for this sort of film.
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#728 – Anatar (2023)
Anatar (2023)
Film review #728
Director: Alan Smithee
SYNOPSIS: A planet of duck-like people is destroyed by pollution and leave their planet in a spaceship to seek a new home. They arrive at the planet Pandoro, where the ducks want to conquer the planet, but Princess Avia wants to convince the inhabitants to share the planet. Using a machine to take a human form, she heads down to the planet to try and find a peaceful solution, where she runs into a young scientist named Germano
THOUGHTS/ANALYSIS: Anatar is a 2023 Italian sci-fi film. The plot concerns a race of blue humanoid ducks, who have to flee their home planet after it is destroyed, and arrive at another planet named Pandoro. The duck leader Dark Feather wants to conquer the planet, but Princess Avia wants two weeks to try and convince the population to live peacefully with them. To that effect, she uses an experimental machine to turn her human, and heads to the planet, where she meets Germano, a young scientist/inventor, and a romance blossoms. Yes, beneath the outlandish premise, it’s a very standard fish-out-of-water romance story that offers nothing new, and barely holds together. There’s clearly an attempt to parody the Avatar franchise, with the Anatar title, the planet named Pandoro (Pandora) and the blue ducks. Apart from that though, there’s not really any reference to the film’s, so you can’t really situate this film as a parody, it’s just a few references for the trailer to leech off of Avatar’s popularity I suppose. The whole cast is particularly bland; the leads have no chemistry or acting ability, the English dubbing is horrible and unprofessional, and while there’s obvious parodies of Darth Vader among others, none of the writing really bites or has meaning: there’s no sense of comedic timing or setup that makes any scene really worthwhile. Also, some of the ducks just blatantly speak like Donald Duck, for no reason.
While you can recognise the various parodies to characters/people/places as you go through the film, there’s no real pacing to the overall story, as it meanders all over the place. The film even goes for a fourth wall breaking moment where Germano dies, but the film cuts and the director says that he only dies in the first draft, so they go back and re-shoot it, it makes no sense. This might also be a reference to the troubled production of the film and studio interference which led to the director disowning the film and wanting to be credited as “Alan Smithee.” I can only imagine how bad it was for a director to abandon a film such as this. I just cannot imagine any interference being so bad it ruins this film more than it is. The final shot is the ultimate insult, as the injured Germano is taken to the space ship and put into the machine which Avia used to turn humanoid and…the film just ends mid-scene. I suppose it’s meant to signify that Germano has been transformed into a duck, but there’s zero value in not resolving this; the ambiguity adds nothing. On the surface, Anatar looks like a unholy fusion of Avatar and Howard the Duck, but doesn’t go anywhere near far enough to make it at least an interesting parody or satire. A meaningless, carbon copy story combined with flavourless humour make this a pointless experience that provides no value or incentive to watch.
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#713 – Cade: The Tortured Crossing (2023)
Cade: The Tortured Crossing (2023)
Film review #713
Director: Neil Breen
SYNOPSIS: Billionaire super hero secret agent/Jesus allegory Cade donates some money to a mental hospital in disrepair. His aim is to secretly help the young inmates become warriors to fight evil. Cade’s twin brother Cale is back, and tries to abduct the patients for his own experiments however…
THOUGHTS/ANALYSIS: Cade: The Tortured Crossing is a 2023 film by Neil Breen, and a sequel to the 2019 film Twisted Pair. The film stars Breen once again in the double role of twins Cade and Cale, as well as director, producer and everything else behind the scenes. As always with his films, Breen stars as a superhuman Jesus allegory or something, and a plot that revolves around fighting evil corporations or something, all in Breen’s typical abstract, naïve way. This film is in fact even more incomprehensible than his usual efforts: superhero billionaire, secret agent maybe also genetically engineered A.I. and Jesus metaphor Cade invests in a mental hospital that is run down, and secretly uses it to train its patients to becomes warriors that fight evil…apparently anyway; I didn’t get any of that from actually watching this. Once again, Breen focuses on abstract monologues about good and evil than making any sense.
Near the beginning of the film, Cade helps some young adults who are in a crash, and takes them to his castle – or maybe the hospital – I don’t know. Rather than take them to get medical attention he has them stay the night…on the floor. Then they seem to be staying at this run down hospital where they are kept in appalling conditions, and Cade is still supposed to be the good guy? Honestly, this film is baffling, and I don’t think anyone other than Breen himself can really get what is supposed to be happening. And this is all before we deal with the scene with Breen wrestling a tiger, and the dance sequences with a ghost or something which defy any attempt at mental processing.
One somewhat notable aspect about the production is that the film is entirely shot in front of a green screen. This makes everything look extremely unconvincing. The tiger wrestling scene is completely ridiculous but I suppose it has a little competency to it: it still looks completely fake, but there’s at least some effort to get the tiger and Breen aligned. Once again, we are left with Breen’s characteristically well-intentioned, but unconvincing production that means well, but is simultaneously simple and overly complex plot-wise, and acting flatter than cardboard that means you can very take any scene seriously. In short: it’s just more Breen doing his thing.
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#700 – AIMEE: The Visitor (2023)
AIMEE: The Visitor (2023)
Film review #700
Director: Charles Band
SYNOPSIS: Scott Keyes is a hacker that gets his hands on a strange piece of software that turns out to be an A.I. named AIMEE. When Scott starts spending time with his new girlfriend, she becomes increasingly jealous, and is determined to have him all to herself…
THOUGHTS/ANALYSIS: AIMEE: The Visitor is a 2023 sci-fi film. Hacker Scott Keyes is given a piece of software that turns out to be an A.I. named Aimee. She becomes increasingly possessive of him and when he gets involved with a woman named Gazelle, AIMEE becomes jealous and tries to get her out of the picture so she can have Scott all to herself. That’s it. That’s the story. There’s little bits about how Aimee might have come from the NSA and two agents are trying to get her back, but it doesn’t add up to much. The opening mentions how Aimee is one of the first A.I. actresses (although she is voiced by an actual person), and you can tell just how far A.I. generated imagery has come since 2023 because the result here is not very convincing, and unable to show any real expression. Scott is made out to be a slob and a loser, but still looks fairly clean and well-toned. That’s probably so the two gratuitous sex scenes aren’t off-putting. The film worms it’s way through a few cliché points before ending on a very flat note that resolves very little, but at only sixty-nine minutes (nice), it’s at least no dragged out too long.
This being a film by Full Moon Features and directed by Charles Band should bring everything into focus: it’s the typical low budget feature that you would expect from them. It tries to do something different with the A.I. generated actress, but at it’s core it’s an age-old story of a computer going rogue that doesn’t provide anything new, thrilling or compelling. The only other thing I can say about it is that isn’t really worth watching: you know exactly what you’re going to get.
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#683 – The Pod Generation (2023)
The Pod Generation (2023)
Film review #683
Director: Sophie Barthes
SYNOPSIS: In the near future, a young couple decide to undertake a pregnancy using an artificial womb. Adjusting to the pregnancy, they find that even with a womb that they can leave on it’s own, pregnancy still creates a number of problems to overcome…
THOUGHTS/ANALYSIS: The Pod Generation is a 2023 sci-fi film. Set in the near-future of New York, a young couple decide to have a child, but do so using an artificial womb that they can carry around, which presents it’s own issues and quirks. The film has a mild comedic tone as it pokes fun at over-intrusive artificial intelligence and marketing speak. Throughout the film, various issues arise that provide mild inconveniences to the main characters, and…that’s it really. Throughout the entire film, all the issues that arise are resolved simply or simply glossed over; there is next to no conflict to explore the themes of the film. You’ll quickly notice how completely opposite the couple are: Rachel (Emilia Clarke) to adopt new technology, while Alvy (Chiwetel Ejiofor) prefers nature and the natural world that is easily forgotten in this future. They seem completely incompatible as a couple, yet any disagreement barely comes to anything. Throughout the runtime, there’s nothing that really builds up and becomes the main focal point or issue that ties things together, and it really feels like the film wanders around lost and without purpose. There’s a constant feeling that the film is poking fun at the marketing ploys of companies that try and constantly over-empathise and humanise themselves, but never provides any robust challenge to them: it just shrugs it’s shoulders and moves on. By the time the film ends, I think the final note is that none of the silly trivial moments of pregnancy matter when it’s over and you’re holding your baby, but translating that to the whole of the film makes every issue it raised pointless as well.
While the film has a good cast, nice sets and design, nothing really sticks as the film goes round and round, and while characters change their outlooks on things, it never sticks or changes the dynamic of the film. I just felt like the whole film was toothless: it needed something to happen or to make a statement in order to make everything stick; but it just never comes. Maybe they don’t want to frighten away more casual moviegoers with a more prevalent sci-fi warning I’m not sure, but The Pod Generation never reaches any kind of intellectual or comedic high to make a lasting impact, and wastes a good idea and cast with a very meandering script.
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#675 – Glowzies (2023)
Glowzies (2023)
Film review #675
Director: Hank Braxtan
SYNOPSIS: A group of elderly veterans who spend their time in a diner are interrupted by a group of young influencers who want to check out the old mill in the area. Suspecting something wrong, the vets team up with the influencers to investigate, and when a horde of gloiwing zombies is unleashed from the mill, the veterans realise that they have seen this before, and their memories are not what it seems…
THOUGHTS/ANALYSIS: Glowzies is a 2023 sci-fi film. The film sees a group of grizzled military veterans teaming up with a group of young social influencers to investigate the old mill where the vets worked, which has seemingly been disturbed. Unbeknownst to the vets, they have actually been drugged for the past thirty years to forget that they used to work there, and to keep an eye on the mill in case a terrible secret gets out; the terrible secret eventually does, as glowing zombies start to emerge and the animated goop that turns people into zombies must be stopped before it reaches the outside world. This very typical low budget zombie film may not seen like much at first, but it teams up an interesting contrast of characters, some decent special effects, and just enough self-awareness and humour to make it entertaining. There’s quite a lot going on with the story; from the vets having their memories suppressed, the influencers investigating the mill, the glowing ooze being some sort of alien lifeform, a villain that appears for five minutes…there’s an awful lot to process. But as mentioned, it has enough self-awareness that there’s always a sense of you don’t have to take things too seriously, or follow things precisely to get some enjoyment out of the film. The plot does get a bit bloated towards the end with everything that is going on, and I think a rewrite on the script could have streamlined a bunch of things that slow the film down just a little too much.
The acting is, on the whole, fairly good. With a cast of veterans including James Remar and Michael Dorn (who keeps showing up in these low budget films I end up watching), the film delivers some decent performances. One of the most notable features of this film is that it is a “fun for all the family” experience (as the trailer describes it), so there’s not an abundance of gore and adult humour to mix things up. There is just enough zombies getting their heads smashed in and exploding to bring out some spectacle, but never anything overly scary. Another thing that really stands out is the humour: there’s a fair few genuinely funny moments, it’s just that the pacing can sometimes fail to give the necessary space to appreciate the joke.
As mentioned, the special effects are fairly decent: the titular “glowzies” have an eerie glow about them, and the practical ooze effects are fun. The soundtrack has a sixties “Beach Boys” feel to it, although they obviously couldn’t afford to license any recognisable songs; nevertheless, you get the idea. I think the quality of the this film could have been easily bumped up with some more expertise in camerawork and a tidier script: scenes are often ill-paced, and the camera is not capturing a scene fully. I suppose that might be that the sets are fairly small, but it is noticeably distracting. Overall though, Glowzies is a fairly entertaining low budget title that surprises with a competent sense of humour and effects for it’s budget. A lack of a more rigorous and sharper script hurts some of the more tense moments, but for a “family-friendly” horror film, it’s got enough in it for a one-time watch if you can appreciate the b-movie aesthetic and recognise that self-awareness in the film itself.
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#654 – Landscape with Invisible Hand (2023)
Landscape with Invisible Hand (2023)
Film review #653
Director: Corey Finley
SYNOPSIS: In the year 2036, an alien race called the Vuvv has caused mass unemployment and homelessness across the planet, as their advanced technology has rendered most human jobs obsolete. Adam meets a new girl at his school named Chloe, who has just moved there and is living out of the family’s car since they have no money. As Adam and Chloe start to get close. They decide to make money by broadcasting their relationship to the Vuvv, who have a fascination with human romance. They start to earn money to live as their broadcast becomes popular, but the strain on their relationship starts to affect their broadcast, leading to an uncomfortable confrontation with the Vuvv…
THOUGHTS/ANALYSIS: Landscape with Invisible Hand is a 2023 sci-fi film based on the novel of the same name by M.T. Anderson. Set in the year 2036, when an alien race named the Vuvv have made most human jobs obsolete with their advanced technology, leading to mass unemployment and homelessness. High school couple Adam and Chloe decide to try and make money by live broadcasting their relationship by using headsets that show their point of view, as the aliens have nothing like romance in their culture, and see it as a bit of a novelty. As time goes on however, the pressure of their personal lives being on show puts a strain on the pairs relationship. This premise of the film is a fairly solid one, is simple to grasp, and opens up its world to a satirical look at the human cost to a ‘peaceful’ alien invasion. You can easily fill a film with this plot and explore its implications, which the film does…but it doesn’t stop there sadly. This plot essentially takes up the first third of the film, but evolves into something else entirely, as the film takes a three-act structure and almost completely changes the focus of the plot: when Adam and Chloe’s relationship suffers because of having to broadcast everything, they are sued for ‘faking’ their relationship; leading to a compromise where a Vuvv moves in with them to try and experience ‘real’ family life that they have seen in Tv shows. Then after that, we get Adam’s arc as an artist come to the forefront, as the Vuvv want to exhibit and reproduce his art, again without any idea of what actually means in human culture. These ideas are good enough, but together in the same film, they form a mish-mash of ideas and themes that start and stop, without either the depth required to fully explore them, or a resolution before the film moves onto the next thing. Nothing really adds up; it’s just an exploration of the world and its themes that fails to progress towards anything. This culminates in the film just ending with nothing having been accomplished: nobody really learns anything, the world hasn’t changed for better or worse, it just…goes on, I suppose.
As mentioned, the film takes a satirical tone, poking fun at typical sci-fi concepts and how banal this alien conquest has been brought about not by conquest or military might, but by businesses and capitalism seeing an opportunity to make profit. The banality of this conquest seeps down into every facet of the film, with the characters muddling along with their daily lives, just with giant alien ships floating above them occasionally. It keeps a lighthearted and quirky tone throughout, but still has powerful moments that emphasise the situation humanity is now living under. For example, the opening scene concludes with Adam and Chloe’s teacher shooting and killing himself because his job has been taken over by Vuvv technology. Moments like this are powerful, but are quickly forgotten about as the film bounces along and whips up another mix of ideas and perspectives to try and congeal them into a structured critique.
The characters are a mixed bunch, but are mostly portrayed well. Nothing in the script really hits a strong emotional high, and as mentioned, it’s kept satirical and quirky, which hinders something a bit deeper developing without a tighter, cohesive story. Landscape with Invisible Hand has an understanding of it’s subject and what it wants to do, but that aim is often lost amidst it trying to do far too much, without brining unfinished ideas and relationships forward as the film progresses. As such, it is a jumble of ideas that occasionally hits the mark, but too often spreads itself too thin.
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#607 – Sharktopus (2023)
Sharktopus (2023)
Film review #607
Directors: Hu Dong-Sheng, Shixing Xu
SYNOPSIS: When a huge octopus washes up dead on the shore, Scientist Dr. Jingya Fan, who was working on the project to create it, abandons the project. The financial backer, Mr. Chen, is not impressed with this, and kidnaps her son to force her to continue her research in secret aboard his ship. When the shark-octopus (sharktopus) hybrid research subject escapes from captivity, the lives of the crew and passengers are put in danger, and must stop the sharktopus before it’s too late…
THOUGHTS/ANALYSIS: Sharktopus is a 2023 sci-fi film. technically a remake of the 2010 TV movie Sharktopus, it bears no resemblance to it other than the title, and a titular shark-octopus hybrid. At the start, a giant octopus washes up on shore (while crushing some passers by), which it turns out is a research project led by Dr. Jingya Fan and financed by the mysterious Mr. Chen. Fan leaves the project, but Mr. Chen blackmails her to return by kidnapping her son in order to get her to develop a cure for multiple sclerosis, which is what her son has as well as the new test subject: A shark-octopus hybrid, or “sharktopus” if you will. Dr. Fan is taken to a cruise ship that secretly houses a research laboratory where she can do her work, but Interpol raid the ship to arrest Mr. Chen at the same time as the Sharktopus escapes from confinement, and so everyone is searching for a way to survive and stop the monster. The film certainly has a lot more going on than the original Sharktopus film, but that’s not hard, as it barely had a story at all; just scenes of women in bikinis at the beach stitched together. This remake is essentially just a typical horror movie though, with the cast trying to avoid getting hunted down by the monster. There’s not really any gore or jump scares, so the film just focuses on the cast and their trying to survive.
The film does get quite complicated, and there’s a lot going on with the characters: you have Dr. Fan trying to save her son, then you have a team of Interpol agents raiding the ship, and one of them just so happens to be Dr. Fan’s ex-partner and the Father to her son. The whole story and all the different characters do make things quite convoluted towards the end, so we don’t get much focus on the monster as we perhaps should. Also, none of the kills are really creative or exciting either: the action is very ill-paced, and we don’t see enough of the Sharktopus to make it an interesting centrepiece for the film.
The effects in the film are a mixed bag. They are fairly detailed, including the Sharktopus itself, but the CG doesn’t blend in too well, and it looks a bit odd in motion. It definitely could have been worse, but it’s not great either. The film does offer a bit of a twist at the end, but again, since the film doesn’t really create much tension, and is all over the place, it doesn’t really feel like it has too much consequence. Overall, Sharktopus has the honour of being better than the film it is based on, but that’s a very small accomplishment given the state of the 2010 film. While the film does try and build characters and give them motivation, it’s very limited, and it doesn’t offer anything exciting in terms of being a monster film, with lacklustre horror, action and/or gore. I suppose the 2010 film at least had a self-awareness that it was silly, but this 2023 version really takes itself seriously, without the stronger plot and production to back that up.
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#572 – Crater (2023)
Crater (2023)
Film review #572
Director: Kyle Patrick Alvarez
SYNOPSIS: In a mining colony on the moon, Caleb Channing is about to be shipped to the new colony of Omega, after his Father dies in a mining accident, and he is allowed to go. However, this means leaving his friends behind, which he does not want to do. Caleb also wants to fulfil his Dad’s last wish and go to a crater outside of the colony, so they decide to steal a lunar rover and head out on a road trip across the moon…
THOUGHTS/ANALYSIS: Crater is a 2023 sci-film. The film takes place in 2257 on a mining colony on the Moon, where teenager Caleb Channing is about to be transported to the colony planet Omega, after his Father died in an accident and as a result his family is allowed to take the seventy five year trip in cryostasis to reach the new planet. However, Caleb doesn’t want to go and leave his friends behind. Alongside this, his father told him his dying wish was for him to visit a crater outside of the colony on the lunar surface to see something. To this end, Caleb and his friends plan to steal a lunar rover and travel outside the colony to see the crater before he has to go away forever. The film is a sci-fi twist on the classic teen coming of age adventure, such as The Goonies and Stand by Me. It follows the formula well, and has all the necessary beats to fulfil it’s objective. The sci-fi setting gives it an interesting twist, although at it’s core it focuses on the characters and their adventure: the setting is simple enough to understand and follow, and doesn’t interfere with that. There’s a lot of convenient coincidences that make everything possible, such as a meteor shower happening when they are planning to escape so that means no one can go after them, but you can overlook that for the most part. There’s times where the film feels a bit too on-the-rails for an adventure, as it doesn’t have the capacity to deviate too much from it’s destination (being in a lunar rover, they can’t really just wander off and find anything new on the Moon), and the flashback narration from Caleb’s dad sometimes is a bit overbearing in hammering home what this trip is supposed to be does seem to be a bit counterproductive in celebrating these kid’s freedom, but is not a huge problem, and the film stands on it’s own for the most part.
The cast of Caleb and his friends are diverse and interesting enough, and give strong performances throughout, which creates a good connection between the characters. Each of them has their own issues and outlooks that bring something to the trip, and there’s some conflict between the characters, but it’s very minimal. We don’t learn everything about the characters, and that’s fine, because we’re just enjoying this journey with them. There’s a message about environmentalism and worker’s rights that runs throughout the film, but it keeps it subtle, letting it play off a little more in the finale when the journey is over. The ending is a jump, but one that doesn’t diminish or write off the impact of what it does, and gives just enough to keep things hopeful.
The film looks pretty good, with a consistent sci-fi aesthetic that feels used and worn, without it looking too cheap or hokey. The CG isn’t top notch, but again, that’s just a small thing you can overlook. All in all, Crater is a decent adventure that takes it’s subject matter seriously, although this might be a bit too serious for it’s target audience. The adventure is fun and easy to follow, the performances are pretty good, and while there are some issues with the film, they are mostly easily overlooked, and don’t detract from the experience.
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#557 – Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Now and Always
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once and Always (2023)
Film review #557
Director: Charlie Haskell
SYNOPSIS: Rita Repulsa has returned in a robot body, and is out to get the original power rangers. The yellow ranger, Trini is killed when she sacrifices herself to save the blue ranger Billy. One year later, Robot Rita returns with her plan to absorb the power rangers into her new machine to take their power for herself. The rangers must reunite to take down Rita and save their friends…
THOUGHTS/ANALYSIS: Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers: Once and Always is a 2023 special released as part of the thirtieth anniversary of the Mighty Morphin ‘ Power Rangers TV series, and the beginning of the franchise as a whole. In the opening scene, we see the power rangers in battle against Robot Rita Repulsa, and the yellow ranger, Trini, sacrificing herself to save the blue ranger Billy, which is quite a serious twist. Fast forward a year later and we see Trini’s daughter Minh being raised by Zack, the black power ranger who is now her guardian. Unfortunately, Robot Rita has returned, and has a new plan to kidnap the power rangers to fuel a new machine and absorb their power. She starts kidnapping rangers from all over the world, including the original Red, Green and Pink ranger. Zack and Billy, the black and blue rangers, enlist the help of one-time rangers Rocky and Kat to help them stop Rita’s scheme before it’s too late. The story feels very much like a typical Power Rangers plot line, and could have easily been lifted from an episode of the series. On top of that though, they add in a more mature storyline around the death of Trini, and her daughter, who is set on revenge, and exploring what it means to be a power ranger, which provides enough emotional scenes alongside the typical martial arts action. There’s a decent balance between what you expect from the franchise, and the more in-depth mature story that a now-older Power Rangers fan can enjoy too, which is nice. It’s definitely not a high-budget reboot or remake, and perhaps offers no surprises in terms of story, but it captures that silly, low budget quality of the original that still had the charm to capture children’s imaginations thirty years ago, and in some ways it’s nice that it didn’t try to be anything else.
With regards to the characters, only Zack and Billy, the original black and blue rangers return. This leads to bringing in Rocky, who succeeded as the red ranger, and Kat, who became the pink ranger. The death of Trini, the yellow ranger follows from the death of her original actress. The green ranger Tommy, Jason David Frank declined to appear, but also died shortly after the filming was done, and Austin St. John and Amy Jo Johnson, the original red and pink ranger) also declined to appear. All in all, the cast is very much half complete, and that’s before you include that the original Rita Repulsa and Zordon actors also passed away, and while Zordon did not return, the voice for Rita’s robotic replacement is quite a solid performance. The cast of Power Rangers has always been a revolving door of actors as they leave and a new one takes on the suit, and this special tries to both reference them all, while still focusing on the original team. As such, even if you’re a Power Rangers fan, you might not recognise all the references and characters if you didn’t watch past a certain point in the series. Despite this, Rocky and Kat play their characters well, and while the acting is sometimes a bit flat and cheesy, again it’s what you expect from the series. The special does feel like it has to navigate around the missing cast a bit to try and fit everything together, but at it’s heart it’s still a typical Power Rangers story that’s simple enough to follow.
All the typical beats and action are here in this special: from the hand-to-hand combat with Rita’s goons, the Rangers fighting with the weapons, and the Megazord fight, everything is here that you would expect, along with the cheesy one-liners to go with them. It’s really a love letter to the franchise that captures the feel of the Power Rangers, while also reflecting on some more mature and emotional story elements that the now-older fanbase can appreciate. If you want a reboot, you can watch the 2017 Power Rangers movie, but Once and Always is one for those who watched the original series on Saturday mornings and had their imaginations captured. I was never a huge Power Rangers fan as a kid (I always preferred cartoons over live-action shows), but even as a sometimes fan, I found plenty in here that was entertaining enough, and allowed me to remember the series fondly. It’s full of references and everything Power Rangers, and while you’re probably not missing out on much by not watching it, it’s still entertaining enough, and a fitting tribute to those actors who are no longer with us. As the special concludes with: Once a ranger, always a ranger…
