Monday 1 August 2011

MMPR Day of the Dumpster

Day of the Dumpster

My Day of the Dumpster review will be a bit longer than the other episodes due to it being the series opener, and storyline heavy compared to other episodes.

First of all, the theme tune; this is one song that almost anyone who was alive in the 90s can recognise, and I can think of only one song that comes close to being as recognisable (the Pokémon theme tune). It has so much energy, I can see why kids loved it so much at the time, there was very little with a rocky soundtrack, the only other show I can think of is X-men, which was another Wasserman creation.

It starts out in space, with the astronauts heading towards the dumpster. This dumpster seems alot easier to open than we will see later, in White Light, but I'll put that down to Zedd putting a lock on it or something before shooting it off that time.

There's not really a motive given for why Rita and crew want to conquer earth, but I suppose, like she says, it's because Earth is the nearest planet and it would just show her power.

We then cut to the rangers. Each shows off their athletic/martial art skills, apart from Billy, who shows his intelligence and quick learning. Then Bulk and Skull come in. Bulk has the best like delivery of the episode so far.

A couple of gripes I have with the episode is that the characters of Billy and Kimberly are both very stereotypical. Billy churns out nonsense that none of the others understand, apart from Trini, who acts as a translator. Kimberly is overly girly, but I suppose since that would appeal to a female audience, that is excusable. 

Also, Zordon asks Alpha to recruit five 'overbearing and over emotional humans'. I've never understood why these qualities were needed, and why he didn't just use the line that he says in the opening 'five teenagers with attitude'.

Rita then decides to attack the rangers as they are leaving the Command Center. Why they don't attack the Command Center head on more often is beyond me. During this scene you can see a shot that is used from the pilot, where they are in different clothes in a long distance shot.

Jason also shows some qualities as a leader in this episode, saying the the rangers are 'going to save the world' during a teleportation scene.

The background music provided by Ron Wasserman is also very apt and, like I said earlier, provides a lot of energy, which helps to engage the viewer more.

In the early episodes, the Zords go into Tank Mode before going into the main Megazord. This seems pointless, because, in this episode at least, the Tank Mode does more damage to Goldar than the Megazord. However, this could be due to the lack of the power crystals at this time (however they are seen when you get a cockpit shot).

Finally Zordon tells them the three commandments of being  a Power Ranger, which include a common criticism of Power Rangers; why don't they just go big straight away? This is because they cannot excede the force Rita uses against them, meaning they can't go into their Megazord straight away.

Overall, I think this is a very good opening episode for the series. The music is spot on, and although the acting leaves a lot to be desired, you can tell the characters are worthy of being Power Rangers.

4 comments:

  1. Really good review man :)

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  2. HA! I remember this. holy cow. I thought the pink ranger was HOT! Too bad the yellow ranger died so soon. . . You know, as a kid you won't notice, but the black guy was the black ranger, the yellow ranger was asian, and the pink ranger was the frilly chick. The main character "red ranger" ended up in gay porn, and the green ranger was the only Ranger to keep returning in future episodes and other spinoffs. Green ranger was the best of them all. Blue ranger was just there.

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  3. Awesome review man. I might have to find this on the internet somewhere and check it out.
    +followed

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