I’ve still got Power Rangers on the brain, so I guess it’s time to revisit the official Mighty Morphin Power Rangers movie.

What’s It About? When intergalactic villain Ivan Ooze is accidentally released from his prison on Earth, six teenage heroes must go on a journey to acquire the power to defeat him.

STRAIGHT UP: Plot, characters, action sequences are all a mess. Oh no! 3/10

What I Liked

The “Armored Ranger” costumes – Specially designed for the movie, these are the best-ever versions of the classic MMPR suits.

Ivan Ooze – One of the more clever and entertaining villains in MMPR history. There’s some meta-humor in his plan to throw the city into chaos by selling a ridiculous commercial product to children.

“I’m a frog” – Johnny Yong Bosch’s delivery of this line completely took the piss out of what was supposed to be an important scene, unintentionally making it the best and most memorable bit of dialogue in the movie.

What I Disliked

Lazily-assembled plot – The fantastical nature of Power Rangers and the Japanese Super Sentai shows it derives from allows for new characters, settings, and MacGuffins to be introduced without much need for explanation – but sometimes, the screenplay can’t be bothered even with the bare minimum requirements. What is Dulcea’s relationship to Zordon? Who were the Ninjetti? How are the Ranger’s new powers different from their old ones? A few minutes – even just a few lines – of exposition could have solved these mysteries and expanded the plot.

Comprehensively bad fight scenes – Almost nothing about them works! They’re full of jumpy camera work, nonsensical progression, and gratuitous Looney Tunes-esque pranks (including a Wile E. Coyote boulder drop), and peppered with not-so-witty quips and excessive backflips. I longed for the more straightforward fight scenes of the TV show, which usually did a much better job of making the heroes look cool and tough.

CGI Megazord & monsters – The decision to render the final showdown between the Ninja Megazord and Ooze’s Ectomorphicons in CGI was a mistake. Even by ’90s standards, the models look cheap and lack animation; thanks to low color contrast and an over-used chrome effect, they’re also visually indistinct. The old tokusatsu tradition of using actors in rubber suits would have provided for more visually vibrant monsters and a more watchable battle scene.

Cookie-cutter heroes – In the TV series, the six members of the MMPR team were each distinctive, if not particularly deep, characters. This isn’t apparent in the movie, where nobody gets any unique dialogue or signature scenes.

Not enough Morphin’ Time – Not counting the Zord battle, there is exactly one (1) fight scene where the characters transform into Rangers to fight bad guys hand-to-hand. I could get more than that from almost any episode of the TV show.

No Bulk & Skull – These guys were secretly one of the best and funniest parts of the old TV show. I can’t believe that there wasn’t a way to give them a bigger role in the movie.

CLOSING THOUGHT: Even though it’s nearly 20 years after the fact, I’m inclined to call my parents and apologize for making them sit through this movie with me in the theater. It lacks both humor and excitement, and its sins are magnified in light of the tremendous opportunity that was wasted here. This was the first and only completely original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers production, not relying on any footage or plot points from its Japanese source material. The producers had an opportunity to draw from multiple seasons of established characters and continuity to create something truly special for fans. Instead, it feels like they just grabbed the first script off the pile and used the Power Rangers to fill in the blanks. It would be difficult to make a kids’ movie more dead on arrival than this one. Ironically, it seems like this movie has become the black sheep of the franchise; it’s currently the only Power Rangers movie that isn’t available to watch on iTunes or Amazon, and the Rangers’ ninja powers were given a different origin in the TV show.