Courtesy: Lionsgate
The most recent installment in Saban’s long-running Power Rangers franchise—Power Rangers Samurai—recently wrapped up its season with the rangers taking down Xandred once and for all. Meanwhile Skull and his son Spike are re-united, leaving Bulk behind and the rangers all going their own way. With the Samurai Rangers’ duties done, the question was raised would there be another series to carry on the Power Rangers franchise. The answer: Yes. But before that, fans of the Samurai Rangers were given one last adventure from the previous team of Rangers. That adventure is the new straight to DVD feature, Clash of the Red Rangers: The Movie.
Clash of the Red Rangers: The Movie is for all intents and purposes a space filler between one Power Rangers series and the next. This forty-five minute story not only offers audiences one more adventure from the Samurai rangers, but even includes a former Ranger from the RPM universe. Given, on the surface, the RPM Ranger’s story seems out of place considering the timing of this new release and the end of Power Rangers RPM. But one must also take into consideration that the two series existed within their own universe, much like the various incarnations of different comic books (E.g. Batman, Batman & Robin, Wolverine, The Uncanny X-Men, etc.) So taking this into account, it makes suspension of disbelief more possible. In turn, it makes this essentially extended TV episode more bearable.
Clash of the Red Rangers: The Movie is less a movie and more an extended TV episode. But even if one considers it a movie, unlike other movies taken from TV series, it actually hasn’t lost any of the action for which it was known during its run on TV. All the explosions and fight scenes are there. And since it hadn’t happened in some time, it was interesting to see Saban do another crossover episode. The last time that Saban had done such was in the Power Rangers Dino series. That series saw the return of Tommy (Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers) as the head of his own team of Rangers. The Rangers’ zords in this series were even throwbacks to the very first of the Power Rangers series. So while it wasn’t directly a crossover, it is the closest that the franchise had come to a crossover before this DVD release.
This new DVD release from Saban is interesting because it presents the first crossover storyline from the Power Rangers franchise in some time. That crossover story arc also makes this an interesting release in that for the first time in the Power Rangers franchise, it openly answers the question of how there could be so many different teams of Rangers around the world. This franchise has evolved in so many directions since the days of the Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers. It’s this kind of evolution that can cause comic book fans to become confused and even frustrated. So the very acknowledgement that there are different dimensions to the Power Rangers universe helps to justify each franchise, if only a little bit at best. In the simplest of terms, what this has done is it has hopefully put the kibosh on that eternal question raised by so many fan boys. And in turn, it makes the latest series in the franchise, Megaforce, that much more appreciated, especially being that it directly throws back to the original Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers. Keeping all of that in mind, Clash of the Red Rangers: The Movie may not be the best of the Power Rangers features ever written. But it does explain some previously unexplained issues and in turn makes previous Power Rangers series worth another look. For that, it in itself is worth at least one watch.
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