Whelming: "Clash of the Red Rangers"

[akinoame]

In the cartoon of Young Justice, Robin notes that we have the words "overwhelmed" and "underwhelmed," indicating that we have an expectation to be reached that either goes well above it or well below it. So he asks, "Why aren't people just plain whelmed?"

And that's my feelings toward Power Rangers Samurai: neither exciting nor disappointing--just plain "whelming." And this intense, burning indifference I have toward this series extends to its crossover with my absolute favorite season of Power Rangers, the overwhelming RPM.

The story is a mess. There's no attempt to explain how a subway train manages to cross dimensions--I thought you needed a passing-through Kamen Rider for that--and it's just taken for granted that yep, that's what happens. General Cog was so determined to get to another universe and Scott was so determined to track him down that they managed to create what I like to call the DimensionLiner. There's too much going on with the villains, with one Nighlock upset that he's only used as the opening salvo, with General Cog and the Grinders arriving and trying to take Sanzu water to poison the humans in Corinth, and then the general of the Nighlock army...focus, people! I wind up with no clue who they're supposed to be fighting. And then it looks like this is building up to the Shark Sword or whatever. Jayden's super mode comes apparently right out of fucking nowhere, given that Super Samurai mode is supposed to premiere later, and then the whole Shark Mode is so horribly introduced. It starts by Jayden giving it to Scott as a one-time power-up. So it has this chance to just make RPM Ranger Red look cool. And then, no less than five minutes later, Jayden uses it as his new super mode to stop the Nighlock general, and it's properly introduced. Like they took a scene from Go-Onger vs. Shinkenger and rearranged it or took something entirely unrelated to that movie and threw it in when they realized, "Aw crap, we forgot to introduce Jayden's new power before we gave it to Scott!"

Details throughout this drove me to insanity. Like the justification for why Ranger Red never removes his helmet. We all know that it's because for whatever reason, they were unable to get Eka Darville to reprise Scott outside of voice-over. But the in-canon justification is that because he's been living in a domed city for so long, Scott's unsure that he can breathe the air of Earth.

BULL. SHIT.

Do you realize how many times that Scott has been outside of Corinth? How about when they ventured to Omega City to try to track down Dillon's past? In his dad's RV? Or when he takes his car out into the wasteland to go sulk? Or when the Rangers and military stage an attack on a Venjix superweapon? Or when he went out into the wasteland against orders to retrieve his brother's engine to help the Rangers? Or my personal favorite, when he and Dillon hold a drag race on a beach outside the city shield? Notice something Dr. K mentions in the first clip? "Radiation." This ugly word is used in the very first episode of the series to explain why Dillon can't find Corinth:

"The radiation makes the compass go all screwy. Messes with the radio frequencies too. Very hard to find your way."

Scott Truman ventures out into an irradiated desert wasteland to drag race, but he won't take off his helmet to breathe in the air of a non-nuked Earth city? I call bullshit. Why not just go with a canon problem in RPM? That if he demorphs, he's not sure he'll have enough energy left to morph all over again. This has been a plot point in episodes. But the writer, James W. Bates, never worked on any season before Samurai, and I doubt they gave him much of a refresher course on RPM before having him write it out. Scott's overly cocky in it, just building up to him and Jayden fighting. After a heart-to-heart where Scott expresses his respect for Jayden's team's loyalty. Yes, they're under mind control and then we find out they're faking it for the bad guys(why?), but leave out the heart-to-heart until later! And there are times they just leave in elements of Sousuke's crackiness from Go-Onger. For example, Scott and Antonio miss the end of the fight because they can't get the car started. You go back to Scott trying to fix the damn car. WHY? And bless him, Eka Darville takes the whole thing seriously. Plus, the end has Mike admit that he wished he could talk to Scott face-to-face before he goes, and Scott wishes him good luck with Emily, since even he could see it. They hardly interacted at all in the special! Where did this come from?

And yet, it wasn't truly terrible. If you enjoy Versus specials, you'll like this. It's a fun adventure for Samurai fans. RPM fans will enjoy Eka Darville being utterly spectacular, even when he's only able to voice-act. But if you're expecting something on the lines of RPM the series, it's nowhere near close. If you're expecting something on the level of Turbo, it's nowhere near that bad.

It's whelming.

Edit: I forgot to mention Fail Grinder!

So out of bloody nowhere, the Grinders show the ability to transform into motorcycles. In RPM, they rode bikes, but there was no indication that they could change forms. After all, what's the point? It's a serious series, unlike it's silly source Sentai. Well, one of the Grinders apparently failed to get the upgrade, and instead of a Mooger riding a Grinder-cycle into battle, the Grinder had to carry it piggy-back through the fight. They tried to run from Scott, but he took them out anyway. Silly though this may be, this is in-character for Grinders: not all of them are built to code.

Comments

[kevanick.livejournal.com]

A comment if I may: I noticed in the credits that Samurai Gold Ranger as well as RPM Red Ranger were voiced by different people. Is this Tobias Reiss another name for Scott's actor or is this someone else?

[akino-ame.livejournal.com]

You sure it was a voice credit and not a suit actor credit?