Well since I am doing the newest iteration of Power Rangers on this blog any way...
I'll be 100% honest with you, I am going into this somewhat blind. As I'm English, I grew up with Power Rangers, not Super Sentai and it was only a few years back that I even had my childhood rocked with the discovery that most of Power Rangers was actually clips from a Japanese TV series.I did attempt to get into Super Sentai but I didn't really like any of the series running around the time I discovered the truth, I think Goseiger was running when I first learnt the truth and a Japanese TV show about angels using playing cards was a little too much for me. Following that was Gokaiger which I know is a beloved fan favourite but 90% of the enjoyment of that iteration was knowing the rich Super Sentai history...which of course I didn't because I grew up on Power Rangers. Following that was Go-Busters, which I just didn't like...I have no real reasons, I just didn't think it was very good - although reading around, it seems I wasn't the only one. Then it was announced that the next Super Sentai would go back to dinosaurs...again and I just knew I had to check it out. Maybe this will be my first Super Sentai I really get into.
So what was the story of the episode? As with all Super Sentai series, the whole of the first episode was a rushed introduction of the world this iteration will inhabit for its run. Our villains of this iteration are the 'Deboss Legion' who have some really interesting designs, from the little of them we get to see. Each one represents an emotion in some extremely theatrical fashion. And right now their primary focus is thawing out their boss, as I think we're supposed to assume they got frozen with the dinosaurs millions of years ago? I dunno. The villain of the week is 'Debo Iceage' who is legendary for apparently causing the extinction of the dinosaurs single-handedly, okay...I really like the Beast Battery concept. Basically, in short, the Zords are powered by batteries. Sounds kinda shitty huh? Well the soul of the extinct dinosaur is contained within the battery and that is how the Kyoryuger access their powers. This in turn means, they have to defeat their respective Zord to get them to hand the power over so they can become a Kyoryu in the first place. The reason I really like this, is in the Power Rangers adaptations at least, the reasons for who is chosen to be a Ranger and why, is normally pretty poorly defined and quickly brushed over. Here however, I can't think of a better way to work out who deserves the chance to become a Kyoryu than literally making them fight one on one with their Zord, armed only with a weak laser gun. Plus the Zords actually have personalities, awesome!
As the Kyoryu are defined only by their strength in terms of why they are chosen, it also allows Kyoryuger to have a lot of fun with its heroes personalities. The whole Kyoryuger gang is incredibly weird, but it seems to perfectly suit their insane level of power. Daigo, rather than being generically heroic...is more of a goof who has his heart in the right place. Ian, Kyoryu Black, is a flirt who seems to really love his meat. Nobuharu, Kyoryu Blue, is probably the worst handyman in history. Souji, Kyoryu Green, is the honourable swordsman and Amy, Kyoryu Pink, is the cute but insanely strong female of the group.Kyoryuger has one of the strangest Change sequences I have ever seen. They load their power into the GabRevolver, a device that functions both as their primary weapon and their morpher and then they fire out the suit, which swings round and connects to them. Okay, this has been done before in some sense, you're probably thinking, so what is the big deal? Well although all this functions as a Change in itself just fine, they decided to include an extra bit to the Change Sequence, which involves Daigo busting out some awful dance moves to a bit of samba music. What the fuck?
When it finally gets there, the action in the opening episode of Kyoryuger is fantastic, there is just so much energy that it makes it a joy to watch. And although Super Sentai always knows how to be stylish, it isn't always captured as stylishly as it is choreographed. Here however stylish choreography meets stylish camera work and direction. As always with opening episodes, the action is largely used as an elaborate character introduction but I'm not complaining, it was spectacular. Each Kyoryu has so much personality, and each of their little spotlight moments is just so fucking badass.This is all helped by one of the best looking Super Sentai in years, normally the special effects never seem to improve much with each iteration and as the opening of this episode showcased some absolutely terrible CGI, I really did fear that if anything Kyoryuger looked set to be a step backwards. Then the actual fighting started, in this spectacular and epic fashion and I was just wowed. It's vibrant, explosive and just really beautiful.
If I was going to have any criticisms of the opening episode, it would be the pacing. The second half has a lot more content than the first half, making the opening half of the episode feel oddly slow and the second half of the episode extremely rushed. I really cannot understand why they structured this episode in the way they did. Then again, I'm probably pretty bias, as I just really didn't like the first half. I have nothing against plot exposition, but was I the only one who found the world building in the first half frustratingly hard to follow? I found it close to incoherent in places. So when it finally got to the action I almost breathed a sigh of relief that I could just switch off and stop trying to untangle with this show is actually about.It's difficult to review things like the opening episode of Kyoryuger, not because there is anything wrong with with but because....there is nothing really wrong with it. The internet often criticises people, rather ironically I suppose, for people who only criticise things but it isn't that I don't like things, it's just it's very hard to do any kind of in-depth critique or analysis of something you're enjoying. The story is a little hard to follow, the first half of the episode is a little slow but overall this was a great opening episode you need to check out.
Pros;
- The general look of this iteration is great, the suits, the villains, the weapons etc
- Beast Battery.
- I like how they become The Kyoryuger.
- Each member of the team seems really interesting.
- Great action.
- Great special effects.
Cons;
- There really isn't a whole lot to this episode.
- And what there was, I didn't really understand anyway.
- Considering his reputation, Iceage was a bit shit really wasn't he.
- I'm not sure I like that Morph sequence.
- Some bad pacing.
Think About It!
-Locke
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