I've finally given up on MMPR, a few episodes into season 3. I just felt things were getting a bit silly, and I wasn't as fond of the CGI zords, plus Ninjor's voice was just a bit silly. I think the beginning of the end was when Jason, Zack and Trinni left. The whole transitional phase left a bit of a bad taste.
The Power Transfer episodes could have been amongst the best, the first time we see Serpentera, and the footage for that quite frankly epic, not a word I use lightly. But then it's clear that the the 3 who are leaving have already left (and I think the episode before too), there's shoddy voice overs, recycled footage, a group who have always been a 5 (later 6) suddenly split into two groups and do stuff as a 3. It's obvious that they aren't there.
I also thought Tor was a bit naff, Titanus was pretty badass, storming through the dry ice, and the becoming this formidable fighting machine. Tor was just a fat turtle who basically stopped zords being crushed/crushing other Zords. Same with the White Tiger Zord, whilst not as bad as Tor, I felt it was a bit lame compared to the Dragon Zord, though I guess it's hard for any Zord to Top the Dragon zord so I might let it off a little. It's not like I'm opposed to the Thunderzord era though, on the contrary, one of my favourite episodes was The Mutiny trio of episodes. (I actually remembered nearly every word and shot from my childhood, as I saw it and taped it at the time and used to watch it over and over.) and when the zords dance across the sky when they stand outside the command centre was a great moment.
But somewhere along the line, I felt they ran out of genuinely interesting stories and plot arcs. There was a few decent episodes with Rocky, Adam and Aisha, but I just felt there was a lot more filler. So I decided a few episodes into season 3 that I'd had enough. And Moved onto VR Troopers. Though that and MMPR made me sad that we didn't have TV shows as awesome as the the Japanese stock footage in these programs.
I also watched the Movie the other day, which just bugged me on a lot of levels. Nostalgically it was brilliant, I watched so much as a kid. But there were just so many unexplained things. Like where the pig baddy came from, or the new weapons like the power whip, or the utility features on the helmets like torches and scanners. The command centre didn't look like the command centre, Zordon looked more old man than interdimensional being, and Alpha and the Rangers new looks just seemed a bit disproportional to me. Viewing with my nostaligic eyes, I still enjoyed it, but as someone who had just basically watched up to that point in the series (the shift from thunder to ninja zords, I think the film is an alternate explanation if I remember right), I was a little disappointed.
