• Home
  • Movies
  • Music
  • TV
  • Video Games
  • Wrestling
  • Topics
  • Latest Comments on Cult of Whatever
Search
Cult of Whatever logo
  • Movies
    Featured
    • The Living Daylights: Timothy Dalton as James Bond

      The Living Daylights is still awesome, thirty-five years later

      By Matthew Martin
      | March 28, 2022
      Movie Blogs
    Recent
    • Lethal Weapon: Danny Glover and Mel Gibson as Roger Murtaugh and Martin Riggs

      Lethal Weapon is still awesome thirty-five years later

      By Matthew Martin
      | August 9, 2022
    • Nope: Keke Palmer and Daniel Kaluuya

      REVIEW: “NOPE” wants to be more than it is, which is just good enough

      By Matthew Martin
      | July 22, 2022
    • Brave: Kelly Macdonald voices Princess Merida

      Ten years later, BRAVE remains Pixar’s most underrated film

      By Matthew Martin
      | July 21, 2022
    • A Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Heather Langenkamp as Nancy

      A Nightmare on Elm Street 3 is still awesome, thirty-five years later

      By Matthew Martin
      | July 20, 2022
    • Where The Crawdads Sing: Daisy Edgar Jones and David Strathairn

      REVIEW: Where the Crawdads Sing deftly blends genres to good effect

      By Matthew Martin
      | July 19, 2022
    • Thor Love and Thunder: Natalie Portman and Chris Hemsworth as The Mighty Thor and Thor

      REVIEW: THOR – LOVE AND THUNDER is an adventure of mirth and sadness alike

      By Matthew Martin
      | July 9, 2022
  • Music
    Random
    • Bg Elvis3

      Elvis's 40 Year Reign (1956-1957)

      By Matthew Martin
      | February 14, 2017
      Music Blogs
    Recent
    • The Beatles: Get Back

      What GET BACK reveals about the Beatles

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 15, 2021
    • Simon And Garfunkel at Feyenoord Stadium in Rotterdam1982

      The Boxer is a song about being conned

      By Matthew Martin
      | July 4, 2021
    • Lady Gaga: Chromatica Album Cover

      Lady Gaga’s discography is totally out of order

      By Matthew Martin
      | June 3, 2021
    • Michael Jackson Thriller Album Cover

      Thirty years ago music fans said “Nevermind” to Michael Jackson

      By Matthew Martin
      | March 21, 2021
    • Queen II Album Cover

      On Queen’s The Miracle, and the importance of track ordering

      By Matthew Martin
      | February 16, 2021
    • Linda Paul Mccartney 1976

      50 years ago, McCartney dropped “Lennon” and went solo…

      By Matthew Martin
      | June 5, 2020
  • TV
    Featured
    • Nancy Drew S03e01: Kennedy McMann as Nancy

      Nancy Drew S03E01 Review: The Warning of the Frozen Heart - Uh-oh!

      By Salome G
      | October 10, 2021
      TV Blogs
    Recent
    • American Horror Stories S02e04 Cody Fern and Seth Gabel as Thomas and Walter

      American Horror Stories S02E04 Review: Milkmaids – Very ambitious

      By Salome G
      | August 14, 2022
    • Roswell New Mexico S04e09: Allie Myers and Jeanine Mason as Shiri Appleby and Liz Ortecho

      Roswell, New Mexico S04E09 Review: Wild Wild West- Okay…

      By Salome G
      | August 11, 2022
    • Evil S03e09: Party Time

      Evil S03E09 Review: The Demon of Money – Dark moments…

      By Salome G
      | August 8, 2022
    • American Horror Stories S02e03: Bella Thorne as Marci

      American Horror Stories S02E03 Review: Drive – Unsettling experiences

      By Salome G
      | August 8, 2022
    • The Orville S03: Penny Johnson Jerald and Mark Jackson as Dr. Claire Finn and Isaac

      The Orville season three finale review: Don’t say goodbye

      By Matthew Martin
      | August 8, 2022
    • Roswell New Mexico S04e08: Michael Vlamis as Michael Guerin

      Roswell, New Mexico S04E08 Review: Missing My Baby – The truth hurts

      By Salome G
      | August 3, 2022
  • Video Games
    Featured
    • Arkham Knight

      Batman: Arkham Knight - A fitting end to a trilogy

      By Tom Farr
      | July 18, 2015
      Video Game Reviews
    Recent
    • Nintendo Switch Logo

      Looking ahead to the Switch 2: Predictions and Wants

      By Matthew Martin
      | August 15, 2022
    • Legend Of Zelda

      Can a Legend of Zelda movie work?

      By Matthew Martin
      | April 6, 2022
    • Super Mario 64

      Which system had the better launch: A battle of four Nintendo consoles

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 1, 2021
    • Luigi's Mansion

      Happy twentieth to Nintendo’s underrated gem, the Gamecube

      By Matthew Martin
      | November 18, 2021
    • Metroid Dread

      Metroid Dread – Post Game analysis and sequel needs

      By Matthew Martin
      | October 29, 2021
    • Mario Headphones

      The SNES Turns 30: A look at some of the system’s best soundtracks

      By Matthew Martin
      | October 22, 2021
  • Wrestling
    Featured
    • Wwe Payback 2017 Poster 2

      Your SO OF COURSE preview of WWE Payback 2017

      By Matthew Martin
      | April 30, 2017
      WWE Blogs
    Recent
    • AEW Dark: Ricky Starks (22/09/20)

      The future of the AEW World Championship

      By Matthew Martin
      | August 14, 2022
    • AEW Forbidden Door 2022: Claudio Castagnoli

      ROH Death Before Dishonor 2022 kickstarted a new era with a bang

      By Matthew Martin
      | July 25, 2022
    • Vince Mcmahon Stone Cold Podcast

      Vince McMahon is out as WWE chief. First reactions here…

      By Matthew Martin
      | July 22, 2022
    • AEW Double or Nothing 2022: CM Punk vs Adam Page

      REVIEW: AEW Double or Nothing 2022 delivered an up-and-down show

      By Matthew Martin
      | May 30, 2022
    • MJF on AEW Dynamite 17th November 2021

      Getting AEW to the next level…

      By Matthew Martin
      | May 29, 2022
    • Raw 210501: Triple H and Stephanie McMahon

      May 21, 2001 – A (forgotten) date that will live in WWE infamy

      By Matthew Martin
      | May 20, 2022
  • Topics
    • site logo
    Latest
    • Looking ahead to the Switch 2: Predictions and Wants
    • American Horror Stories S02E04 Review: Milkmaids - Very ambitious
    • The future of the AEW World Championship
    • Roswell, New Mexico S04E09 Review: Wild Wild West- Okay...
    • Lethal Weapon is still awesome thirty-five years later
    • Evil S03E09 Review: The Demon of Money - Dark moments...

    Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie is still awesome…twenty-five years later

    By Matthew Martin
    | April 30, 2020
    Movie Blogs

    This year, CultOfWhatever is looking back on some of the most influential, transformative, genre-defining, or otherwise cult-favorite films of 1995.

    Believe it or not, that was twenty-five years ago.

    1995 was not the biggest year in cinema, nor even the biggest “movie” year of the ’90s, but it was still a year that saw the release of several high profile films. Some of those movies have disappeared from our collective consciousness, while others have endured over the years.

    Already we’ve looked at Mortal Kombat, a cult classic if ever there was one. It was hardly an award-winner, that’s for sure, nor was it renowned for its score, its acting, or its writing. In contrast, Braveheart dominated at the Oscars and remains a beloved film even today. Waterworld, however, struggled to leave an impact after release and only now is starting to find a little love.

    Let’s talk about Power Rangers.

    Every generation of kids has a show or a toyline or a hot property/fad that dominates their slice of pop culture. It takes over television, toy stores, pajamas, lunch boxes, t-shirts, backpacks, etc. In the 1970s it was Superfriends and Scooby-Doo. In the ’80s…take your pick. The ’80s was the real explosion of this phenomenon, with GI Joe, Transformers, and He-Man just a few of the properties that played tug-of-war for kids’ attention spans.

    The ’90s had their fair share as well. Bruce Timm’s DC animated universe was big, as were a pair of Marvel-based properties, X-Men and Spider-Man. Those shows managed to have a tremendous amount of staying power, being enjoyed long after their target audience grew up. No joke, one of the first things my thirty-something-year-old self did after logging into Disney+ for the first time was to search for the X-Men TV series.

    Power Rangers, on the other hand, is a weird sort of pop culture phenomenon.

    It doesn’t really operate by the same rules as others and, as such, is treated differently than the others too. The animated X-Men series ran for five seasons before being shuffled away to rerun land. The same is true for Batman: The Animated Series, Animaniacs, Tiny Toon Adventures, you name it…unless the name is Power Rangers.

    Mighty Morphin Power Rangers debuted as part of the Fox Kids lineup in 1993 but instead of a twenty or twenty-five episode first season, the way most TV shows would have, Power Rangers’ first season lasted a whopping sixty-episodes. It had a production schedule akin to an animated show, which—in those days—typically had a front-loaded first season and smaller supplementary seasons after that, to push the episode count over a hundred (for syndication/reruns). Within that sixty-episode first season, the show introduced its core team of five, introduced Tommy as the Green Ranger, stripped him of his powers, and brought his powers back. Those are storylines fans who grew up watching the show will remember, but might be surprised to learn they all happened in the span of a year. By the time the first season ended, Power Rangers was a phenomenon. It played Monday-Saturday on Fox Kids, giving schoolboys and girls something to talk about every recess.

    But Power Rangers was different: Its second season shook things up by throwing away the Dino-Zords and three of the original Ranger-actors. Season three changed zords again (twice, in fact) and by the time the year was ended, the show was completely upended, with “Alien Rangers” brought in as a segue to the Zeo era. By the time that season was over, it was Power Rangers Turbo time and the show hardly looked or felt like the same as it had just four years earlier. The reason I mention the history of this franchise is because Power Rangers is still going on today. It’s technically in its nineteenth incarnation but each version is connected directly to the one before it. None, however, have had the pop culture impact of the first version. That initial three-season run of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (with their dino, thunder, and ninja zords) was everywhere. By the time Turbo: A Power Rangers movie came out in 1997, the franchise was in a state of obvious decline. Turbo grossed only 9mm at the box office. 9 million. That’s it. Just two years earlier, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie released to theaters and grossed 60mm (on a 15mm budget). In 1995 Power Rangers was riding high. With its first movie, the franchise peaked and never recovered.

    Power Rangers 1995 Movie Poster

    I maintain that the worst thing Power Rangers did was keep going. Had the show ended with closure and resolution after three-to-five seasons on the air, the series would have the same nostalgic appeal as countless other pop culture fads. Instead, the show was created with the idea that, as long as there were Japanese Super Sentai shows to use as source material, Power Rangers would never die. And so it hasn’t…technically. It has died as a pop culture icon, though. The biggest problem with the show’s never-ending nature (as of season four onward) is that everyone who starts watching it always feels like they’re a year or so too old to publicly admit to watching it. It always seems like a show that “stopped being popular a couple of years ago” when it really hasn’t been popular in twenty-five years.

    The first Power Rangers movie was supposed to be the film that moved the show to the next level of popularity. It was supposed to raise the show’s stature and appeal and broaden the TV series’ fanbase. It wasn’t supposed to be the swan song of the fad. It wasn’t supposed to be a last hurrah. That’s what it became, however, and everything that’s great about the show is great here, but is only enjoyable if you look at it ironically.

    Power Rangers 1995 Karan Ashley Aisha Johnny Yong Bosch Adam Steve Cardenas Rocky Jason David Frank Tommy Amy Jo Johnson Kimberly David Yost Billy 2

    I was the target age for the show. When it debuted I was in third grade. With the movie came out, I was in 5th grade. One year later I would be finishing Elementary School and getting ready for Middle School (for me it was High School since it was a small town and 7th Grade-12th was considered High School); you better believe I wasn’t going to tell people I was “still watching Power Rangers” in the seventh grade!

    I was already starting to feel myself growing out of it in 1995 and I distinctly remember asking my mom to just drop me off at the theater and not go in with me; not because I was embarrassed of my mom but because I was embarrassed of my movie. I suppose I was viewing my going to see the film as a prearranged obligation with a girlfriend before a breakup I know is coming. Ninety-minutes later I walked out of the theater with a smile on my face, happy to have experienced a movie that was loud, silly, action-packed, and which brought some new things to the franchise.

    I never watched another episode of Power Rangers again.

    Well…I never admitted to it, at least.

    And yet, twenty-five years later, in prep for this article, I went back and re-watched the movie. I wondered how it would look to my older, more cynical eyes. I wondered if it might trigger my nostalgia the way watching Batman 89 does. As it turned out, it did…although it also undercut that with some horrible 90’s-era CGI in the final battle. Take that out, however, and watching the movie was very much like transporting myself back to 1995, to a simpler time, to an era where TV shows were dumb and cheesy on purpose. It’s not a movie I would have enjoyed had it released just one year later. It’s not a movie I would have even thought about had it come out two years later. It’s not a movie I would have looked back on with any interest ten or fifteen years after release, but now—a quarter-century later—I’m able to go back, having detached myself from the franchise, and see it through nostalgic eyes.

    Power Rangers 1995 Karan Ashley Aisha Johnny Yong Bosch Adam Steve Cardenas Rocky Jason David Frank Tommy Amy Jo Johnson Kimberly David Yost Billy

    It doesn’t matter to me that the franchise never really went away, that it’s still limping along with different characters and plots. It might as well have ended way back then. This might as well have been the series finale. If it was, it would have been a banging way to go out.

    Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie is not a film anyone should seek out to watch. It’s not a movie for anyone but a select few of a very specific target audience. I doubt even fans of the modern Power Rangers show(s) would enjoy it. You had to belong to a small window of time to get it, but if you were then you can appreciate what this movie was, what it represented, and how the feelings of nostalgia and childlike fun and silliness can be stirred within you when you watch it. It’s hardly a great piece of cinema. It’s barely a film. But for someone like me, a child of the ’90s, none of that matters.

    This movie is my childhood in a nutshell, and that means it’s still awesome twenty-five years later.

    Share this article:

    Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit

    Tags

    1995 MoviesPower Rangers

    COMMENTS

    Please read our Commenting Policy before you join in with the discussion.

    Note: If you have email notifications enabled, please check your email spam folders to ensure emails are not missed.

    Subscribe
    Connect withD
    I allow to create an account
    When you login first time using a Social Login button, we collect your account public profile information shared by Social Login provider, based on your privacy settings. We also get your email address to automatically create an account for you in our website. Once your account is created, you'll be logged-in to this account.
    DisagreeAgree
    Notify of
    guest

    Connect withD
    I allow to create an account
    When you login first time using a Social Login button, we collect your account public profile information shared by Social Login provider, based on your privacy settings. We also get your email address to automatically create an account for you in our website. Once your account is created, you'll be logged-in to this account.
    DisagreeAgree
    guest

    10 Comments
    Inline Feedbacks
    View all comments
    Fade-to-BlackD
    Fade-to-Black
    2 years ago

    I remember going to see this one. It was a silly show in a way because the fighting was so dramatic, yet obviously not meant to look real. I miss that fantasy aspect of movies. There’s too much gore today. 

    0
    Reply
    PersephoneD
    Persephone
    2 years ago

    I took my niece to see the more modern show when it came out and it wasn’t great. Our generation definitely had the best Power Rangers. Did everyone have a favorite? I wanted to be the yellow one. I thought Aisha Campbell was so tough.

    0
    Reply
    SilverD
    Silver
    2 years ago
    Reply to  Persephone

    Red was mine, mostly because that was the leader and red was my favorite color at the time. I think Jason defeated more enemies than the others too. That was so long ago that I could be wrong though.

    0
    Reply
    Fade-to-BlackD
    Fade-to-Black
    2 years ago
    Reply to  Silver

    Me too! He was the only one to beat Tommy Oliver as well. However, I think it was Rocky DeSantos as the Red Ranger, rather than Jason Lee Scott. Austin St. John, who was cast as Jason Lee Scott, had already left the franchise. I think he wasn’t happy with his pay. 

    0
    Reply
    Richarda
    Richarda
    2 years ago

    I’ve never seen this movie. I used to watch the Power Rangers back when I was younger. I didn’t even know there was a movie. I had no idea that the show is still on.

    0
    Reply
    BostonAustin
    BostonAustin
    2 years ago

    I missed the Power Rangers due to my age. Too old to watch it myself and too young to have kids who wanted to see it. It’s been popular for a long time though, so it must be something special.

    0
    Reply
    tonyD
    tony
    2 years ago
    Reply to  BostonAustin

    I missed it as well, but since this isn’t the first time Power Rangers has come up in a discussion, I am more than eager to watch it now. It is great to hear that it still is on TV; old is gold, right?

    0
    Reply
    Kkelie
    Kkelie
    2 years ago

    I recently heard some coworkers talking about the Power Rangers. I was shocked to hear that it is still on TV. I watched an episode and you’re right, it’s nothing like it was years and years ago.

    0
    Reply
    Drewsi
    Drewsi
    2 years ago

    A true blast from the past. I watched this 25 years ago. I doubt I would watch it now. To be honest, I didn’t know that the Power Rangers were still around. Interesting, but I’m not going to go watch their show now either.

    0
    Reply
    Kkelie
    Kkelie
    2 years ago
    Reply to  Drewsi

    It is sure a blast from the past. I spent hours watching this with the kids, the TV show. I did watch the movie and thought it was cute.

    0
    Reply

    You might also like

    • Review: Musings of a POWER RANGERS fan

      By Matthew Martin
      | March 27, 2017
    • Mortal Kombat is still awesome…twenty-five years later

      By Matthew Martin
      | February 2, 2020
    • Jurassic Park is still awesome, twenty-five years later…

      By Matthew Martin
      | May 23, 2018

    FIND THE TOPICS YOU WANT...

    Movie Topics

    Recommended for you

    • Lethal Weapon is still awesome thirty-five years later

      By Matthew Martin
      | August 9, 2022
    • REVIEW: “NOPE” wants to be more than it is, which is just good enough

      By Matthew Martin
      | July 22, 2022
    • Ten years later, BRAVE remains Pixar’s most underrated film

      By Matthew Martin
      | July 21, 2022
    • REVIEW: THOR – LOVE AND THUNDER is an adventure of mirth and sadness alike

      By Matthew Martin
      | July 9, 2022
    • REVIEW: ELVIS beautifully mythologizes the King of Rock and Roll

      By Matthew Martin
      | June 25, 2022
    • REVIEW: Jurassic World Dominion – Here we go again…again

      By Matthew Martin
      | June 12, 2022
    • REVIEW: Top Gun Maverick is a sequel that soars!

      By Matthew Martin
      | May 27, 2022
    • Can a Legend of Zelda movie work?

      By Matthew Martin
      | April 6, 2022
    • Read the Book Instead: The most disappointing book-to-film adaptations

      By Oliver Johnston
      | September 20, 2021
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Affiliate Disclosure
    • Cookie Policy and Settings
    • Terms of Use
    • Photo Credits
    • RSS
    All Cult of Whatever articles, logos, illustrations and graphics are copyright CultOfWhatever.com. All other trademarks, logos and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. © 2021 CultOfWhatever. All Rights Reserved.
    • facebook
    • twitter
    wpDiscuz