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The movie-opening text scroll provides the exposition which the audience would have figured out themselves by watching the movie.
On an alien world, Lerigot - an alien, midget gnome muppet is hunted by the evil followers of the evil Divatox. But he escapes them by teleporting to Earth.
Back on Earth; Tommy (Jason David Frank - who so deserves a better career), Adam and Rocky practice martial arts moves. Somehow Rocky - a Power Ranger and martial arts user - manages to throw himself out of the ring and land on his back with a crunch.
Meanwhile on a bus full of orphans, Kat (who replaced Kimberly as Pink Ranger) and Tanya (who replaced Aisha who replaced Trini as Yellow Ranger) sing 'Row, row, row your boat' to the orphans. One 12-year-old orphan Justin won't sing. Anyway the orphans and the girl Rangers arrive as Rocky is carted off by EMT's. Tommy, Tanya, Adam and Kat shudder and wonder how they'll be written out.
Villain of the piece - Divatox (Hilary Shepard Turner) shows up not wearing much. She plays with an eel and coos.
Lerigot crashes in the African jungle and gapes at stock footage from 'The Discovery Channel'.
Rocky lies in his hospital bed as Justin comes in and for some reason hides under the bed just before Tommy, Adam, Tanya and Kat arrive. They are bearing gifts of balloons and a card. Rocky is trying not to cry about the lack of closure for his character. Zordon beeps them and the Rangers (minus Rocky) teleport to the Power Chamber as Justin watches in super-slow-motion and then crawls out from under the bed. He and Rocky look at each other and Justin cries: "You guys are the Power Rangers?" Rocky, seeing where this is going, weeps.
Zordon and Alpha explain the plot-so-far. Tommy and Kat will go to Africa while Adam and Tanya will stay behind. Tommy and Kat equip themselves with the neverbefore-mentioned power-boxes and head out. Tanya and Adam sulk cos no-one cares about them.
Where has Billy gone????
Meanwhile Divatox realising Lerigot is on Earth teleports herself and her submarine of evil henchmen there as well. On Earth Lt Stone has a moment of comedy with Bulk and Skull. Later on Divatox abducts Bulk and Skull. Whilst back in the jungle Kat is menaced by a large rubber snake (a left-over prop from 'Anaconda'?) She jumps away and falls off a nearby cliff while Tommy wrestles with the big rubber snake. Kat tries to morph as she falls but she hits the water mid-morph and it shorts out the power or something. Didn't the Rangers once summon their Ninja Ranger Power while UNDERWATER and then leap out in flashes of bright light and kick ass? Tommy tosses the snake aside and leaps off the cliff in a jawdropping, Olympic-worthy, spectacular somersaulting dive. Kat who is supposed to be the Olympic-calibre diver is still busy drowning but Tommy saves her.
Divatox is unimpressed with Bulk and Skull and demands her henchmen find two humans of strength and purity to sacrifice to her husband to be. Tommy and Kat find Lerigot and teleport back to the Power Chamber. Divatox is busy abducting two scuba divers .
Back at the Power Chamber, Divatox sends them a message. She has Lerigot's wife and child and guess what else? Those two scuba divers are none other then former Rangers Jason and Kimberly. Cue an extreme close-up on Tommy as he wails: "Kimberly!!!!!!!" For she was the love of his life until she dumped him via a letter saying she'd found someone else. And judging who she was scuba-diving with, I'd say we've found out who that someone else was. Tommy looks nauseated.
(Quick note Jason actor was fired for wanting more money and Rocky replaced him)
In the bilge of Divatox's submarine, Jason stomps around showing off the fact that he still hasn't learnt to act while Kimberly sulks. They spot Bulk and Skull and sneer at the lobotomised former school bullies. Meanwhile Zordon is explaining the plot: Lerigot holds the key to releasing Divatox's fiancée Maligore. Divatox will use his Golden Key to pass through the Nemesis Triangle into the Lost Dimension to the island of Muranthias, where she will free her fiancée Maligore. Lerigot decides to surrender, after all Power Ranger villains never do anything really bad. So Divatox makes off with Lerigot, his wife, his kid and two useless ex-Rangers. Down in the bilge Kimberly whines about coming back to surprise everyone and ending up a prisoner, yeah Kimberly - just like you surprised Tommy who worshipped the ground you walked on with a cruel letter breaking up with him thus causing him to have a near nervous breakdown?
So The Rangers build new Zords and they are really, really, really ugly. They are cars. Tommy looks utterly unimpressed, he is probably thinking of his lost Dragonzord, Tigerzord, Saba and that pretty NinjaFlaconzord. Zordon then gives them Morphers to activate their powers and keys. Tommy sulks, missing his White Ranger outfit that made him look hot. So the Rangers drive their zords across the desert, pre-dating 'The fast and the furious' by a couple of years. The carzords all have really stupid names. Meanwhile Zordon is speaking to the Rocky-replacement Ranger who is filmed only from the neck down, I've got a bad feeling about this.
The Rangers arrive at a dock and look around for the ship that will take them to the Nemesis Triangle. Finally they spot the enormous conspicuously-backlit galleon directly in front of them. Suddenly another Turbozord drives up and out gets the new Ranger - Justin. Yes, a 12 year old is the new Ranger for no good reason. Adam, Tommy, Tanya and Kat exchange WTF looks. Justin bleats about being the new Ranger. Tommy looks annoyed at Justin becoming a Ranger due to dumb luck while he had to be abducted by Rita, brainwashed to evil, converted back to good, loose his powers, get them back, loose them again and then be adducted by Zordon this time and made into the White Ranger to become a Power Ranger full-time. The Rangers and their crappy zords get on the galleon. It sets sail and the Rangers pose.
On her evil submarine Divatox drops some pods into the sea which somehow over the course of a day somehow crawl up the side of the galleon and across its deck. Justin blathers to Kat about being a Ranger and Kat glares, reminding us that she became a Ranger after being abducted by Rita, brainwashed to evil, drained Kim of her powers, then converted to good and replaced Kim as the Pink Ranger. The pods finally hatch and a fight erupts. Finally only one Pod Monster is left so Tommy shows it his martial arts and then yells "Boo!" causing the terrified Pod Monster to throw itself overboard. Yeah, Buffy sure ripped off....I mean, was inspired by Power Rangers.
Divatox and her submarine pass into the Nemesis Triangle, as do the Rangers and their Galleon. Aren't the Rangers parents wondering where they've been for the last few days?
Back on Divatox's submarine, Kimberly, Bulk and Skull swim to safety while Jason is left behind. The Rangers spot the Island. Meanwhile Divatox phones Rita for help in defeating the Power Rangers (What, Master Vile, Ivan Ooze and Scorpina weren't around?) Rita is in bed with a snoring Lord Zedd. Upon hearing Divatox's plea Rita starts laughing hysterically and yells at her to: "Runnnnnnnnnnnnnnn!" and then hangs up on her. Meanwhile Kimberly lies on a beach and is then surrounded and captured by some tribes people. Where did all her Ranger training go? Bulk and Skull wander mindlessly into the jungle.
Adam is dispatched to the Island to scout out the Temple. Divatox launches torpedoes at the galleon. Eventually these extremely slow torpedoes blow up the galleon in a shower of fiery debris. 'Das Boot' this isn't. The Rangers are busy driving ashore in their crappy zords. Justin isn't shown driving his as you can't show a 12-year-old driving a truck.
Meanwhile Divatox and her evil entourage have found the big, ominous Temple already. They are then surrounded by the tribes people who have dragged a tied-up Kimberly with them. Jason who is attired in an Sith-like black robe for no clear reason glares at Kimberly. Divatox orders Lerigot to use his magic to unlock the Temple doors. So this muppet can unlock inter dimensional doorways but can't escape from a bamboo cage?
The Rangers meet up so Tommy yells: "It's time to kick into action! Shift into Turbo!" So they all pose except Justin who is facing the wrong way. So Tommy and Tanya glare at him until he turns around. Anyway then they simultaneously do incredibly complex arm movements which must have taken hours to rehearse. Except Kat is behind Tommy so you can't see her do the routine. The Rangers morph. Somehow the morphing process gives Justin an adult-sized body. Tommy is the last one to morph in a sequence superior to the others, confirming his status as the Rangers Leader (albeit a mentally unbalanced one.) The Rangers sprint into action, pitying the actors on 'VR Troopers', 'Masked Rider' and 'Teenage Alien Fighters From Beverly Hills' for never getting to be in a movie.
Kimberly and Jason are suspended over a lava pit. So much for Jason's karate no wonder Zordon demoted him and made Tommy the Leader. The Rangers burst in and a fight erupts. Kimberly and Jason are dropped into the lava and then in a poof of smoke, appear on the ledge of the lavapit with red contacts and echo-chamber voices. (Cough Stargate SG1 ripped this off Cough) The now evil twosome attack the Rangers. Jason kicks Justin (his replacement's replacement) and Kimberly kicks Tanya aside and advances on Kat. Tommy runs at them screaming Kimberly's name and is obviously very conflicted. He removes his helmet and looking very sad and concerned begs her to remember him and snap out of it. Kat butts into this touching scene reuniting the star-crossed lovers so Kimberly kicks Kat aside snarling: "Pink is out!" ignoring the fact she is wearing a pink tanktop herself. Meanwhile Jason jumps Tommy and kicks him onto the ledge of the lavapit. Jason commences strangling Tommy as Tommy regards the deep irony of the situation, he is usually the one under the evil spell pounding the snot out of Jason. Suddenly Jason yells: "Now I'm the one with the muscles and the power!" and strangles Tommy some more. Anyway Kimberly is watching this and yelling: "Into the fire! Into the fire!" So Lerigot purifies her mind. Anyway Tommy kicks Jason into the lavapit but catches his hand at the last second as Jason makes roid rage grunts. Kimberly races over and helps Tommy save Jason. A huge explosion blows the three to safety giving us ass-shots of Tommy and Kimberly. Jason staggers off in his ongoing roid-rage as Tommy and Kimberly prepare to exchange meaningful looks until Kat butts in and the battle re-starts.
Kimberly leads the muppet aliens to safety and is attacked so Lerigot purifies Jason's mind and he saves her and the two make goo-goo eyes at each other. Oh puke. Just then the lava-monster Maligore emerges from the pit. Kat shrieks: "She wants to marry HIM?" Divatox observing her husband-to-be, looks unwell. The Rangers summon never-before-mentioned big, clunky, ugly Power Weapons and zap Maligore. All the baddies run away including Divatox so Maligore lumbers after her and the Rangers chase him.
Anyway Maligore busts through the Temple walls as the Rangers drive up in their Turbozords which they left on the other side of the Island. The really ugly Turbozords come together to form TurboMegazrod which is a guy in a stuntsuit. Tommy weeps over his lost Dragonzord, Tigerzord and the CGI Flaconzord from the first movie. Maligore grows to giant size and there is a crappy fight. Hell the episodes 'The Changing of the Zords trilogy' and the 'A Different Shade of Pink trilogy' had better fight-scenes. Maligore is defeated and Divatox runs away vowing revenge. For what? She didn't want to marry the monster after she saw him! Anyway Jason, Kimberly, the muppet aliens, Bulk and Skull climb into Megazords hand to somehow get back to Angel Grove.
The marital arts contest is on. It's Tommy, Adam and Jason vs 3 deadmeats from Stone Canyon. The Angel Grove guys beat the snot out of the Stone Canyon team and win a giant novelty check for £25, 000 which is already made out to Angel Grove. This will save Justin's orphan shelter. Tanya, Kat, Justin, Kimberly and Rocky rush the ring. Tommy and Kat hug. Jason waves the check (that has to be an in-joke considering he was fired for wanting more money) and Justin waves the trophy.
Roll credits.
Lively but dumb fun. The golden age of Power Rangers was Season 1 to 3 though. This movie had good moments: Tommy (mmmmmmm) and bad moments: Jason, Justin and no reunion for Kim and Tommy. Boo! They should have reunited Kim and Tommy - they were so sweet together. On a final note on 'Turbo' - it is better than a lot of horrifying overly sweet and cute kid movies ('Home Alone' or 'An American Tale' or 'A Little Mermaid' for example).
P-Con VI March 27th/28th/29th 2009
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