Power Rangers Beast Morphers: Making Bad Review

PRBM "Making Bad"

In Avengers: Endgame, there's a wonderful and humorous sequence where the Avengers try to piece through the complicated mythology of their previous adventures. The scene, strewn with Chinese take-out containers, turns the superhero team into a writers' room, finding the way forward for the plot. In the Beast Morphers episode "Making Bad", there's a similar funny set up, where Evox' team and the Dino Charge villains argue over which past villain to resurrect, supporting their arguments with clips from past Power Rangers seasons.

Part of the humor from this new twist on a clip show comes from the villains' annoyance at past baddies' heel-face turns (Koragg, Astronema) and propensity to betray fellow evildoers (Lord Zedd). One highlight of the bickering (all the better for being understated) is when Scrozzle tries to be a bit of a showman and Blaze says, "Will you stop? You're not cool."

They eventually settle on a villain of gravitas and subservience, Goldar. The resurrection process, aided by diamonds, brings back a sort of Mega Goldar with upgraded armor and general look. While Goldar is a sound choice, I have my issues and nitpicks with this part of the story. With Goldar given a different look, I would argue that it's more important than ever to bring back Kerrigan Mahan to voice the role, and emphasize a connection with the original Goldar. But the voice is off, more of a generic growl.

Speaking of voices, the clips dub over different voices whenever someone like Andros, Leo, or Jason speaks! Is this a residuals/union issue? Scrozzle refers to Zedd and Rita as King and Queen of Evil. Surely it's Emperor and Empress of Evil. Why would Roxy know about the fate of the Red Psycho Ranger but not Astronema? And Psycho Red is rejected as a choice... because he lost? That's pretty absurd, and setting the standard way too high.

Elsewhere in the episode, Sherlock Ravi is given the spotlight, in a nod to character continuity. While the villains bicker in the most interesting part of the episode, the Rangers are given fairly standard action fare, though there is a decent warehouse fight that sees the end of Poisandra and a couple other Sledge generals. Sledge losing Poisandra is played for a tiny moment of poignancy.

The villain stuff is overall very enjoyable, even if there are flaws in a lot of the details. Some of those I wouldn't mind so much, but the biggest problem of all, the wrong voices in the classic clips, really weirds me out. 6/10.

Stray observation:

- Not the first time Goldar has appeared in a much different form. Recall the mute gold homunculus from the 2017 film, and in the comics, Goldar has been given a Dark Ranger power-up.