REVIEW: Dino Charge 15 "Rise of a Ranger"
I’ve always enjoyed new Ranger introductions. Having a different number of Rangers than the standard 6 appeals to the seven or eight-year-old version of me that would make up “cool” Orange or Silver Rangers with Brachiosaurus Power that would aid the MMPRs in battle and had an even cooler shield than the Green or White Rangers, sometimes even a cape. I have to say I was a bit surprised to see the return of this particular man behind the mask so soon, but if you remember my review of “Break Out,” you’ll see that this is hardly a problem in my book. With the Graphite Ranger on the scene, how will the story unfold from here? Let’s find out.
There wasn’t really bad stuff this episode, but there was some weirdness. For one, I don’t know how many people use construction equipment for fossil excavation sites, but I can’t imagine it would be a lot; if you don’t know where exactly in a dig the fossils are, it seems like you’d run the risk of destroying the fossils with heavy machinery. Now, there wouldn’t be a risk of destroying the Energem, which is what the Zandar team is explicitly looking for in the first scene, but then they manage to scoop up the rocks just over the Pachycephalosaurus head, revealing the gray-blue twinkle of the Graphite Energem, which seems a bit pat. It’s also a bit weird when we get the return of Fury. On the one hand, it’s great to see him back, and we learn that he’s been forced into the role of a menial worker on the ship since his defeat. But he does things that imply that he has his courage back and also that he doesn’t: he defends Poisandra from the tentacle creature in the brig (for his own reasons) but then runs away scared from the pitched battle with the Rangers later. My guess is, he’s back to normal, but he was just being intelligent to cut his losses.
As far as more weirdness, we meet Chase’s little sister Chloe and her group of New Zealanders doing a performance of a traditional Maori dance. They did good casting on Chloe; she has somewhere in the neighborhood of Chase’s accent, and they have similar facial features and coloring. But on the subject of coloring, none of the dancers are Maori. To my shame I am not very well-informed regarding race relations in New Zealand, but I’ve seen this described as akin to Caucasians in America doing a traditional Native American dance, which would be remarkably tone-deaf if there’s anywhere near that amount of cultural history. I’m willing to give them the benefit of the doubt though, since as I said I don’t know if that’s the situation with which they’re working. I’m also not sure, by the end of the episode, exactly how aware Chloe is of her brother’s situation regarding a crown prince and various superheroics. Throughout the episode, he has to cancel their plans, though I’m very very very glad they didn’t make her a total brat about it. She seems appropriately disappointed but not spiteful or resentful.
Though there’s something else in the weirdness category I’ll wait to discuss it, because there is a very high amount of good stuff in this episode. Near the beginning, after the Zandar excavation team finds the Energem, we see Phillip actively trying to increase his chances of becoming a Ranger by sparring with a robot. I have to continue giving Jarred Blakiston props for his performance. He nails just about everything in this episode perfectly. From his moments of pride to indecision to frustration to triumph, the actor inhabits Phillip and makes him a fully-realized character in a very short time. Also, since the assistant controlling the robot seems to be using a video game controller, and since Phillip is generally a sharply-dressed, silver-associated aristocratic fighter with a training robot that is dumb when it’s good and powerful when evil, I’m going to call the robot Combot. I can’t help it; everyone has their hobbies. Anyway, we get some great continuity during the fight between Ivan and Fury, with callbacks to their long history and Ivan’s signature battle cries. When the other Rangers jump in to help and the Viviks come to their master’s aid, Phillip tries to use Combot to help, but he’s more of a hindrance, even more so when the Viviks snatch it away and reprogram it. When Phillip treats his best buddy Koda to lunch, he learns that a Ranger has to be worthy of the Energem’s power.
What follows is a moderately funny little montage of Phillip trying to sway the Energem with various good deeds, all of which essentially involve throwing wads of cash at various issues and hoping for the best. And while I get what Power Rangers is trying to do here, I do think that it’s a bit of a mixed message. The Energem’s power seems to be linked to acts of sacrificial kindness or courage. Using money to solve a problem is hardly much of a sacrifice for Phillip, given that he’s practically swimming in money. Furthermore, he’s clearly doing it to get the Energem’s power, so it’s somewhat selfish and the Energem doesn’t respond. But while that’s a comforting idea and maybe one that in a materialistic world needs more support, the truth is that the soup kitchen he donated to, the kids in the new playground he commissioned, and the community of Amber Beach as a whole derive a great benefit from the money he gave to them. Their lives are undoubtedly enriched by the charitable uses of money seen here, and redistributing wealth is often useful for solving certain types of problems. But I understand what they were going for, and it’s something I can get behind. I’m further impressed by Phillip surrendering the Energem to the Rangers when it’s clear he can’t get it to work.
I think it was important for the Prince to put aside his pride and ambition for the sake of protecting the world, which was probably step one in his transformation. Step two, and the step given more focus in the episode, comes when Chase’s sister follows him back to the cafe. While Chase fights Combot, Chloe comes to give him his gift, but the angle she’s at prevents her from seeing that she’s running into a battlefield. I definitely appreciated that detail, because otherwise she’d look dumb as heck running right toward him. Endangered by Combot and cut off from her brother by Viviks, Chloe’s a sitting duck, and it’s this that inspires Phillip to ditch his bodyguards and rescue the girl, carrying her just like Koda carried Peter in Episode 4. The symbolism of Koda helping Phillip become a hero is perfectly encapsulated in this moment. Well played, Dino Charge.
The Graphite Energem seems to agree with me, as it finally bonds with Phillip in order to allow him to become the Graphite Ranger. The subsequent fight is an interesting one, because unlike most new Ranger intros it doesn’t seem to be just a curb-stomp battle for Phillip. He actually seems to have a tough time with Combot, especially when it starts reading and mimicking his attacks. Now, there are some oddities with this fight. The first one will probably be an issue going forward, though I didn’t see it as problematic here: the arm coloring. As Kyoryuger fans know, the footage of KyoryuGrey will have different scale coloring due to different filming techniques across the pond. So it might be a bit more obvious when they use Sentai footage. The second issue was a bigger deal for me. While Phillip’s actor is pitch-perfect in all the in-person stuff, it seems like he’s not particularly used to Ranger-caliber ADR. He delivers the in-suit lines a bit too calmly, which then makes it especially jarring when his fight grunts and shouts are pretty much on point. Meanwhile, the others fight Fury and the goons, and the Viviks combine into Vivizords. We also get some departure from the norm in that when the giants attack the Rangers, Tyler actually gets booted through a bunch of concrete. I’ve lost count of how many times a grown monster attacks a group of tiny Rangers, and they just jump out of the way without being harmed.
With Tyler down, Phillip once again has to come to the rescue. We get the (re)introduction of the Pachyzord, and this time I can appreciate the design stuff I didn’t see during our sneak peek forward in time. The zord is basically a construction vehicle itself, with a wrecking ball for a tail and a hard hat that it wears underneath the wrecking ball hat. Unlike the Graphite Ranger, the zord does get a Sixth Ranger power-up, allowing it to defeat the Vivizords single-handedly...or tailedly. Similarly, Phillip gets the confidence boost he needs to take out Combot with a Royal Dino Punch. After the obligatory scene where Sledge chews Fury out for his failure, we get a nice scene where Chase and Chloe finally get to hang out and do some skateboarding, before she gives him a ticket to come visit her in New Zealand for Christmas. So...we’re probably going to New Zealand for the Christmas episode. And to end the episode, Phillip promises his aid in whatever capacity he can give it, leaving his zord and Dino Chargers behind for the Rangers to use while he returns to Zandar. I’m continually liking how they cover their bases, because as I understand it KyoryuGrey didn’t have a lot of air-time, so this gives an understandable reason why he’s not around that much.
I enjoyed "Rise of a Ranger" for what it was. This episode had tons of continuity nods, a good message, and cohesion with the main storyline. On the whole, Dino Charge has been quite good lately. While that seems like I’m gearing up for a “but,” the truth is that this episode--while not the best they've done--is not bad at all, not even using the definition of what passes for bad this year. I’d have been delighted to get an episode of Super Megaforce on par with “When Logic Fails,” and this episode is certainly not that. Phillip was fantastic as always, ADR issues aside, and they did a great job using the footage they had while making a workable reason for the footage they filmed. From a personal opinion perspective, Graphite Ranger/Prince Phillip is probably one of my favorite Rangers of all time already. And, having said that, here comes the “but”: Dino Charge can do good. We’ve seen good repeatedly. But we've also seen excellent, and we could do with a bit more excellent. Make it excellent. We know you can.
