Power Rangers Super Megaforce: Silver Lining Part 1 review

I’ve talked a lot about pacing in these reviews, particularly in how Super Megaforce has improved on it over just plain ol’ regular Megaforce. With our first official two parter in some time, we get even more room to breathe which helps to build anticipation for our newest sixth ranger. In the past the show has hinted at the newest Ranger’s powers but we’ve never quite had this much build up in one episode. While it’s no Gold Zeo Ranger introduction, it still helps us get jazzed for the new ranger to appear on the scene. We don’t even get a good look at his face until the very end of the episode!

Since the Silver Ranger crash lands on Earth he might be an alien, even with his outwardly human appearance. Although if we remember what Andros said during the In Space premiere, “Not all humans are from Earth.” So who knows? I’m just going to assume he’s an “illegal alien” for now (kudos to my buddy Jason for this flawless song choice).

The Silver Rangers seems to have gone to the Dragon Knight school of spinning a staff around makes you look cool as well. At least here it actually makes sense with his weapon of choice, instead of KRDK where they just did it because TRAINING IS SO COOL GUYZ!

Meanwhile, Vekar continues to be the best villain the show has seen in years with his insistence on spamming the X-Borgs to destroy Earth. It may seem repetitive to some, but it’s a pretty damn effective plan. It certainly worked for Trakeena in the Lost Galaxy finale and Divatox in the Turbo finale. Foot soldiers may be weak, but if you just spam them over and over eventually it’ll wear out the heroes.

While the Silver Ranger is saving the day, we get an all too rare scene featuring the Rangers in school. Burley gives a hopeful speech about the Power Rangers but Troy squashes it. Humans stood up against evil in their darkest hour and survived, and they would have made a stand even without the Power Rangers help. While it lacked a certain punch, it’s nice to see Troy continuing to believe in humanity, even if this kind of speech would have worked better in the premiere or the finale.

It’s also a nice change to see the Rangers discussing strategy and acting like a team instead of just running straight to the fight. Because this is a two parter, we get more down time and seeing them constantly miss the X-Borgs attacking the city not only presents them with a challenge they’ve never had but builds tension for the Silver Ranger debut.

Which by the way, they have to fight the footage on the sixth ranger hard. He shouts things like, “My vengeance begins!” but his body language just reads like he’s super excited. I hope they’re able to make this work, because what we got from this episode is that the Armada wiped out his whole world, and him seeming excited about that just feels…wrong.

With that, let’s just stop for a moment. Let’s recap what happened in this episode. A previously unheard of member who just might be an alien that looks human from a world that was destroyed by an alien force. A female member of our regular team who just so happens might have the hots for him. This sounds vaguely familiar….

Oh yeah, Tattooed Teenage Alien Fighters from Beverly Hills did that already in the episode, “Universal Hitchhiker” twenty years ago. Next week will prove who did it better, but my money is on TTAFFBH. Prove me wrong, Super Megaforce. I dare you.

Overall, the episode is mostly set up. We only see the Silver Ranger take his helmet off in the very last scene and damn he’s got some scraggly hair. How long was he on that ship? Just one of the many questions we’re left to wait for next week. But I’m actually excited to see where this goes, what Silver’s backstory is and how it ties in with the Armada.

As revealed in our interview with Cameron Jebo, his character has a darker side, which would stand in stark contrast to environmental robot protector Robo Knight from last season.

So let us know what YOU think Power Rangers fans. How did this sixth Ranger intro stack up to previous ones? Comment below!

Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter for all news updates related to the world of geek. And Google+, if that’s your thing!