Power Rangers Dino Super Charge: Wings of Danger Review

Riley has complicated feelings about a chicken man while the season's plot continues to feel rushed.

This Power Rangers Dino Super Charge review contains spoilers.

Power Rangers Dino Super Charge Episode 16

I’m struggling to like Power Rangers Dino Super Charge. I really am. It has a lot of amazing elements, particularly the characters, but throughout this whole episode I struggled to pay attention. Was it the nonstop fights? The sloppy progression of the overall arc? The fact they rushed the introduction of Zenowing and we’re supposed to care about him?

It was all three of those, but let’s focus on the last one. Zenowing is supposed to be a big deal and the episode treats him as such… Yet we as the audience are not given any reason to. Sure, they keep saying how important he is and we get another huge info dump at the start of the episode, but I still feel nothing for him. It doesn’t matter that he’s in a rubber suit, because let me tell you; I have cared about rubber suit creatures before (what up Farscape).

It’s that any possible character drama that could possibly endear me to this giant chicken man is undercut with Keeper mentioning, “Oh yeah, he’s only being an asshole because his spirit was infected by Doomwing.” Why was this needed? Why couldn’t Zenowing have just been a dick to the team because he’s an asshole? It would have been nice to have a little conflict, have the Rangers shaken up by learning to work with an alien who has a different way of fighting evil.

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…Oh wait, we already basically did that when Ivan came on the team. So no matter which way you handled that plot, it still feels repetitive. Great. I did like Zenowing calling the Rangers out for wanting thanks for saying nice things about his sword skills, so it’s not all bad, it just feels hollow. Like the rest of the episode, actually!

If I didn’t know better, I would assume the team behind this show didn’t have all the Sentai footage to work with from the start. I mean, that’s the only way to explain why they’re nonstop introducing villains and powerups from Kyoryuger… Right? Well, no. They did have all the footage. It’s still just sloppily executed. In this episode we get the proper introduction of the Silver Ranger (anytime we get the first morph it’s the proper introduction), Doomwing’s defeat, and Heckyl’s backstory revealed. Plus some story about Riley wanting to have sex with- I mean train with Zenowing. 

It’s so stuffed. I know I’ve been pointing this out the last few weeks but it bears repeating. Why did we have so many mostly filler style episodes that did almost nothing to advance the plot? Why not spread all of these major plot advances around so these last few episodes don’t feel so rushed?

Heckyl’s back story seems fascinating! He was turned evil against his will and now has to live with the countless lives he’s taken. I mean sure, this would be a little easier to swallow if we had ever, before the last few episodes, had any indication Heckyl might not be a bad person, but I’m trying to enjoy what we’ve got.

Did anyone else get some Megaforce flashbacks with the nonstop fighting that we’re in no way emotionally invested in? When I’m checking my twitter instead of watching the episode? That’s a problem.

I’ll give some points to the episode for not having a disconnected b-plot, unlike the last two episodes (not counting the Halloween special). Everything was at least all tied together. That really shouldn’t be a saving grace to the episode, but such at is.

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I think the main problem here? It doesn’t focus on one of the better Dino Charge characters. I’ve talked a lot, both here and on No Pink Spandex, that Riley is the weakest of the Dino Charge characters because he isn’t consisitant. All of his focus episodes have him going in wildly different directions. In this one we don’t learn anything about him besides the fact he really wants to kiss- I mean learn from Zenowing. So the brunt of the episode falls on Zenowing and we don’t care about him.

The only thing that has made Dino Super Charge tolerable after the bungling of Tyler’s dad has been the characters. We haven’t gotten much development for them but they’re still fun to be around. Ivan is a riot, Koda is adorable, Tyler and Shelby are FINALLY sort of kind of together, and Chase is getting actual development. It’s the characters that are keeping this show afloat.

But good characters in a weak plot can only work for so long. Dino Super Charge is running out of steam and it needs to do something big to get itself back on track before it goes off the rails completely.

Stray Thoughts

– Nice Home Run Koda callback.

-I still can’t stand the planet being named Sentai 6. It’s a cheap reference trying to pander to the fans.

-“You’re cock-a-doodle doomed!” Enter that into the ‘so terrible it was hilarious’ Power Rangers hall of fame.

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“Do you have any idea how many times we’ve beaten these chumps?” Seriously, how many times have they beaten Meteor especially?

-“Monsters extinct!” “Again…” I laughed.

-Riley. I get it. You’re struggling with your sexuality. But seriously, don’t have sex with that bird man.

 Shamus Kelley ships Riley/Zenowing. Sorry not sorry. Follow him on Twitter!

Rating:

1.5 out of 5