All 3 Power Rangers Movies in Order
Power Rangers is an American entertainment and merchandising franchise that is built around a live-action superhero TV series, that became really popular in the 1990s. The franchise is based on the Japanese tokusatsu franchise Super Sentai. With the popularity of TV shows and movies, Power Rangers released cool toys that sold over several billion copies all over the world until 2001.
The premise of the Power Rangers goes like this – each series or movie revolves around a team of youths recruited and trained by a mentor to morph into the eponymous Power Rangers. They are able to use special powers, and pilot cool and powerful machines called Zords, which can also morph into one huge Zord, which depends on the enemy.
In this article, we will include all live-action movies that were released till today and mention if they are connected to the popular TV series that aired multiple times on TV. If you are interested in this article, stay with us until the end of the article!
How Many Power Rangers Movies Are Out There?
Even though the Power Rangers franchise released various TV series, comic books, and other merchandise, the franchise only has three live-action movies. The first one was released in 1995, and the second installment of the franchise came out in 1997. Similarly to the Mortal Kombat franchise, fans had to wait for another Power Rangers movie for twenty years, and finally got released in 2017.
The franchise finally got released from purgatory and was rebooted once again.
Power Rangers Movies in Order (At Glance)
First Power Rangers movies were mostly based on the TV series that was airing in the 1990s at the same time. For example, the first movie was released between the second and third seasons of the Power Rangers TV series and even though the movie was supposed to connect two seasons, in the end, it did not have any connections to the third season. The second movie from 1997 was released after the events of the Power Rangers Zeo tv series, and the cast was supposed to join the next season of the Power Rangers tv show. It is safe to say that it failed miserably.
The last and most recent Power Rangers movie from 2017 was a reboot that loosely adapted the pilot episode of the original TV series.
This is the list of Power Ranger movies at glance:
- Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie (1995 )
- Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie (1997)
- Power Rangers (2017)
What Is the Best Way to Watch the Power Rangers Movies?
We recommend that one can watch the Power Rangers movies by release date, or if you are rewatching the original TV series, be mindful of the timeline of each movie since it is supposed to be a bridge between the seasons. Only the newest reboot does not have anything to do with the TV series besides the pilot episode.
Because of that, you should definitely watch Power Rangers movies by the release date order.
Power Ranger Movies in Order by Release Date
1. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie (1995)
As we already mentioned, the first Power Rangers movie was released as the bring between the second and the third season of the popular series. The movie was directed by Bryan Spicer and written by Arne Olsen and John Klamps. The story follows six teenagers Tomm, Kimberly, Adam, Billy, Rocky, and Aisha who have discovered the power to fight the forces of evil.
Lord Zedd and Rita Repulsa release a creature inside the mystery egg, Ivan Ooze, whom Zordon sealed six thousand years ago. The Power Rangers seek help on another planet and prepare to defeat the ultimate, vengeful creature.
The movie has a simple premise and storyline which was supposed to be connected to the TV series but it seems that the continuation of the movie did not overlap with season three of the original TV series. In this movie, we meet Yellow, Black, Red, White, Pink, and Blue Ranger, who are fighting an ultimate evil. There is also a mid-credits scene that gives us the hint that the plot of the movie will continue.
We won’t spoil anything to ruin the enjoyment of the movie, but we will mention that the first Power Rangers movie received mixed reviews from critics. They did praise the action sequences and performances of the actors but criticized the film seemed like a longer episode of the TV show. It did not have anything to lose mind over it, and that blame was put onto the writers.
Regardless, the movie looked promising in some aspects and hinted at future projects.
2. Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie (1997)
The second installment of the Power Rangers film series came two years later. After the semi-success of the first movie, Power Ranger’s developers wanted to make a similar movie. This time two directors worked on the movie, David Winning, and Shuky Levy, who is also a writer with Shell Danielson.
The whole cast was changed – each season and storyline of the Power Rangers were changing constantly, and the same premise was with the movies. This time the story follows legendary Power Rangers who must stop the evil space pirate Divatox from realizing the powerful Maligore from his volcanic prison on Muranthias Island.
The hope of the Power Rangers winning lies in new and improved skills and abilities of the fighters called Turbo with new Turbo Zords as well. As one would suspect, everything is resolved but this time there are no mid-credits scenes like the first movie had.
This time the cast of legendary fighters include Green, Yellow, Blue, Red, and Pink Turbo Rangers, which have enhanced powers, and Turbo Zords that look like cars. All in all, the movie was a disaster and had awful reviews.
The movie was supposed to be an aftermath of the fourth season of the show called Power Rangers Zeo, and the movie failed miserably. It bombed at the box office as well and was heavily criticized for its visual effects and its campiness, however, the only thing it was praised for is the actor’s performances.
This was the movie that broke camels back, and 20th Century decided to bin the franchise for the foreseeable future.
3. Power Rangers (2017)
The newest entry on this least and the last known Power Rangers movie was released 20 years on dot after the second disastrous movie. Power Rangers were resurrected after twenty years of being on the shelf but Lionsgate decided to release it this time. The director of the reboot was Dean Israelite, writers that worked on the movie were John Gatins, Matt Sazama, Burk Sharpless, Michele Mulroney, and Kieran Mulroney.
The cast had promising young actors whose careers started to slowly but surely develop. The movie based its story on the original TV series pilot – the story follows high school outcasts that stumble upon a fallen alien ship, which proves to be the source of their powers. After they receive powers they are dubbed the Power Rangers.
The Power Rangers learn that an old enemy of the previous generation has come back seeking vengeance, and the group needs to learn how to work together to save the world from evil. The cast of the Power Rangers includes Red, Pink, Blue, Yellow, and Black Power Ranger.
Haim Saban, Lionsgate, and others went ambitiously in this project – the reboots and remakes of old and forgotten franchises started coming back and Power Rangers were the perfect project to revive. Unfortunately, even with a talented cast, which was praised, the huge budget of $105 million, and critics’ lack of ambition by the writers, doomed the movie to bomb the box office.
There was supposed to be another Power Rangers movie, but everything was canceled after the commercial failure, and Haim Saban after thirty years decided to cut his losses and sell the Power Rangers franchise to Hasbro. When thinking about it, the movie was actually better than the previous ones but it came out at a bad time.
Where To Watch Power Rangers Movies?
Outside of Europe, you can watch the Power Rangers movies and series on multiple platforms like Hulu and Disney+ and Europeans can watch the most recent Power Rangers movie on Netflix.
Will There Be More Power Rangers Movies?
Even after multiple failures commercially and sometimes even creatively, there was little hope that the Power Rangers franchise will ever get bigger than it was in the 1990s. The climate is different, and the way the Power Rangers/tokusatsu genre is perceived in this day and age does not give hope to the developers who maybe want to create more Power Rangers content.
However, Hasbro bought the franchise after the failure of the last Power Rangers huge project and immediately started developing a new still untitled Power Rangers movie. The second reboot will be released by the Netflix streaming platform.
All in all, maybe there is hope for the Power Rangers franchise.
