To hell with your Citizen Kanes, Casablancas, and Lawrence of Arabias. The cinematic arts hit their peak when Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie came out in 1995, and it’s all been downhill since. Here’s why.
First and foremost, it relies heavily on the indisputable highest form of humor in existence: Puns.
And it’s the only movie to start with a good two minutes of aerial acrobatics, because the Power Rangers skydiving onto a target will save the Angel Grove observatory… for some reason that’s never established. It’s unimportant. Look at those sweet flips!
More sweet flips!
And Kimberly and Billy flipping off-screen when any sane person would walk. It’s a testament to the importance of originality and proper quad fitness.
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers engendered in a whole generation of young dorks a love of science. How can you listen to dialogue like this and not want to unlock the secrets of the universe?
Kimberly’s wide-eyed reaction to setting foot on an alien planet that’s clearly just California taught us all a valuable lesson about approaching each new experience with a sense of childlike wonder.
Other valuable lessons that lesser films don’t bother to teach: Evil uses bendy straws.
Never walk when you can Ninjetti Corkscrew Kick.
…and dance like no one is watching.
Though you may think Mighty Morphin Power Rangers is your average ’90s action movie, in breaking the fourth wall so Billy can make a (quite excellent, let’s be honest) pun it reveals a terrifying subtextual analysis of the nature of reality and our relationship to our inner selves.
Just as the Rangers taking so long to morph that the baddies got bored and left has philosophically intriguing implications about the nature of humanity’s solipsistic perception of time and the importance of living in the moment.
And the bad guy was defeated when he was kneed in the crotch into the path of an oncoming comet! After Aisha pressed a “For Emergency Use Only” button! “Knee to to the crotch” is a button that exists on the Ninja Megazord!