Review - Power Rangers Cosmic Fury (2023)

           Hey guys, Chuck here, and this is my review of Power Rangers Cosmic Fury, the newest season of the long-running series Power Rangers. This marks the thirtieth season overall, and is a part of the thirtieth anniversary celebration of the Power Rangers. The main team of Rangers are carried over from Dino Fury, with Hunter Deno, Russell Curry, Tessa Rao, Chance Perez, Jordon Fite, and Kai Moya all reprising their roles as Amelia, Zayto, Izzy, Javi, Aiyon, and Ollie. Promoted from supporting cast to main cast this season is Jacqueline Joe as Fern, and joining the cast is David Yost as Billy Cranston, reprising his role from previous outings of the Power Rangers franchise. 

         So, the season starts off on the planet Zordnia, with the Dino Fury Rangers deeply entrenched in a battle against the Lord Zedd and his new army, which comes courtesy of a partnership with Bajillia, who is the CEO of the Squid Ink Inc. mining company. And, of course, we see Zedd's new foot soldiers this time around, the Zentinels. Zentinels are essentially a combination of the Z-Putties from Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers and the Quantrons from Power Rangers in Space. And, as far as foot soldiers go, they're pretty awesome in terms of look, design, and fighting prowess. But, the emblem on the chest is a major weak point, similar to the Z on the Z-Putties. Anyway, it's not just the Dino Fury Rangers, but also the Morphin' Masters, Billy the Blue Mighty Morphin' Ranger, and Mick Kanick the Red Ninja Steel Ranger. Yep, Mick is back, and we actually see him in his Ranger suit from Ninja Steel. Sweet. Now, one thing I want to comment on is Zedd's voice. Veteran voice actor Fred Tatasciore takes on the role of Lord Zedd, and he does really well. Don't get me wrong, it's nowhere near the icon status of the late Robert Axelrod, but Fred Tatasciore definitely brings out the level of menace needed for Zedd. 

        Unfortunately, in the heat of battle, the Rangers are struck with a blue slime, which unfortunately turns Ollie into a villain, and he joins Zedd's forces. Also, the five Morphin' Masters are captured as well. Oh, and Zayto disappears through a portal to another planet. Whoops. Forced to regroup, the Rangers find the legendary Altar of Zordnia, where they use a Morphin' Master staff to release the legendary Cosmic Fury Zords, which help the Rangers immensely in battle. The Zords are pretty badass looking, with my two favorites being the Dragon Zord and the Scorpion Zord. Ultimately, the Rangers return to Earth, where they attempt to formulate a plan to rescue the Morphin' Masters, make Ollie good again, and stop Zedd and Bajillia. 

         Now, something really neat about this season is that Billy ultimately comes up with the new Rangers powers, combining the energy from the staff into new morphers, which keep the dinosaur design from the previous season. I do like the new morphers, especially with how they flip open the top to enter the Cosmic Orbs to morph into the new Rangers suits. The suits themselves are also neat, with the Ranger colors taking up the majority of the suit, a triangular space on one side, and a shield over the shoulders. Cool. Now, while Aiyon, Izzy, and Javi retain their Ranger colors from Dino Fury, Amelia goes from being the Pink Ranger to being the Red Rangers. And, I like it. As a matter of fact, when the Cosmic Fury suits were revealed a few months ago, I was intrigued by the idea of having Amelia as the Red Ranger this season, because while past seasons like S.P.D. and Super Samurai each had side characters as Red Rangers that were women, Cosmic Fury marks the first season where a woman is both the Red Ranger and the lead character of the season. And, it also helps that Hunter Deno is just that likeable as Amelia. Also, Zayto gets a new Ranger color and becomes the Zenith Ranger. And, we get a new Ranger this season when Fern becomes the Orange Ranger. 

         Speaking of which, we do see multiple interactions throughout the season between Amelia, Pop-Pop, and Tarrick. And, both Greg Johnson and Jared Turner are absolutely fantastic in the series, with Tarrick leading a resistance movement to protect Earth from Zedd's forces, with many Rafkonians joining him. As for the other Rangers, I thoroughly enjoyed all of them. Russell Curry and Jordon Fite were once again fantastic as Zayto and Aiyon, Chance Perez was great as Javi, and I enjoyed a plot point where he has to adjust to a new metallic arm because he lost his real one in summoning the Cosmic Fury Zords. But, lastly, there's Tessa Rao as Izzy and Jacqueline Joe as Fern, whose relationship dynamic grows throughout the season, especially after Fern becomes the Orange Ranger. 

       I also liked seeing Rangers from previous seasons appear as well, with a lot of that going to David Yost as Billy and Kelson Henderson as Mick. Also, we see the return of Ryan Carter as Heckyl, who went from a villain in Dino Charge to an ally of the Dino Charge Rangers, and now suiting up as the Dino Charge Dark Ranger. Now, I'm not going into more detail with the character progression of Heckyl during Dino Charge, because (a) it would take up too much of this review, and (b) Linkara pretty much already covered it in his review of Dino Charge. 

       Now, I did find it to be shocking when Ollie became an evil Power Ranger, and his Ranger suit while he was evil was something out of a nightmare. Kai Moya definitely does a great job playing up being evil, and seeing him fight his fellow Rangers, especially since he and Amelia were supposed to be in a relationship by this point, is genuinely tragic. But, he does eventually redeem himself and suits up as the Cosmic Fury Blue Ranger by the end of the season. 

       Speaking of which, this season is actually pretty short by Power Rangers standards, coming in at only ten episodes. But, that's pretty standard for a Netflix series, so I'm not surprised. However, I don't mind the shorter run of episodes, as it allows for the story to be more focused and contained to the main plot, as opposed to having a lot of monster-of-the-week episodes that Power Rangers had in abundance in past seasons. And, what is the plot? What does Zedd have planned that the Rangers need to prevent? Well, Zedd apparently wants to absorb the powers of the Morphin' Masters and become all-powerful. So powerful, in fact, that no Rangers can stop him. 

        Now, I think I'm going to stop here, because I don't want to give EVERYTHING away in this review. I just wanted to highlight a number of the elements I liked while watching this season. Overall, I absolutely loved Cosmic Fury, and I highly recommend it for longtime fans of the Power Rangers. The main Rangers are fantastic, we got to see fan favorites from past seasons of Power Rangers, and it definitely felt like a satisfying conclusion to thirty years of storytelling. I'm giving Power Rangers Cosmic Fury a rating of 5/5. Now, this season marks the end of an era, as Cosmic Fury is the final season of Power Rangers, bringing an end to thirty years of children's action entertainment. Netflix has announced, however, that a reboot of Power Rangers aimed at a young adult audience is set to release on Netflix sometime in 2025, and I certainly can't wait to see what that looks like. But, I'm glad I got to live through this fantastic era of Power Rangers, and having gotten to meet several past Power Rangers stars, including the late Jason David Frank. It's truly amazing that this franchise lasted the decades since it's debut in the '90s, and that it's entertained three generations of children. 

        Anyway guys, this is Chuck signing off, and I'll be back soon with the beginning of HallowScream.