Power Rangers Review: "The Wedding (Part I)"

I've been wanting to do this Power Rangers review for a good bit. I admit, I did rush through the last ones I did just so I can get to this one, and how fitting that the beginning of this comes on Valentine's Day. Granted, it's not exactly a romantic story, but still. So without further ado, let's take a look back at the very memorable and landmark three-parter, "The Wedding," and this will be separated into three stories.

Part I begins at Angel Grove High, where it's announced that the titular sextet will be heading on a trip all the way to Australia, serving as teen exchange speakers. They won't be going alone, as Bulk and Skull are going with them, and the pair are lamenting over being stuck with the sextet--who are being told by Ernie to keep an eye on the duo. As Tommy mentions, this vacation comes at the perfect time, as Lord Zedd is set to go into a deep sleep to recharge his evil energies.

Speaking of Zedd, he takes one last peek at Earth before he charges up, and sees the Rangers are out of the country. Zedd laments that he should be on the attack, but he has to recharge his evil energies, with Goldar stating that his chamber was ready. Zedd vows to destroy the Rangers and own the universe once he's fully recharged.

He's not the only one with plans:

She's back again, folks! Rita Repulsa, still in her traveling dumpster following her last appearance in the conclusion of "White Light," has her own machinations in line with Zedd fast asleep and the Rangers out of the way. We are the treated to a montage of the octet of teens taking in the Australian sights, and regarding that, I'll get this trivial tidbit out of the way now. The reason why the characters were in Australia is because that's where the movie was being shot. I still remember the buzz about that MMPR film, and still remember beaming when I rented the film and saw it for the first time. So yeah, the process of filming the anticipated movie pretty much started with this three-parter.

We switch to the Command Center for the first time, and Zordon voices his concern over Alpha, who then says he's OK, but he misses the Rangers. Zordon tells Alpha not to worry, adding that with Zedd asleep in his chamber, they should not have to worry about any emergencies. Alpha decides to take a stroll outside, and as for Zedd, he sends Goldar away so he can get his sleep.

It's at that moment that Rita crash lands on the moon, and later sneaks her way into the palace, where we later see Finster lamenting.

"Oh, for the good old days," says Finster. "I used to be somebody around here. Monster maker extraordinaire. Now I'm just old and in the way."

I'm not gonna lie, every time I watch this, I always like that part from Finster. I feel like we are really seeing Finster for the first time here, and we see him really bare his soul (or what passes for it) as he laments on how he's been pushed to the side ever since Zedd took over. Finster says that he misses Rita and that they were great together, adding that he "wished (Rita) were here."

At that moment, Rita appears to Finster, who is surprised to see his queen back. Rita orders Finster to make her grow, and after a bit of time, Rita's back to full size. Rita wants Finster to create a love potion that will be used on Zedd, so he will fall in love with Rita and marry her, with Rita using the marriage to rule the world and Zedd--after she destroys the Rangers. One problem: the Rangers are in Australia, and Rita is impatient, as she wanted the Rangers to be her wedding gift to Zedd. Finster's idea: use Alpha to bring the Rangers back. Oh boy.

Speaking of Alpha, he's taking his constitutional walk, and takes notice of how barren the land is. He says it could use some flowers, and he used the morphing grid to grow some. However, Alpha's horticultural act is interuptted by some Putties and Finster, the latter placing a virus (in the form of a disk) inside of Alpha, who is quite woozy. Rita celebrates the success of Finster's mission, and back at the Command Center, Zordon detects strange behavior from Alpha and asks him what happened while he was outside.

"Who cares what you're detecting, ya big floating head?!" snaps Alpha. "Just be quiet! I have work to do!"

Back at the Land Down Under, the gang comes off Kimberly's shopping spree, and Bulk and Skull decide to ditch the group. As Kimberly talks about the gifts she's purchased, the communicator goes off. Tommy answers and asks for Zordon, but gets Alpha, who tells the Rangers to morph and teleport to the abandoned Specter Theatre and wait for further instructions. Zordon asks Alpha what he's doing, only for Alpha so shut down Zordon's communicator so he can't alert the Rangers of his scheme, and then fixes it so he won't have to listen to Zordon either. Alpha then tells the Rangers that it's an emergency and he'll communicate with them ASAP.

The sextet headed off to an isolated area, and then morph into action before teleporting to the theater, which looks like something from a low budget horror movie. At the Command Center, Alpha's acting up again, and Zordon again voices his concern and wants to help. Alpha dismisses Zordon and grumbles about working for him and about the equipment. Zordon then reveals the truth about the theatre: it's a vortex and the Rangers needed to be out of there because they'll have no powers there. Alpha not only knows this, but gives this response to Zordon regarding his strange behavior:

"This is the new Alpha, big boy! With a new mission: to oversee the destruction of the Power Rangers!"

While Alpha's heel turn is cemented, we see the Rangers walking around the theater, and elsewhere, Rita dons a beauty mask created by Finster, which makes Rita look younger. Rita receives the love potion, and we later see Alpha mess with Zordon by using the controls to give Zordon a mustache, glasses, blue hair and flowers on his head. Dead serious. Rita inserts the potion inside Zedd's chamber, Finster recreates a number of his past monsters to send into the theater.

The Rangers are on the balcony, where they are suddenly encountered by Invenusable Flytrap, Soccadillo, and Saliguana. With no room to maneuver, the Rangers drop to the first floor, but all that does is allow the Rangers to see that they are outnumbered by a bevy of past monsters, which also include (but aren't limited to) Peckster, Eye Guy, and Grumble Bee. Knowing this, the Rangers looked to teleport out of the theater.

Yeah, about that.

The Rangers are not going anywhere. Not at all. Their attempt to teleport fizzled faster than Josh Allen does in the playoffs. Kimberly suggest calling on their weapons. Also a no go. Sorry, Rocky, no Power Sword. No Power Axe, no Power Lance, no Power Daggers, no Power Bow and Arrow. Nada. All the while:

"Pathetic Rangers, you're all doomed!" the evil Alpha cackles.

It sure looked that way. The Rangers were surrounded by a plethora of monsters who were showing no mercy, and the Rangers themselves had no way out as Rita was plotting her vengeance on Zedd--putting an end to Part I while realizing that I just referenced three past WWE PPV events.

Part I of "The Wedding," the 41st episode of MMPR Season 2, aired on February 13, 1995, and--among other things--marked the official regular return of Rita Repulsa. Regarding Rita, the episode officially debuted Carla Perez as Rita, and I say officially because Perez did appear in Parts I and III of "The Mutiny," but she was hardly shown. While Perez physically played Rita and would do so for the remainder of MMPR and beyond, Rita's voice was still provided by Barbara Goodson. Perez actually played Rita Repulsa again in the controversial Power/Rangers short film that came out in 2015, which also featured Katee Sackhoff and the recently late, great James Van Der Beek.

Of course, I mentioned Alpha's moments in past reviews, and I said that this was his biggest moment, and not for positive reasons. We get evil Alpha in this, and according to what I read, Richard Horvitz (Alpha's voice actor) stated that the three-parter was his favorite episode because of Alpha briefly being evil, and we will see more evil Alpha as the three-parter commences!

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