Hello there, and welcome to another Magic Happy VR Troopers review, and today I’m going to be looking at Searching For Tyler Steele written by Doug Sloan, and directed by Debra Spelling.
Now you may be asking why this episode, and not Error in the System? Well that has to do with a few things.
1) I have seen VR Troopers in production order, airing order, and Netflix order, and I have to say no one order makes more or less any sense than any other since it seems like only the multi part episodes either explain anything or advance the plot.
Outside of maybe No One’s Friend which introduces Percy, Virtual V-6 which introduces Poindexter, and Save The Trees which introduces the VRVTs but they’re still a bit away.
So if you want to watch the show in what ever order you want you can.
2) I figured other people would want to do VR Troopers reviews after this, and have seen other people do it, and I have seen them do airing, and Netflix order or thought other people would, and I thought about that one old VR Troopers website Shirley’s Virtual Temple I think that for a while I think was the only VR Troopers website, and it had episode summaries in production order so I went with that.
So anyway let’s get virtual.
We start off with Ryan thinking about the time his dad taught him origami which leads to a scene where he, and his friends are riding on horseback through the woods talking about how great it is to get out of the city for a bit while Jeb gives snarky commentary about the horses’ breath.
Eventually they see a seemingly abandoned building, and dismount to investigate.
Kaitlin takes out her camera, and sees that it’s a prison with a single scraggly faced middle aged looking white guy as a prisoner, and a mysterious “S” symbol on the wall.
The Troopers then decide to investigate further.
Meanwhile Ziktor watches the Troopers sneaking around what he claims is his reactor parts facility, and decides to transform into Grimlord.
In the Virtual Dungeon he talks to an unnamed spiky red female mutant who Metal Heroes wiki has dubbed Scarlet Seductress who is apparently Grimlord’s advisor.
She tells Grimlord to distract Ryan, and destroy him.
When Ryan, and his friends get to the building three random security guards show up without saying anything, and transform into Skugs, and the Troopers fight them off while Jeb runs off.
JB kicks a Skug while Ryan punches, and kicks one, and Kaitlin flips over another.
Then Ryan, and JB flip over their Skugs while Kaitlin punches, and kicks hers.
Then Ryan kicks, and flips over his again, and then all three kicks their skugs into each other defeating them.
At the Virtual Dungeon Grimlord requests another diversion, and Scarlet Seductress suggests drawing them into the Battle Grid.
First we go to the Lab where an alarm I jokingly refer to as a Dragonzord light goes off, and then the Professor says Battle Grid alert Prepare for Battle Grid mode.
Then we see Ryan, Kaitlin, and JB’s faces over a black background that turns into seizure lights, and then we see the Battle Grid suits form onto them.
Ryan has these armor like pieces, Kaitlin has these weird little cubes that I jokingly refer to as popcorn pieces, and JB has what looks like glass shards.
I’ll admit I like them because how unique everyone’s transformation is.
Then some more glass shard looking things appear and turn the black background into a portal that looks like a cheesy 90’s screen saver, and the Troopers fly through it while we see them from behind as a group, then individually from the side, then as a group from the front, and finally from behind again.
I will say while the CGI for the Battle Grid portal is very cheesy, and 90’s I do like the flying effects for the Troopers.
I’ll take this moment to actually talk about the Battle Grid itself.
It’s basically just this small glowing room with all these curtains with weird glowing lights underneath that I’m guessing is supposed to be the “sky” here, the ground is all rocky, and there’s these weird rock formations, and these weird barren trees, and there’s fog on the ground.
On one hand I have to say that I like it because it looks how I imagine virtual reality or some other dimension would look like if I physically went there, and in some episodes it’s the only time the Troopers actually appear in Virtual Reality but in some episodes it’s the only time we see some Troopers appear in VR Trooper mode even if they don’t transform into the full armor.
But on the other hand not only will I admit it’s cheesy I also have to admit as much as I like the Battle Grid suits themselves I have to wonder how much all the stuff for the Battle Grid set actually cost since I can’t imagine any of it could be cheap.
It makes me wonder why they didn’t just make the Battle Grid suits but call it Hyper Tech mode or something, and use the money they would have used to make the set to either make suits for the full armor the stunt people could actually fight in, or an American suit for Grimlord before season 2, and some American suits for Decimator, and General Ivar, or anything really.
Anyway on to the actual fight itself they land in the Battle Grid. JB is on the left, Ryan is in the middle, and Kaitlin is on the right, and they all just stand around talking wondering what Grimlord is up to.
Then we see the Skugs rise up with their arms crossed like vampires, and then unfurling them to make karate poses.
The Troopers do this thing where JB goes V, Ryan goes R, and Kailtin goes Troopers like they’re a Super Sentai team which I actually kind of like.
Ryan jumps through the air while doing a sideways karate chop, and then he lands on this rock formation, and then starts punching, and kicking a Skug, and knocks it off, and then he does this summersault down to the ground, and then Ryan starts kicking, and punching more Skugs.
Then Kaitlin punches, and low kicks some other Skugs, and then there’s this awkward edit where it looks like a Skug is hitting Kaitlin but it’s really JB who got hit, and he gets thrown back, and Kaitlin runs up to help him back up, and then they jump, and JB does this mid air kick that knocks a Skug into two others.
A scene I might add you see in every Battle Grid fight.
Then we see JB, and Kaitlin fight off the skugs some more for about a second.
Ryan punches, and kicks some more Skugs before grabbing one by the neck, and kicking it.
Kaitlin does a mid air summersault, and punches, and kicks some more, and knocks one into some others.
Now all the Skugs are gone, and we see Ryan, and then Kaitlin, and JB join him, and Ryan figures they should find out what’s with the old building that spooks Grimlord
Then they all say VR Troopers, and go back to reality.
What’s weird though is that we hardly ever directly see the Troopers transform back out of Battle Grid mode, and return to reality it’s usually they say VR Troopers the screen goes white, and then it cuts to the next scene, and most of the time the screen doesn’t even go white it just cuts to the next scene.
Anyway we then go to the Underground Voice Daily where after a brief comedy bit where two people pet Jeb we see Ryan, and JB are researching the building, and find out it’s owned by the government, and that they used to build nuclear weapons.
Meanwhile Kaitlin is in the dark room trying to enhance the pictures she took, and there’s one bit I like where she briefly mentions the Battle Grid.
Then she shows the others her pictures, and they decide to the lab hoping the Professor has some equipment that can help.
Meanwhile at the Virtual Dungeon another unnamed mutant who will later be identified as the Magician in A Dirty Trick is warning Grimlord that the Troopers will find out everything if they don’t cease operations.
And there’s this funny bit where Toxoid suggests poisoning the water but then Decimator quips that it’s stupid because teenagers don’t drink water.
Then Grimlord suggests they should attack the reality barrier to distract the Troopers while they take the prisoner to Virtual Reality.
At the lab the Troopers use the lab’s image enhancing software to blow up the image, and get a good look at the prisoner’s face, and Ryan, and the others notice something familiar about him so they digitally remove his beard.
Meanwhile at Ziktor industries Ziktor is bossing around Rooney the city’s cowardly mayor, and another comic relief character, and after the mayor leaves he transforms back into Grimlord, and orders his main fleet to distract the other Troopers while a ground squad handles Ryan.
Back at the lab the Troopers have finished removing the facial hair from the prisoner’s face (damn I wish I had that image editing software that way my fan made Battle Grid Troopers wouldn’t look like crap but I digress), and Ryan notices the prisoner looks like his father but JB, and Kaitlin warn him that it’s just a digital estimate of what the man might look like but Ryan wants to make sure just in case.
Just then another reality break alarm only this one is some glowing letters that say ALARM over red, and white background, and the Professor warns the Troopers that Grimlord is once again trying to penetrate the reality barrier so the Troopers transform to stop him.
The Professor warns Ryan that Grimlord has sent his mutant scouts which are these black and yellow ninja like foot soldiers with these weird helmets that I think look cool though I don’t think they get used much sadly.
And a group of them wrap ropes around Ryan, and try to electrocute him but he just grabs the ropes, and throws them.
But then one tries to fire laser needles at Ryan but he ducks out of the way, and they hit another mutant scout.
Then two more try to come after Ryan with their double edged swords/spears but he gets out of the way then grabs them, and throws them causing them to explode.
Then it’s just one last one (The Magician), and he and Ryan both jump at each other, Ryan karate chops the Magician but he punches Ryan’s stomach so they disconnect then the Magician breaths fire, and causes explosions but then Ryan jumps out of the way so the Magician throws an exploding shuriken but Ryan karate chops it out of the way.
Meanwhile Kaitlin fights off some Skugs by punching, and kicking them, and then using her ray gun on them.
While JB fights yet another unnamed robot mutant one who not even Metal Heroes wiki has a name for though they say they’re thinking of calling him Shockerbot because he was called Mecha Shocker in Spielban which I think is a good name though he’s also been called Shiskabot after Jebs snarky commentary for him.
Though just to be a sarcastic dick I’ll call him Nathaniel Merryweather the 3rd for this review.
Anyway JB jumps at Nathaniel Merryweather the 3rd, and tries to slash him with his sword but Nathaniel grabs it, and throws JB, and then grows out these tentacles to shoot JB with electricity.
But JB shoots him with his ray gun so Nathaniel grows a bazooka out of his shoulder, and shoots JB with lasers but JB teleports, and hits Nathaniel with his sword.
Meanwhile Ryan is still fighting Magician who is running while teleporting at him but Ryan punches, and throws him.
But the Magician teleports away, and reappears with a whole army of clones who come after Ryan with their swords/spears so the Professor gives Ryan a program that lets him see the real Magician who still comes after Ryan with his sword/spear but Ryan doges, and blocks, and then grabs it, and throws the Magician.
Then he uses a move called the Lightning Hand command where his hand grows a laser blade, and he karate chops the Magician but the Magician teleports out, and the Professor says he’s retreated so Ryan searches for his father.
Meanwhile Kailtin is fighting off some more Skugs by kicking, and throwing them while Nathaniel is firing lasers at JB who shoots his own lasers at Nathaniel who keeps coming so JB finishes him off with Laser Lance.
Afterwards there’s a bittersweet part where Ryan goes to the old building but finds it abandoned, and the prisoner gone but sees an origami bird seemingly confirming that his father was the prisoner, and looks for him.
While at the Virual Dungeon Decimator confirms the prisoner has been transferred to Virtual Reality, and Grimlord orders some fighters sent to the reality barrier.
So JB, and Kaitlin get in the Skybase which gets hit so they fire missles at the jet fighters but they keep coming so Kaitlin takes evasive maneuvers, and there is a funny part where the jet fighters keep hitting the Skybase, and JB quips “What happened to ‘evasive maneuvers’” to which Kaitlin goes “This isn’t a Sports Car JB it’s hard work”, and they apologize to each other.
Eventually though they fire missles at the jet fighters, and destroy them, and talk to Ryan who sadly reports he was too late.
While at the Virtual Dungeon Grimlord is mad at his minions for failing to destroy the Troopers.
JB, and Kaitlin then go to the abandoned building to find Ryan sitting around holding the origami bird bemoaning the fact that he was too late to save his dad, and his friends comfort him.
And I’ll be honest I find this actually very touching.
Anyway “I miss my dad” the end.
Final Thoughts.
This was a pretty cool episode.
There’s some generally touching bits when Ryan thinks the prisoner is his dad, and his friends try to cheer him up. I like how they took a show don’t tell approach to whether or not the prisoner is Ryan’s dad, and even the “I miss my dad” parts actually felt relevant for a change
I also thought a lot of parts like Decimator explaining why poisoning the water supply is stupid to JB, and Kaitlin arguing over Kaitlin’s flying were funny.
Also once again this show has some good monster designs I like Magician’s whole ninja motif, and powers, and I like Shockerbot/Shishkabot/Nathaniel Merryweather the 3rd/call him what you will with his electro tentacles, and shoulder bazooka.
And Scarlet Seductress with her spikes, and everything but let’s just say I wish they had saved her for a later episode.
And the mutant scouts where cool with their electro ropes, and laser needles I wish we could have gotten them in American footage since I can’t imagine the suits are any more complex than the Skug suits.
Also random thought I once had a dream where the Troopers fought the Mutant Scouts in the Battle Grid.
That would have been cool because one of my few problems with Battle Grid mode is that they only fight Skugs who aren’t much of a challenge in civilian mode so it probably would have lent the Battle Grid scenes some weight I think if they used Mutant Scouts for them.
Not much on the Metal Hero front there was a fight scene with Scarlet Seductress but Metalder was unmorphed, a jet fighter chase, and Spielban morphed looking around a quarry but they were both more relevant to Spielban’s version of what will later be The Rise of The Red Python.
I think there’s a few more seconds of the mutant scout fight in the Metalder, and in Spielban they used the Gran Nazca’s cannon formation but that’s it.
Anyway tune in next time for more Magic Happy VR Troopers reviews with me Justin.
No comments:
Post a Comment