Legend of the White Dragon - 4K Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Legend of the White Dragon



Movie:
4K Video:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:

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Movie
For those of us who grew up in the 90s and early 2000s, the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and their subsequent spin-off series were a HUGE thing. I mean ENORMOUS. Back in the 90s and up until 2007 (ish), the franchise was simply a way to print money, with toys, outfits for Halloween, fan favorites, and all sorts of merchandise rolled up into a crazy genre that somehow WORKED. Originally taking elements of the Japanese Sentai shows and then infusing clips from them into an American “for kids” action TV show, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers was a smash hit from the get-go. But strangely enough, the original series wasn’t the pinnacle of the Rangerverse. Instead, the lore got deeper. The subsequent shows got better, and by the time I had grown out of the series, it was dang near Pokémon level (early Pokémon, not the craze it has become today in the 2020s).

But no matter who loves what spinoff, or what ranger you liked, EVERYONE loved Jason David Frank as the White/Green Ranger in the original show. He was the most powerful, the most loved, and he was the longest-running ranger in all of “Power Ranger” history. And to add layers to it all, he was also probably the most loved character at Comic-Con. He absolutely loved being able to play the White/Green Ranger, and his enthusiasm transferred over to the fans to the point where he would actually pull fans AWAY from the other rangers to his booth if he was at the same Comic-Con as his coworkers and friends. But this is where the happiness ends. Jason David Frank really wanted to make a PG-13 Green Ranger movie back in 2017 and 2018 (back when the reboot movie was going on), and the powers that be shut him down. BUT, he and several other Power Ranger alum decided to go ahead with a fan project known as Legend of the White Dragon. And from web clips and demo reel, it looked to be a Power Rangers knockoff, or at “adjacent” more than anything, and fans were stoked. The whole project was crowd-funded around COVID times, and by 2021 principal photography had finished. And that was when Jason ended his life the very next year, before final photography could be completed and the film ready for release. Bam, in one blow, what was supposed to be a trilogy of films (at least according to one contact who has worked on the production team) and things just went dead in the water. Now, 4 years after his death, creators Aaron and Sean Schoenke, along with Well Go USA, have actually given us a limited theatrical release for the film, and then decked this out with a stunning 4K UHD combo pack release for home video a few months later.

The story itself is a mixed bag. Mostly because the film spends so much time in flashbacks that you can tell they didn’t have enough budget to do anything bigger and bolder with the fights, or push the main story along. Jason David Frank is Erick Reed, the son of a thief (Michael Madsen, who also died before this came out) and the superhero of Virtuo City known as “The White Dragon”. Ala Power Rangers, The White Dragon gained his powers from a crystal, which morphs him into a battle suit laden martial artist who has incredible powers. Unfortunately, his name was forever tarnished by a supervillain known as Ashtagor, who shattered the crystal in half and blames the White Dragon for the 1200+ deaths he caused.

Now Erick is on the run and hiding from the powers that be who want to bring him in for the crimes Ashtagor committed. But there is a chance at redemption. There is one remaining charging pool left on Earth that Ashtagor didn’t destroy. A pool that would allow him to recharge the broken half of the crystal that he still has and give him his powers back, allowing him to clear his name and push back against Ashtagor. The problem is, the other half of the crystal is in the hands of tech billionaire Jai Katua (Aaron Scheonke), who wants to simulate the charging pool artificially so that he can use the crystal and kill Erik Reed for the death of his wife and child in that 1200+ casualty list. Now it’s up to Erik and his old friends to hunt down the pool, recharge the crystal, and put a stop to everything.

The movie itself is pretty broken and cheesy, but strangely I liked this WAY better than I thought I would. Maybe it's because it was just as cheesy and goofy as the original Power Rangers shows, or maybe it's because I’m carrying a huge nostalgia crush on the attempt at giving the White Ranger a sendoff. The entire product is both exhilarating and intensely sad at the same time, as you’re left with the very real weight of Jason’s death hanging over everything. Along with the Schoenkes, He was the brains behind it all, and you can tell that they were setting this up for a multi-film arc. I kind of wish they had decided to alter the ending a bit so that they could leave it less open-ended, but they went with the original ending instead, which continues the setup for a new tale that will never come (at least in film form. The Schoenkes are working to see if they can continue it in a novel or animated form, but we’ll see.

Everyone involved is absolutely having a blast. This is 100% a fan-made film, by fans, for fans, and financed through fans as well. Jason gave it his absolute all, and the remaining Power Rangers alumni in the film were obviously having a ball playing similar characters to what they played in their own shows. The movie itself is not great, but I had a ball with it, as my 90s teenage self was on full display during this watching, and I have to admit that while I KNOW this isn’t a great film, I didn’t even remotely care.

Rating: Rated R for some violence.




4K Video: Video:
This is something I haven’t seen from Well Go USA in a while, but there is no standalone release for the Blu-ray. Instead, this is a 4K UHD combo pack with both discs, and NO standalone release for the Blu-ray. I’m not shocked, as I really would have liked the industry to go this direction when 4K came on the market years ago, but I digress. The native 4K master looks good in 2160p, with plenty of color and pop with the Dolby Vision, and excellent fine details. The only time I would say that having this much clarity is a negative is when the CGI gets pretty intensive. The paper-thin budget shows big time with the CGI, making this look decades older in many ways. Strangely enough, I felt this looked VERY similar to how Amazon’s Samaritan looked with the CGI, the coloring, and even some of the fight scenes. It’s not a perfect encode, as I noticed some minor crush (and some banding in the Blu-ray), but overall the video is excellent.


Audio:
As with the video, the Dolby Atmos track found on both discs is very aggressive and very high quality. Dialog is above reproach, with clean vocals, and the surrounds get a lot of activity during the copious fight scenes. The overheads aren’t AS active as I would have expected, with less discrete sounds, but more ambient usage, with some of the score bleeding in. Bass is deep and throbbing, adding a ton of low end to the ship the rangers….errrr...dragon uses to get to the mountains, or the slamming and crushing weight of thousands of tons of building coming down in the initial battle. There’s some mild feeling of being “cheap” at times thanks to the budget, but overall this is another killer mix.


Extras:
• Q&A with Jenna Frank
• Thank You to the Backers
• Filmmaker Commentary
• Original Trailer

Final Score: ​

Legend of the White Dragon is this sort of bittersweet elation and sadness all in one depressing package. This is the love letter that David Jason Frank wanted to make to the “Power Rangers” franchise, but it’s heavily laden with the knowledge that the man took his own life shortly after filming was finished. It’s wonderful to see the man reprising his own “totally not Power Rangers” fan fiction love letter, but the reality of the demons the man struggled with weighed heavily over the entire production. Especially when you consider that this was SUPPOSED to be the first part of a multi-part series. The movie itself is pretty terrible, but the 90s kid who still lives in this aging body had an absolute BLAST with it all. As such, I’m going to be splitting the difference between my 1.5/5 quality rating and my 4/5 “fun” rating and give it a middle-of-the-road 3/5. Fun for us Power Rangers fans.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Jason David Frank, David Ramsey, Lenore Zann, Aaron Schoenke, Cerina Vincent, Jenna Frank, Amy Johnston, Michael Madsen, Jason Faunt
Directed by: Aaron Schoenke, Sean Schoenke
Written by: Aaron Schoenke, Sean Schoenke
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 HEVC
Audio: English: Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 Core), French DD 5.1, English DVS 5.1
Subtitles: English, English SDH, French, Spanish
Studio: Lionsgate
Rated: R
Runtime: 97 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: October 20th, 2026

Recommendation: For the Power Rangers fans