Power Rangers

My childhood self would approve of this movie…mostly.

The latest attempt at injecting new life into an aging franchise, Power Rangers brings everything back to where it all started with original characters Jason (Dacre Montgomery), Kimberly (Naomi Scott), Billy (RJ Cyler), Trini (Becky G), and Zack (Ludi Lin), back in the spotlight. When a millennia-old threat in the form of Rita Repulsa (Elizabeth Banks) resurfaces (literally) to wreak havoc on the unsuspecting town of Angel Grove, it’s up to these five teenagers to take her down before she unearths the mythical Zeo Crystal, which, as bad guys are wont to do, will allow Rita to destroy all life on Earth once and for all. Now, with doubt and uncertainty running through the team, our heroes have to learn to work together and find the power within themselves to morph into the mythical Power Rangers and, you guessed it, save the day! Yeah! It’s morphin time! Yeah! Go, go Power Rangers! Yeah!

Sorry.

Anyway, I clearly watched this show when I was a kid, so as a fan of the series, I can honestly say that this new take on the team doesn’t ruin anything that came before and does a pretty decent job building something new while staying true to the original incarnation of these heroes. The fact that the filmmakers took their time in building the team, characters, and mythology of the Rangers throughout the film was quite heartening considering how terrible recent reboots have been in depicting their characters and world *cough* Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2014 reboot *cough*, so when the script honed in on what makes the team tick as opposed to going for straight balls-to-the-wall action every other second, I was glad because of it.

That being said, this film wouldn’t have been as successful if the casting didn’t hold up, but fortunately enough, I thoroughly enjoyed everyone on the team more than expected. Jason, Billy and Kimberly are technically the heart and soul of this film, getting more screen and development time than Trini and Zack, but what both of these characters lack isn’t at the feet of the actors or characters, it’s just simply that they didn’t have as much attention paid to them as the other three. For example, Trini has a pretty intriguing back-story; she’s living in a home where she is not understood and is struggling with her identity, a halfway decent back-story to be sure, but the problem here isn’t her “origin” it’s the fact that whenever she’s onscreen – at least for the first half of the film until we get a peek behind the curtain – she comes off as very standoffish and dull.

Same goes for Zack, his back-story of taking care of his sick mother is great, we just never delved into it as much as, say Billy’s slight autism, absence of his father and determination to become more than he is as a person. Zack’s personality more than makes up for these shortcomings, but it’s sad to see that this entire team could have had their moment to shine both as part of the team and as individuals, but the filmmakers opted to flesh out what are arguably the more popular characters on the team, lessening some of the time Zack and Trini deserve as characters.

As for the actual Power Ranger part of the film, I’m in the middle about it all. I like that they organically moved the story forward using the catch that our potential heroes can’t morph until they’re essentially worthy of doing so, but I didn’t like the fact that after taking the time to flesh out the characters and their various plights, the filmmakers pretty much rushed the entire last act where the Rangers get to do their thing. I really enjoyed the overall direction of the new mythology the filmmakers took, but the entire point of this film is to see the Rangers in action, and while the final battle was quite fun to watch, none of what happened once the team morphed was really all that original or built up to a point where I’d consider it “epic”. You know when the final battle rolls around for a superhero movie the filmmakers usually pull out all the stops and give the pomp and circumstance to these badass characters that they deserve, but the first fight we see the Rangers in after they morph is some weird underwater battle that leads to what is essentially an all CGI bout before jumping into their Zords that they somehow all know how to use and going from there.

It’s not that I didn’t like what I saw here, I just want the filmmakers to understand how cool these characters are and do more than throw green screen fights onscreen and rush to a climax that seemed more primed to set us up for a sequel rather than give us the afore mentioned epic-ness. When the Megazord eventually makes its appearance, I was giddy for sure, but I didn’t get the goosebumps usually associated with seeing something like that. It was kind of like the filmmakers said, “Here, here’s what you wanted, right? Well like it. Like it!” instead of taking the scene and turning it into something truly memorable.

As for the bad, I personally didn’t like Elizabeth Banks’ portrayal of Rita. I didn’t necessarily hate the costume design or anything like that, I just felt like for every scene where she seemed genuinely threatening and a force worth worrying over, she would do or say something that turned me off completely to her portrayal of the iconic villain. The fact that at one point in the film she literally says something along the lines of “Oh, you want to know my master plan? Well why don’t I just tell you!”, just doesn’t help her cause. Other than that, the entire film is solid, not necessarily unforgettable or perfect by any means, but just what the 90s nostalgia doctor ordered.

If you like Power Rangers or any of their various incarnations over the years, then there’s no reason why you won’t like this reboot, and while the filmmakers took a few liberties with the property, the end product mostly nails the spirit and fun of the franchise more than anyone could have hoped for even if the last act stumbles a bit when it comes to, you know, any actual Power Ranger-ing. Still, this is a solid start for a planned six (!) film series, so here’s hoping for a little more action and a lot more of where this came from once the sequel rolls around.