Power Rangers Review
I’ll start with this: I can’t define myself as a casual fan of the original Power Rangers show, but I can’t say I hated it. As a kid, I really enjoyed Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (1993-1995), and especially Power Rangers: Lost Galaxy (1999), but looking back on it now, I have to ask myself, how the hell did I ever get suckered into watching this cheesy trash? So I can’t call myself a fan of the original shows, but still, there was something about it that made thousands upon thousands of boys and girls watch it and created one of the biggest cult phenomenons of the 90’s that still holds strong to this day, so if they make a movie that shows what I was missing and makes it watchable, maybe I could jump on board and get in on what I was missing. Well, the new movie did try, for the most part, to get to a stage where more than fanboys and fangirls could enjoy it, but it just wasn’t there for me.
Your basic story goes as follows: you have five teenaged outsiders: Jason, Trini, Kimberly, Billy, and Zach who live in the town of Angel Grove. They all get together one night and find what they later discover to be power coins. This grants them the abilities of the Power Rangers, who in this version have been around for generations and who are sworn to protect the universe. Maybe that was the way it was in the show, too, but I can’t remember and I really don’t care. So they have to grow their abilities to fend off evil forces, like Rita Repulsa, an old enemy of their mentor Zordon, from destroying the world. Yeah, it’s your basic superhero story, even down to some of the teens having lost a parent or two. Let’s get into the positives and negatives.
So what really worked for me were the actors as the rangers. All five do their best to raise themselves above the at times sloppy script and contrived and cliched storytelling and make it their own, and all five are successful in that regard. And I liked the casting of Bryan Cranston as Zordon, and it’s an improvement on the original, which was a floating head that had the weakness of not being able to sync his words to his lips. Yeah, I know why that is, but still, at least this version of Zordon can do that, but he’s still a floating head. Anyways, I also like the machines that the rangers use, Zords, and again, an improvement on the original show. The old ones were just machines that move around then form the Megazord, but here the Zords do a lot of damage on their own without needing to be formed together. These strengths were enough to get me through the film, but let’s get into what made me say no to recommending the movie.
The big problem for me were the special effects. Well, they’re not that special. They just looked awful to me. And as for the villain, well, Rita seriously sucked. Elizabeth Banks seems like she’s in a completely different movie separate from everyone else, and she just doesn’t jell. Plus I hated the designs of the faceless army of Putties and Alpha 5. I mean, they old ones just looked like they were really there, like hard manpower went into the design, but here they were just digital pixels mashed together. They looked awful, like the effects on the whole. But the nail that seals the coffin is the uneven pacing. While the first forty-five minutes or so worked and I liked the slow build to reveal the rangers in their suits, it isn’t until partway into the third act that we finally see the rangers in their suits. Before then it’s a lot of training and personality trait explaining, which I know you have to do so you have your characters start somewhere and end somewhere, again something the original series slacked off on, but I mean, come on, you gotta get going sometime.
Once again I’ll say that as a youngster, Power Rangers was my jam for a while, but a few years ago when I went back and watched about, oh, twenty or so episodes of the first series and that was about all I could take. I mean, sure, I’m not against anybody who looks back on the original series or any of the follow-ups whose rose-colored glasses make them love every last thing about this movie or any other incarnation of the show, but I’m just not that guy. While there are things and elements to enjoy about the film, there’s just not enough for me to recommend it to the average joe. If you’re a huge fan of the original shows then you’ll get a kick out of this, for sure. Also, if you’re a fan of the Transformers (2007-present) films, you’ll probably like this, too. Without being an expert on those films, I can say this is kind of like Transformers, but if the screenwriting was a little better. Maybe that’s the best way to sum this up.
My rating: 5/10.
