Power Rangers is the reimagining of the TV series, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, that ran from 1993-1999 and opened the gates for numerous spin-off shows starring the Power Rangers. Haim Saban, the creator of the original series, collaborated with Lionsgate and director Dean Israelite to create this feature film.
The Bad
I just want to start out by saying that I felt like this was an extremely poorly written movie. So much of the script just didn’t flow well or make sense at all. A good example is near the beginning of the movie when Billy blows up some rock in the mine (for some weird reason that I don’t know) and they find these five glowing gems. The five would be Rangers all happen to be there at the right time to find these but then the cops hear the explosion and rush to the mine to investigate. Only Billy, Jason and to a lesser extent Kimberly (Blue, Red and Pink Rangers) really knew each other at this point, the other two wanted nothing to do with the group. However, when they all started to run from the cops, Jason and Billy went out of their way to go and get all of the others in the group even though they really shouldn’t have cared who they were at this point. Maybe I’m not conveying this scene very well but it was a decision that didn’t make in sense at all to me when I watched it. There were numerous moments throughout when I looked at the guy next to me and said something like “What?” or “That doesn’t make sense”. If I end up doing that, it usually means poor screenwriting is to blame.
The lack of attention to detail really stuck out to me throughout. One specific example is when Jason is woken up by Kimberly because she needs to talk about something and he tiredly kind of pulls himself up to talk to her. I immediately noticed how absurdly perfect his hair still was even though he had been sleeping for a few hours already. I know it’s not much, but it is sometimes little things like that which can stick out like a sore thumb in a movie if your mind works like mine does.
I was pretty worried when I saw Elizabeth Banks was going to be Rita Repulsa. The reason is because she is actually a pretty good actress, and the part she is playing is so obnoxious and low quality that I felt like her talent would be wasted. Unfortunately, in my opinion, that is exactly what happened. Rita Repulsa honestly made me cringe because of how painfully obnoxious the character is. Definitely a performance that I am assuming Elizabeth Banks will not be including in her portfolio of her best work.
I really hated the opening scene of this movie. It depicts the first group of Power Rangers dying in the Cenozoic Era at the hands of Rita. Just before Rita kills Zordon, he calls someone to send an asteroid to wipe of Rita before she destroys the planet forever. I did not receive this open scene very well when I watched it. Is this movie really trying to tell me that the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs was sent by some Power Rangers headquarters? Also, where was this headquarters when Rita brought Goldar to life to rip apart Angel Falls? Silly movie.
The Good
The whole movie kind of hinges on the compatibility and the chemistry of our five heroes. All of the actors behind the Power Rangers are relatively young and new to playing lead roles in big box office movies. Dacre Montgomery played Jason (Red), Naomi Scott was Kimberly (Pink), Ludi Lin was Zack (Black), Becky G. played Trini (Yellow), and RJ Cyler played Billy (Blue). This group of five actors was definitely what made this movie watchable. They actually worked pretty well together and had a fun dynamic to watch. They were all very different and diverse but I think it worked well. RJ Cyler was particularly great as he was challenged to play the autistic Billy Cranston. Ludi Lin’s performance was probably the weakest of the group, but he still had a couple touching moments with how he cared for his sick mother.
How about the obnoxious use of Krispy Kreme in this movie. I am dying to know how much they paid Lionsgate because it is literally on of the focal points of the entire plot in a way that we have never before seen product placement used in movies. This is absolutely not a good thing, but rather just something worth mentioning I think.
There are some pretty funny moments in this film that made me laugh a little hard than I thought I would. There were also some pretty stupid moments that made me laugh because of how stupid the movie was being, but there were some legitimate comedic moments as well. If you take away a couple really immature and childish jokes, one of which is literally in the first 5 minutes of the movie, then it is a pretty fun movie to watch from the humor perspective.
Once the Rangers finally morph, which doesn’t happen until like 30 minutes before the end of the movie, the rest of the runtime is basically a homage to the original TV series. The way they fought and interacted with the Zords was very similar to the way that it used to be in the 1990s. I don’t think it fit very well with the seriousness of the first hour and a half of the movie, but it was still cool to see them basically try to recreate an old Mighty Morphin Power Rangers episode with todays technology for the last 30 minutes of the runtime.
The Rating
From the perspective of a critic, this film was pretty rough and very poorly written. However, from the perspective of someone that used to watch the TV series as a kid, Power Rangers is actually a pretty good time and rather enjoyable to watch. You should definitely consider that when deciding if it is worth your money to go see this movie in theaters. If you want to watch it because you are a 90s kid and loved the TV show, than you will absolutely enjoy it. If you are going because you think it will be a really good movie, you may be in for a long night.
Perry The Cinema Psycho 