The movie is based on the famed 90s kid's show ‘Mighty Morphin Power Rangers’, and this new bunch of superheroes have a lot to live up to. It’s safe to say they didn’t screw this one up.
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The Power Rangers has a lot to live up to, and it’s safe to say they didn’t screw this one up.
The movie is based on the famed 90s kid's show ‘Mighty Morphin Power Rangers’, featuring a group of 5 high school students who found out they are the ‘chosen one’ to be a team of superheroes to save the city and the world from evil forces.
The film starts out pretty slowly in finding their rangers. Almost strangers to one another, the five chosen ones: Billy Cranston (RJ Cyler), Kimberly Hart (Naomi Scott), Zack Taylor (Ludi Lin), Jason Scott (Dacre Montgomery) and Trini Kwan (Becky G) somehow stumbled upon a ginormous rock that hid 5 luminous gems. Curious, they each took one and fled the scene, but met with a car accident during an intense chase from guards. Like spiderman realising its own power, the 5 students bonded over their confused transformations. And with the help of Zordon (Bryan Cranston) and Alpha 5 (Bill Hader), these extraordinary school kids find a way to fight the evil Rita Repulsa (Elizabeth Banks) from destroying their beloved Angel Grove.
With multiple reboots and remakes populating the cinemas these days, it isn’t easy for creators to maintain a balance between dramatising its content for the big screen, and please the pre-existing purist fans who wants nothing to be altered. For the audience who sits in between both of its extreme spectrum, perhaps the only consideration is the how much will the new film honour the original? Lionsgate’s Power Rangers managed to, in a way, pay homage to the iconic television series, but didn’t quite produce a mighty incarnation of its own.
Let’s put it up there: the Yellow Ranger’s ‘coming out’ scene? It’s an essential input to tell her story, and who as a flawed Ranger she is; and one that is pushing boundaries of superheroes in films.
Almost all the rangers in the ensemble are relatively new, and it’s not hard to be compared with the other co-actors, especially when you have an established actress like Elizabeth Banks as Rita Repulsa. Her green devilish looks are enough to give you nightmares, but it is Banks who adds so much more depth and craziness in her character that results in a modernistic villain that becomes so memorable.
Perhaps it was the sponsor’s requirement to have Banks to patronise its product, which you’ll see that Repulsa actually sits in a Krispy Kreme, eating one of its doughnuts, waiting for her golden giant sidekick to physically dig out an underground void. Erm... redundant product placement, maybe?
The major flaw I have with Power Rangers is with its pacing. You don’t really get any Repulsa-Power Rangers battle up till its last 30 minutes of the film, and that’s where the Rangers are in full-fledged costumes and in their zords. If you’re wondering, the film is about 2 hours long. As an indicator, the group only gets together about 45 minutes into it. Sure thing, it does give us a better backstory for each of its five characters and one villain, but much could be snipped for a tighter narrative.
Overall, the Power Rangers wasn’t bad, nor was it brilliant. It sits in-between trying really hard to pay homage to its origins, but yet confused by the balance of how much drama and changes to be made.
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