The Power Rangers franchise has captivated audiences the world over for two decades with over 800 television series episodes, several films, video games, books, comics and merchandise. Beginning in 1993 with Saban’s Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, the franchise still continues to grow today, with the new Power Rangers film releasing this week.
Directed by Dean Israelite, the new Power Rangers film is a reboot of the franchise and sees a re-imagination of how the original five rangers from the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers series attained their special abilities to become the fated protectors of their little town of Angel Grove and the world at large. This means that we are shown a modernised look into how Jason (Dacre Montgomery), Kimberly (Naomi Scott), Billy (RJ Cyler), Zack (Ludi Lin) and Trini (Becky G.) become the Power Rangers and meet their mentor, Zordon (Bryan Cranston) and his sidekick, Alpha 5 (Bill Hader).
As a die-hard fan, who grew up watching every episode of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, collected all the toys and could tell you in depth facts about each character on the show, I was incredibly excited to watch the new film. My excitement grew even more upon learning of Bryan Cranston’s role in the film and that Elizabeth Banks was playing the wickedly evil Rita Repulsa.
As with each episode of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers television series and each of the previous films, an enemy threatens Angel Grove or any other location on Earth, and the Power Rangers are called upon to put an end to the threat, which results in them morphing into their armour and fight off evil minions using martial arts and weaponry, before summoning their zords to combine together to create the Megazord to assist in defeating the giant monster that eventually arrives to destroy the rangers. This film is no different and follows the standard Power Rangers formula to a T, which, while predictable, remains true to its core concept of good triumphing over evil.
While the plot essentially takes inspiration from the first season of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, with Rita being set free to unleash hell on Earth, the characters of the new film have definitely been altered with the rangers being made up of real “teenagers with attitude”. Where the original team of rangers were made up of rather ‘popular’ teenagers, each well liked and possessed their own special talents, the five teenagers in the film were all misfit delinquents, each of whom could be seen to be social outcasts.
Zordon too, despite being played by the legend that is Bryan Cranston, was different in terms of character, as he didn’t come across as the wise, fatherly type of mentor, compared to his Mighty Morphin Power Rangers counterpart. Thankfully Bill Hader brought wit and humour to Alpha 5. As for Rita, I don’t recall her ever being as evil as the version portrayed in the new film. Elizabeth Banks truly made Rita into a terrifying villain with an insatiable lust for gold. While I prefer the film version of Rita, don’t get me started on the film’s version of Goldar, who was just a mindless giant gold monster with no personality whatsoever and whose only purpose was to destroy.
When it came to the villains, I certainly found the putty patrol (or ‘putties’), Rita’s minions, to lack any kind of character compared to their original counterparts, who were, at least, slightly humorous in their attempts to fight off the rangers. The film appeared to have included the putties simply as target practice for the rangers to practice and show off their martial arts skills.
Compared to the television series, which saw the rangers both in and out of armour in equal amounts and much more martial arts, this film spent far more time building the story of the teenagers becoming friends and supporting one another more than actually working on learning how to use the zords and fight off the villains. The martial arts sequences were brief and the zords, albeit being ‘powerful’, weren’t exactly impressive. This could partially be the due to the poor design of the zords, which looked nothing at all like the original and more like scraps of metal pieced together, or the fact that throughout what should have been an epic battle scene, there was no epic music to really carry the scene. In fact, the entire film’s soundtrack felt rather lacklustre. This most certainly was a missed opportunity in my opinion, as even the formation of the Megazord was poorly done. To be fair, we were treated to a brief few minutes of the classic Power Rangers theme, but this was sadly short lived.
Soundtrack is what made the first Mighty Morphin Power Rangers film, which released in 1995, a hit in my opinion, despite the terrible CGI graphics, corny lines and cheap thrills. Where the new film wasn’t as corny and really did portray a story of misguided teenagers finally finding their purpose, the lack of great soundtrack, especially during key scenes, left me disappointed.
Despite building a decent story right from the get go, it did feel as if the new film dropped the ball halfway through the film. Several instances in the made me question certain choices made in the film and left me wondering, “why”? These unexplained moments in film usually leave me frustrated and this film made me even more so, due to the fact that I’m a Power Rangers fan.
Unfortunately, even the film’s visuals felt lacking, despite the more modern and improved CGI. Throughout the film, there was nothing that really stood out to me visually, which made me realise that even though the 1995 Mighty Morphin Power Rangers film was terrible visually, it was still bright, colourful and appealing. Not only were their armour shiny but their ninja suits looked incredibly cool too. Even the stunts and fight scenes were awe-inspiring in that film. I have to admit that I just wasn’t impressed by much in this new film at all.
To be quite frank, the only aspect of the new film that had me on the edge of my seat, was the inclusion of two cameos and the ending which suggested more films were to come.
The Power Rangers franchise has always been one that I followed closely and was extremely fond of. Despite the many drawbacks and disappointments I felt with this latest Power Rangers film, it did bring back fond memories of my childhood and re-ignited the spark within me to re-watch the old television episodes and continue to complete my collection of collectibles. I suppose that means that the film somehow did its job of ‘selling’ to me. While the film certainly wasn’t terrible, it is one I can’t really recommend to watch in cinemas. This one’s more of a watch at home flick.