Review – Power Rangers

I grew up watching the Power Rangers T.V. show and loving it.  Sure the show was incredibly cheesy and terribly acted, but it was fun and I was watching it when it roughly five years old, an age where I only knew select shapes, numbers, and colors, so obviously this show was going to be my thing with my limited intelligence.

As I grew up, I stopped hearing of the Rangers.  I was aware that they continued to make shows, but didn’t watch them or even knew what was going on in them.  I thought the Rangers were long gone, until a couple years ago, when a short film on YouTube put the Rangers in a dark, violent, futuristic world, unlike anything we’d ever seen them in before.  It was with this short film that we got the 2017 Power Rangers.

Now this Power Rangers isn’t the campy ridiculousness of the original show, and it isn’t the dark, gritty reboot of the short.  It’s a nice hybrid of both, giving me one of the more surprising and enjoyable movie-going experiences I’ve had in 2017.

This is a straight up origin story.  A group of high school outcasts, Jason (Dacre Montgomery), Kimberly (Naomi Scott), Billy (RJ Cyler), Zack (Ludi Lin), and Trini (Becky G.) stumble upon an old alien ship, where they acquire superpowers and are dubbed the Power Rangers. Learning that an old enemy of the previous generation by the name of Rita Repulsa (Elizabeth Banks) has returned to exact vengeance, the group must harness their powers and use them to work together and save the world.

The only actor of the new Rangers I knew before the movie was RJ Cyler, who was fantastic in the 2015 Sundance hit Me and Earl and the Dying Girl.  Cyler was easily my favorite of the Rangers, having the most relatable story and some of the best lines in the movie, but the rest of the cast also works.  I was impressed by Naomi Scott as Kimberly and can see her becoming a star from this film.  I really bought into their dysfunctions and they did a great job of growing into a team.  This is a group I am interested in seeing in future movies.

I also loved seeing Elizabeth Banks as Rita Repulsa.  You can tell she is having a ball in this role and owns every scene she’s in.  Bill Hader is solid as Alpha 5 and Bryan Cranston is well, Bryan Cranston, as Zordon, which is great since Bryan Cranston is an American treasure.

Having known the story of the Rangers before the film, this origin story felt relatively fresh and fun.  They gave us good backstories for every character, as well as setting up the stakes for each character and the team themselves.  And the way they blend the campiness of the original show and the darkness of the YouTube short makes for a perfect tone throughout.  There is a lot of hilarious, cheesy dialog mixed with some badass action while also referencing the original show and seeing some of the classic moments and characters from the show.

I felt, however, that we got gypped out of a few things.  I was anticipating the classic “IT’S MORPHIN TIME!” montage when the Rangers put on their suits, which we didn’t get.  In fact, none of the Rangers said “It’s Morphin time!”, which really disappointed me.  Also, the climactic fight at the end between Rita’s gold monster, Goldar, and the Ranger’s Megazord was really short and I wish it was as badass as it should have been.

But those are just minor faults in a movie that truly defines the word awesome.  Power Rangers is a blast.  It is a fun, bright, exciting, funny, action-pack origin story that has me excited for the future of the Power Rangers franchise.

MY RATING – 3/4

Did you see Power Rangers?  What did you think?  Comment below or hit me up on Twitter and Instagram, @kevflix, or on Facebook by searching Kevflix.