For the longest time I waited for a new Power Rangers movie, while other franchises that became forgotten or lame they were all brought back thanks to nostalgia but it seemed Power Rangers could never catch a break. We finally got an announcement, I was hyped, but then the first reveal shots of the suits didn’t really set the world on fire and yet the trailer looked like it had potential. The final marketing push got me uninterested in the movie and since I was a bit busy at the time I didn’t get to watch it on theaters but no matter what it seemed like Power Rangers was finally cool again. So, now that the movie hype is gone how does it fare? It was liked by people but didn’t do so well at the box office and it has an uncertain future.
I’ll get straight to the point at first and say that overall the movie was not bad, not excellent but good. I didn’t know what to expect going in, almost all the stuff that came out before the movie such as suit designs and whatnot didn’t seem to be what I wanted but people seemed to like it and the first trailer piqued my interest. The movie is just all over the place and doesn’t exactly seems to know what it wants to be; it also does a lot of really new things that most superhero films don’t do and I applaud that but I can’t say all of them worked. So while ther are things in there that make me want to love the film.
The suits are something was unsure about, they seemed like a hybrid between Iron Man and a symbiote suit pot together and I didn’t care for it since they seemed nothing like the dinosaur inspired suits they were meant to be. In the actual film though the suits actually work but only half the time, some shots brings out the worst aspects of the suits while others bring out the best.
Since we don’t see the suits in action too much there is no final judgement of whether they work or not. I hate the fact that they use the visor-less mode of the suits during a lot of the movie since it looks awful and it just sucks that they have to show the actors face to “connect” with the audience. Rita Repulsa’s green suit seems straight out of a Power Rangers villain but just not for Rita so I’m not a huge fan. I liked the original black outfit she wears during the beginning of the film though, that was a good look for her that should’ve remained.
As far as the zords they looked pretty cool and it worked, wished we had seen more of them though I guess we did see more than the regular Power Rangers shows ever do. The actual Megazord transformation looks horrendous and awful, not to mention the action on it is really clunky. Goldar on the other hand was an idea i absolutely hated and the design looked awful but within the context of the film it actually works and was a cool idea. Forgot to mention but the putties are also given a cool design and origin that works, the same can be said for both Zordon and Alpha. Especially Alpha who looked so god awful but in motion and in dialog it somehow doesn’t seem out of place.
Let’s get to the characters now, I like the ideas that they took but feel they could’ve done so much more with them but all actors were great even if Zack and Trini didn’t get that much focus. With that said I am not a fan of race changing the characters just to avoid the “the black ranger is black and the yellow ranger is yellow” jokes, it was done unintentionally in Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers so they shouldn’t cave in in an adaptation of it. With that said Billy was great as was Jason but Zack while he had potential with his origin, he was just kind of there most of the film.
Kimberly’s past could’ve been better if the pictures had been of her and not that she sent them but she was fine, Trini on the other hand had potential like Zack and her being gay totally worked but she was also just kind of there for most of the film without doing much. I can’t say they resembled much their MMPR counterparts which is not a plus and would’ve preferred if they had been just a new power rangers team to not be compared with MMPR but they had to go for nostalgia.
The biggest problem the movie has is that in the end it didn’t feature enough Power Rangers action, it was missing a lot more civilian martial arts, morphed fights and a more interesting Zord fights, there is no excuse since it was a Power Rnagers film and it’s only forgivable because the rest of the movie is interesting enough..
So yes, I have a few nitpicks but I have to say I really enjoyed the take of the film and the dark mood that still felt lite at the same time and also focusing on the characters even if the stories were a bit cheesy and yet were tackling more mature themes. It’s a shame if we never get a sequel or anything like it, it might not’ve been the movie I wanted but it felt fresh that I can’t complain too much even with the things that I dislike.
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