Power Rangers (2017)

'Power Rangers' is a retelling of the 'Mighty Morphin' era from the early 90's and for those who don't know is about five ordinary teenagers who are recruited by an ancient alien being named Zordon (Bryan Cranston) who must prepare them to become the protectors of the earth from the vile Rita Repulsa (Elizabeth Banks) and all who wish to do harm. The series was a mix of cheesy high school sitcom and stock footage fight scenes from the hit 'Super Sentai' show from Japan. I was slightly too young to fully enjoy the original series during its original run, however I did manage to keep up with it all these years and yes, despite it not even being close to being a competent show and its even downright ridiculous, that's what many if not all fans of 'Power Rangers' enjoy about it to this day.

The movie attempts to retain the silly aspects with some of the script, such as Rita's performance and dialogue but the tone also begins to conflict harshly with the first two acts when it wants to be a serious superhero origin story. Even though the campier tone and silly lines are retained, some are painful even here. The film introduces the Red Ranger (Jason) by making a joke about jerking off a cow...did Michael Bay sneak in a scene? Going into the film, I was also unaware of the heavy marketing with Krispy Kreme doughnuts and actually found that plot device and Rita's lines related to it hilarious, but I can see to others aware of the product placement finding it rather annoying.

The film's final act, where the rangers get into the costumes and fight is sadly where the film finally starts to get really good and it's over all too quickly. That's not to say parts of the other acts are bad, it's just like I said the tone is completely different and honestly I wanted the more fun tone than the gritty superhero one. What I really loved was that each character was really well written, complex, diverse in their personalities, and really don't fit into any real trope or cliche. My favorite being the Blue Ranger, who is written to have Autism. On a personal level, I respected how well they depicted this character when they could have gone 'Rain Man' with it. Kudos to see a positive role model in the Blue Ranger.

'Power Rangers' overall will most definitely satisfy any fan of the series, with very little to complain about. As a film however, it suffers from pacing, tone, and some dodgy special effects sequences. It's hard to review a film such as this more than some would think as I don't know if the fact that it is silly and over the top is necessarily a bad thing here. It's exactly what I wanted out of a 'Power Rangers' movie in 2017, with some nice additions to leave me happy enough, but I can fully understand how this is definitely not for everyone and as an overall movie it's a mess. But a fun and worthwhile mess nonetheless.

Power Rangers: B-