SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS

SABAN’S POWER RANGERS (2017)

Hey, guys! I’m back with another review. I know it’s been months since I’ve done one of these.  Ever since I started refocusing on my music, I have not had the time to write full-fledged reviews, resorting to just writing short little snippets on Facebook. But with today’s subject, I felt that I had to write out a review. And today, we are going to cover Saban’s Power Rangers!

For a little background, I was a huge Power Rangers fan when I was a kid. My brother and I loved the show, had a lot of the morphers, the megazords, the action figures, the works. So, you can imagine how excited I was when three years ago, they announced that Lionsgate was funding a feature-length film based on the Power Rangers. And throughout the last three years, I was getting increasingly excited with each piece of news that dropped. But at the same time, I was cautiously bracing myself if it turned out to be a disappointment, considering that the screenplay went through a lot of writers (including Max Landis, believe it or not) and the main fact that Power Rangers is not that easy of a property to bring to the big screen without the cheese factor intact. And considering that, in the words of director of Dean Israelite, the film was going for a darker tone, there probably wasn’t going to be a lot of that cheese present.

And now that the film has come out, the reaction to it has been very mixed from critics, with a 47% score on Rotten Tomatoes. But I stand before you today, saying that I thoroughly enjoyed this film, guys. Is it a perfect movie? No, it does have some issues that we’ll get to later. But as a Power Rangers fanatic, I had a ton of fun watching this, probably even more fun than I’ve had watching any of the recent Marvel films. Yeah, I enjoyed it that much!

The plot: in the city of Angel Grove, five teenagers – namely Jason (Dacre Montgomery), Kimberly (Naomi Scott), Billy (RJ Cyler), Trini (Becky G), and Zack (Ludi Lin) – happen upon a mining site where they find five “power coins” buried in rock. Within the next few days, however, they start to discover that they have increased strength and agility because of these coins. They happen upon a 65 million-year old spaceship where Alpha 5 (Bill Hader), a robot, and Zordon (Bryan Cranston) have been waiting for the next Power Rangers, a group of warriors elected by a spiritual essence known as the Morphing Grid. So, the five teens must learn how to morph and become the Power Rangers in time to stop Rita Repulsa (Elizabeth Banks), an alien entity bent on resurrecting an ancient monster named Goldar to help her extract the Zeo Crystal.

The first noteworthy aspect about this film is how surprisingly character-driven it is. Most of the film comprises of the five teens learning how to work together as a team and going through their own character arcs while the Power Ranger action is sort of kept to a minimal level. While this may put some people off, I found it very refreshing. Usually with superheroes, the origin of how they got their powers and came into their own is the most tedious plot element of the film and usually isn’t an interesting enough element around which to center an entire film. But in the case of Power Rangers, it is appropriate because each of the character arcs in this film are well defined and come full circle. What also helps is that the actors totally sell their characters. Dacre Montgomery does well as Jason, who is trying to come into his own as a leader, Naomi Scott’s Kimberly has an interesting arc wherein she learns how to live with a past mistake, Becky G does interesting things with the character of Trini, and Ludi Lin does well as Zack, who probably has the most heartbreaking backstory.

Personally, though, my favorite character out of the five is Billy, who is greatly portrayed by RJ Cyler. This time around, Billy is portrayed as being on the autism spectrum, and as somebody who is also on the autism spectrum, I can tell you that Cyler hits the nail right on the head with his portrayal. The way he constantly drones on about subjects that interest him, his exactness with details, and his socially awkward demeanor all hit home for me and it is a great performance.

In fact, side note: I love how all the characters in this film are flawed instead of the goody two-shoes saints that we got in the original TV show. Now, that is not meant as a knock against the original TV show because it was meant for a younger audience. But a film, especially one that is trying to be a little more serious, tends to demand characters that are a little more interesting. So, making the characters sort of a motley crew of misfits is a good update.

The rest of the actors do a good job; Elizabeth Banks as Rita is enjoyably over-the-top, Bryan Cranston brings his A-game as Zordon, and Bill Hader, as you may have already guessed, is hilarious as Alpha 5; he has some of the film’s best laughs.

Now, like I said before, there isn’t much action in this movie. But when the action finally does kick in and the Rangers have donned their costumes and are riding their Zords, it is a ton of fun to watch. If you are a former Power Rangers fan, it will bring you right back to being a little kid again! The Zords all look cool (even if the CGI is a little iffy), the Brian Tyler score is appropriately rousing, and the one-liners are pretty funny as well (there’s a nice little jab at Transformers in there). Sometimes there’s a little shaky-came in there, but it’s not to an obnoxious degree like some films (*cough*Man of Steel*cough).

Yet for all those positive elements, there are some major flaws in this film that hold it back from being great. As I’ve pointed out before, the action is very minimal in this film. And while I like that more attention was given to the characters, I’ll be the first to admit that a better balance could have been achieved between character moments and action scenes. After all, when the movie is called Power Rangers, one would expect more Power Rangers elements than what is given in the film. But then again, this IS an origin story. And actually, within each installment of the original Power Rangers, it would be a couple of episodes before the Rangers finally got their suits. And even then, the action only accounted for about 30% of the episodes. But I can still see how the small amount of Power Rangers material in this film could turn some people off.

The other major glaring issue is the fact that part of the plot revolves around one of the most obvious pieces of product placement I’ve seen since Transformers: Age of Extinction. Without giving too much away, a certain donut establishment (no, I’m not telling you which one) is given huge importance. And every time somebody brings it up, it is so awkward and unintentionally satirical of itself. In fact, one of the most unintentionally silly moments is when Billy dramatically says “we have to go to the [donut establishment that shall not be named]”. On the other hand, this plot element does result in one of the most surreal, hilarious images I’ve seen in a while (I’m not giving that away either; you should see it for yourself).

So yeah, those are the only two problems with this film, and they are kind of big ones. But in all honesty, I had so much fun with this film that I didn’t really mind. I am even looking forward to the future films that have been apparently planned because I think there’s enough good material in here from which better sequels can be made. So, have at it, Lionsgate! I’m on board.

Bottom line: I enjoyed this film a lot! But, much like the Beauty and the Beast remake, your preference for it will really depend on your tastes. If you’re a die-hard Power Rangers fan and you’re looking for a lot of modernized Power Rangers action, you’re probably not gonna like this movie. But if you’re a Power Rangers fan and can handle a new interpretation that’s light on the action and has some great performances, then Go! Go! to the theater and check it out! (Yes, I really just did that).

Thanks for reading, guys! Stay tuned for more material from 433 Films!