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!
Comments
Post a Comment