I might be late to the game, but since it took my entire childhood and adolescence to make a movie about these "teenagers with attitude" I think my tardiness should be accepted without a hall pass. Power Rangers have been and continue to be an integral part of millennial's lives as various incarnations of this superhero team have taken shape since the mid-1990s and continue to do so. Originally from Japan, Saban's Power Rangers are a group of diverse teenagers brought together by a celestial being known as Zordon to battle evil forces that threaten the safety of planet Earth and at times the entire galaxy itself. The original show Mighty Morphin Power Rangers utilized a majority of stock footage from the original Japanese production. It was infamous for its quirky humor, miniaturized sets and its impressing color-coordinated cast. Years have passed since and much has changed not only in the franchise but in the way mass audiences perceive superheroes themselves. Since Christopher Nolan's dark interpretation of Batman's odyssey, and Marvel's grit induced assembling of The Avengers, sparkly spandex and a catchy theme tune isn't enough to carry a superhero epic any longer. Power Rangers (2017) updates itself for the times for better or worse, and in some instances the worse really is...well worse.
I will divide this film review up in a very simple way, though the film we are evaluating is itself not so simple. Power Rangers is conflicted, much like the teenager characters that are featured in it. The film is unsure of exactly what it wants to be, insecure about the capabilities it truly possesses at its thematic core. This insecurity hinders it, especially in the film's second and third acts. The film starts as a respectable origin story, before veering off into an amalgamation of genre clichés and worn character stereotypes. It'll also be necessary at times to reference, compare and contrast the modern film to its 90's predecessor. Let's first take a look at the film's strongest portion, the first act.
Act One: Mighty Morphing Misfits
When I was a kid I never actually had much memory of the pilot episode for Mighty Morphing Power Rangers, so a few months ago I re-watched it on Netflix. I was surprised to find that I made an erroneous assumption about the five original members. I had always assumed even at a young age that these five very different adolescents were practically strangers to one another before being forced by fate to join together and become a team of crime fighters. Nope, the original series kicks off with all the members of the Power Rangers already being close friends, allowing for little to no conflict when thrust by fate to come together for the greater good. The first thing this film does right is have these individuals, who are already clearly polar-opposites, be completely uninvolved in one another's lives prior to discovering their true destiny as a united force. Sure The Breakfast Club (1985) vibes are immediately apparent, especially when given a juvenile detention facility as a setting, but it comes off more as cinematic borrowing than narrative theft. The film spends a good portion of its running time dedicated to getting to know these characters, something many films in this genre have failed tremendously at, in the past. While some may find the lack of action tedious, I found it refreshingly required. The second gold star the film receives is for diversity. Billy Cranston is autistic and the most three-dimensional character of the entire film. His quirks and personality traits come off as genuine rather than gimmicky or false, mainly because the actor playing him, RJ Cyler knows how to infuse him with humanity. Trini and Zack's character development comes too late in the plot, but when they do arrive, we find them also to be real people struggling with real-life issues such as sexual identity and family illness. These issues are handled with a sort of surprising subtly, and because of that, you forget during the first act at times that you are watching a superhero film altogether. While each character is given ample screen time, some are far more interesting than others, and this is where the first half starts to lag. Jason is our leader, the soon-to-be Red Ranger and his character arc feels the most artificial. The quintessential troubled athlete who is always pressured to be what he is not, the problem is the film never really clues us in on what Jason wants to be. Even the role of the leader doesn't seem to be something he desires, but rather something that is forced upon him by Zordon. The bodiless mentor is practically another overbearing father figure in Jason's life. If this film does branch off into a franchise much work needs to be done to give Dacre Montgomery something other than the cardboard cut-out of a struggling former star athlete, he's given to portray in this film. Kimberly's character development is infuriating and more antifeminist than Rita Repulsa's skimpy sexualized alien outfits. When we first meet her, we find her rebuking her snotty cheerleader friends and learn that she is in juvenile detention for punching a popular boy in the face. Sounds like a bad-ass right? Except all of that is thrown out the Command Center window when the audience finds out she sent out a sexual image of her best friend because they had a crush on the same boy! This completely devalues her as a character and feels like a misplaced PSA for the dangers of sexting. While the situation that brings them all together feels a bit too happenstance, it serves the running time by not delaying the inciting incident too much longer than it already had been. However, it is important to note as well that the way the film reforms and refines the mythology of the lore is done to great benefit. Basic Screenwriting 101 shows that the stakes not only should be great, but they should be personal. By making Rita, a former Ranger herself along with Zordon gives this plot a much more concise and concrete gravitas. Once Zordon and his comic- relief sidekick, Alpha Five are brought in to offer an overabundance of exposition, the film is quickly thrown into a muddled second act that offers few gems and even fewer subtleties.
Act Two: Go Go Training Sequence
The entire second act is a basic training montage. The filmmakers make an interesting narrative move by not allowing the Rangers to be capable of morphing right away, once they are given the technology to do so. Morphing has a biological and physiological component that they struggle greatly to master throughout the second act. Again this makes the narrative focus intensely on the characters interpersonal relationships with one another, rather than a preoccupation with beating shit up while dressed in technicolored suits (more on Act Tree later.) A scene around a campfire allocates even more character development while training montages give the audience some visual eye candy as they await the inevitable powerhouse finale. The film remains relatively engaging as it balances the many different forces at work during the second half of its running time. When we are not focused on the Rangers in training, we are cutting to Rita working toward her diabolical scheme to steal a piece of the Zeo Crystal, which gives life to all things on Earth. Much criticism has been given to Elizabeth Banks for her cartoonish performance in the role, but it seems more than clear that the material is at fault, not the actress. Rita is savage and primal at one moment and sexy and menacing the next. She knows to go to a jewelry store to steal gold but does not recognize a Krispy Kreme as a food establishment. Her tone is uneven, catering to whatever serves the particular scene she is in. In fact, Bank's performance is commendable. She acts as a chameleon (she looks amphibian-like as it is) changing from scene to scene into what the script requires her to be. It is tiresome because what should be a great villain becomes a collection of half-hearted ideas executed with little gusto. Her strongest scene in the film is in Act Two when confronting Trini in her bedroom. It is also one of the film's most obvious missed opportunities. Rita gives Trini the offer of betraying her team and telling her the location of the Zeo Crystal, in exchange for her life. Bank's take on Rita in this scene is the most impressive. She is both feral and darkly sarcastic. She moans in orgasmic pleasure as she shows off her armor and tosses Trini around the bedroom. Her offer, however, makes little to no sense. She must know that Trini understands that the whole planet will die without the Zeo Crystal and therefore her offer to spare her life means nothing in the long run. This is likely why Trini does not take her offer and tells the team almost immediately, but this is the true missed opportunity! Trini is the most introverted and misunderstood member. She feels no connection to anyone in her life. Rita should offer her a chance of escape, maybe to another planet where others are more like her. A place where she can be accepted and understood. This would be a real bargaining chip, one that would allow us to see Trini struggle with a conflicted choice of choosing sanctity or morality. The more conflicted characters are in films, the more exciting it is to watch them make their choices. This plot point deflates before it is even given a chance to blow up. The film makes up for this slightly by giving Zordon himself an interesting character choice to make. When the team returns to the Command Center after Rita kills Billy, they learn Zordon finally has enough power to become a physical entity again and fight Rita himself, since the Rangers appear incapable at this low point. He opts not to and instead uses this power to resurrect Billy. The team is finally able to morph at this point, although it is never made clear exactly why. The collective is united, but what it is that ultimately united them, besides Billy coming back to life, is not apparent. The film at this point is too set on rushing into its third and final act which is the most conventional of them all.
Act Three: Megazords Vs. Mega-Problems
Once the Iron Man-Esque CGI suits are donned, the film hurtles toward its climactic battle sequence between the Rangers and Goldar, Rita's evil monstrosity created to rip the Zeo Crystal from the Earth's core. The final battle starts with hand-to-hand combat between the Power Rangers and the Putties, Rita's henchmen. This sequence is far too short and not given enough attention. The primary problem with the third act is that once the team gets into their suits, they seem perfectly in sync with one another, too in sync. They suddenly adopt joint combat movements that we've never seen them practice or perfect in any way. There is little sense that this is new to them until the Zords get involved. The Zord battle is thrilling but quite generic, topped off with a grueling cliché moment in which the Red Ranger saves his father from certain death. The designs and special effects are sufficient, but not noteworthy or particularly appealing. Goldar's lack of a face makes him far less intimidating as an opponent. It's like fighting a gold stick figure. The Megazord itself also lacks distinguishing physical characteristics, though it is an improvement to see them struggle at first to operate it properly. It is moments like that one that reminds us of the misty realism this film is so effortlessly trying to provoke at times. The worst part of the final battle is in its handling of the main villain. Rita is discarded like an unwanted booger from a toddler's nose as the Megazord essentially bitch-slaps her into outer space in a completely underwhelming manner. The third act lacks care and thoughtful storytelling, so present in the first two acts. It becomes a Michael Bay Spectacle without the proper tools for success. It's the film many paid to see but discovered soon after the lights went down that they didn't want after all. It's not to say that the third act should not have been a battle sequence, only that it should have been a much better one, one that suited the character's arcs and storylines set up earlier in the film. Then again, this is a film whose source material used stock footage for its battle scenes 98% of the time.
While I can appreciate and respect the idea that the filmmakers wished to hold some cards in their deck back for potential sequels, that does not mean they can underserve us as an audience in the finale. Why no Zordon and Alpha 5 scene after the final fight? How have the team members reconciled their many differences with one another? Who or what does Angel Grove think these superheroes are exactly? Things are tied up too neatly and at a far too sped-up pace for the conclusion to feel satisfactory. While of course, I would welcome a sequel, there are many lessons to learn from this film in order to create a satisfying and effective franchise in the future. The diversity of the team members should continue to be celebrated with both great attention and subtly, where warranted. Still, the action sequences must pack a more potent punch and be given greater considerable significance and correlation to the character's personal goals and story arcs. An example of this is the scene when Billy makes the Zord's hips shake in a celebratory dance, symbolizing him coming out of his shell thanks to his fellow team members. Action must have meaning, and meaning is created by the filmmakers, not just the actor's performances. On that note, I find Power Rangers to be an ambitious move towards creating superheroes that are more relatable on a human scale. These aren't Greek Gods or billionaires with a vengeance, these are everyday people. It has the potential to be a franchise that celebrates diversity and the critical role all people can play in making the world a better and safer place to inhabit. It hasn't necessarily made the source material proud yet, but this film proves it has the capabilities to do so with colorful and creative abundance. They've morphed, now they should be given the opportunity in future films to be mighty.
