2017 Power Rangers movie… A review of sorts

Hrm, I say  I must admit for this movie, I had pretty low expectations, so I was in no hurry to see it.  However I was determined to watch it.  So I did.




While I didn’t think it was terrible, it certainly wasn’t good.  It felt to me, like they wanted to make a bog standard super hero movie.  Or they wanted to make the Power Rangers into a serious thing.  Whichever effect they were aiming for, they failed.

That’s where I think it all went wrong.   It lacked fun.

By its nature alone, the whole thing of the power ranger is silly.  I only watched the original show because it was kind of naff, but it knew this and was therefore fun.  This movie doesn’t realise how naff the actual concept really is.  Had they gone a bit sillier, this movie would have been much more enjoyable and at the end there were some serious mistakes.  Well “mistake” isn’t quite the right word. 

The movie focusses on a bunch of teenagers in Angle Grove.  They are delinquent in one way or another (oddly aside from one) and in a Breakfast Club style of story, most of them meet up through detention.  They find the power, but can’t use it because they haven’t bonded and here is where we learn the heroes regret.  One guy is a selfish thrillseeker, the other guy likes to blow things up, blah blah blah.  And one guy seems like a really nice guy looking after his mother who is ill.  Odd since in the bonding scene we learn about their fears and regets, Mr Nice guy’s only regret is that when his mother dies, he’ll be alone.

However, characters don’t really matter in Power Rangers and none of them are very likeable.  Red Ranger doesn’t do a convincing team leader act and none of tem have any “personality” as such.  This isn’t that surprising, especially since Power Rangers joins the ranks of empty big budget toy movies.  Power Rangers could still be a good action movie, as people want to see the Rangers in action.

So if that’s OK, then the movie is ok right? 

They really did mess up though. Major scenes were lacklustre and flat and it’s noticeable from the point where the Rangers get their suits and Morph (and from then on).

One thing that PR should not shy away from is the time required to morph.  When they first morph, it should be something special and time should be dedicated to it.  Here there have close-ups of the suits growing on our heroes (no poses) and then next, when they first emerge in their suits, instead of a classic PRteam pose, we get a boring arse slow motion walk, as if they are in the movie The Right Stuff.  And any other action movie.  Crikey people, this is the first time they change, and they can’t make them yell their names??


What it should be, What it looked like, What it was…

Rita Repulsa was OK.  She looked nice enough, had a good colour combination thing going on, but was obviously an ex-Green ranger.   She did hinge all her bets on making Goldar and while finally forming him, they made a little throwback.  A low angle shot as he grew large!  Finally, a bit of fun…  But it was short lived and not very fun.  She did bust out a “Make my Monster grow!”

Another nice homage was when they got their Zords, they set up a scene with them running, both across the screen, as well as towards.  It was brief and shaky, but definitely a nod to the TV show.  On the Zords, the animal designs looked good.  Well the T-rex anyway.  The others didn’t really get much clean screen time, so they were a bit hard to make out what was going on.  The Black Ranger’s one might have had guns for tusks, as well as 6 legs.  But it never really as in clear view.  Same with the blue one.  A shame, as the Zords are a major part of the Power Rangers and being unable to see them clearly took a lot away from their effect.

Now onto my final missed opportunity.  It’s a big.


The emergence of the Megazord….


They all fall into a fiery pit and the combination takes place with the flames and smoke.

I’m sorry, WHAT IS GOING ON?  It should be a major point.  Like when Blackout transformed in the opening scene of the Transformers movie.  The combination, the morphing, these things should be events!   An easy way to hype up the viewer.  However both these situations are taken away from the viewer, which leaves the movie in a very flat situation, especially since the Megazord itself is very plain looking.

And that’s pretty much the whole movie.  It’s terribly flat. 

Had they embraced the silly history of the Power Rangers (and there is a lot of history to them now) this movie could have been much more enjoyable, instead of being “just another average action movie.”    It wasn’t bad, it wasn’t good and it wasn’t so-bad-that-its-good.  It’s  average and plain, it’s entirely forgetful.  Not even a cameo from the original Tommy can save this movie. 

I also noticed they obviously left it open for a sequel.  Whether I go and see it will depend on whether they embrace the essence, the spirit, the naffness of Power Rangers.  The concept is supposed to be fun.  This movie has no fun.

I’d rate it a meh\yawn