Power Rangers

I do realize that I haven't done many reviews this month. I wanted to knock at least one more out before the end of the month and why not jump into a film that I had absolutely no interest in seeing at all and swore I wouldn't spend a dime to see. Well guess what showed up on Amazon Prime?

So I never watched Power Rangers as a kid. It just wasn't my thing. I think for a while I wanted it to be my thing and I tried to watch it once... but then I saw an episode with the real Rita Repulsa and I laughed and turned back to Star Wars. So I'm gonna say right now, I have not see any of the original Power Rangers. The very little I have seen in no way makes me an expert to point out whether or not this movie was faithful to the series or not. I'll also say, I have absolutely no interest in this franchise whatsoever. The only little interest I've ever had was to the fan film starring Katie Sackhoff, and even that I wasn't nearly as interested as everyone else... With that out of the way, let's talk about Saban's Power Rangers.

The movie follows the story of five misfit teenagers in a town called Angel Grove. At the beginning they very much want to harken back to the 80s Nostalgia of The Breakfast Club but that is pretty much forgotten after the first half hour so if you were going into this movie because it reminded you of that, you're in for a disappointment already.

You've got Jason Scott (played by Dacre Montgomrey), the former football star now washout after his injury made him unable to play for the football team. Former cheerleader Kimberly Hart (played by Naomi Scott) who is outcasted from his cheerleading squad and cuts her hair to be different. Billy Cranston (played by RJ Cyler) a kid with autism who becomes very much the heart of the team. Trini (played by Becky G) the "new kid" who is struggling with her sexuality. And Zack (played by Ludi Lin) a wildcard risk taker. Coincidence really takes them to the same place where they find these crystals and gain super powers.

They're introduced to Zordon (voiced by Bryan Cranston) who informs them that their powers make them the Power Rangers, a team of powerful individuals destined to fight off evil, especially a rogue former ranger named Rita Repulsa (played incredibly unironically by Elizabeth Banks).

I'll get into Elizabeth Banks but one thing I really need to applaud about this movie is how amazing Bryan Cranston is an actor. There is a lot about this movie that is ridiculous. The premise, the script, the acting, all of it, super silly. However, Cranston still manages to deliver his lines like he is delivering Shakespeare. He is somehow able to get me to totally buy into this world that I have no knowledge or interest in. Applause for the incredibly talented actor giving it 110% in a role he really could have just phoned in.

The rest of the film though is super hokey, weird, and takes itself WAY too seriously.

I mean someone, please tell me how you can take the Power Rangers seriously. It is not a subject that allows for the gritty realistic feeling all superheroes have post-2008. And yet everyone wants to treat this as seriously as they've treated the Marvel movies because we all know Marvel makes gangbuster money.

It is so weird because everything is played so seriously and not ironic at all.

The best example of this comes in the form of Elizabeth Banks playing a character named Rita Repulsa.

If this picture wasn't enough, just take a look at the way this character was played in the show and tell me please how I am expected to take this character seriously at all.

And like I said, this is just one of multiple aspects of this entire concept that I am supposed to be taking seriously but can't do just due to the fact of how ridiculous it is. If you grew up with Power Rangers, I'm not making fun of you, I really just want to know how this is expected to be played as serious.

Now if the movie was played off as a comedy or meta humor, I could see this being played off as a joke or a funny character, but Banks plays it 100% serious. She's weird in the movie, very similarly to the character in the show, but they play it with enough seriousness that I feel as though I need to take it seriously.

The weird thing however is that this movie potentially could have worked. The actors playing the Power Rangers are by no means good, but some of the intended emotions and feelings I knew I was supposed to have about these characters do manage to come through in certain parts of the film, especially in the character of Billy. And while the other four are not very good actors, I feel like if they had had a script and a good director that did more than Project Almanac back in 2015, this could have potentially been an okay movie.

They play this movie very much like a superhero origin film. In fact they steal a lot of origin ideas from movies like Spider-man and X-men. But when these kids start figuring out that they have superpowers, they maneuver through it the way a kid would write a superhero origin story in 5th grade after seeing the first Sam Raimi Spider-man film. I say this because I was that kid. I've looked back at some of my writing from an early age and it's not a whole lot different than the writing in this movie as these kids are trying to figure out their powers. There isn't really anything driving these kids to figure out their powers together, it just turns out that way because the script needs them too. For a story that is very much about friendship and growing up, I feel like the movie sacrificed some moments that could have been really good relationship building by just fast forwarding these kids through what is admittedly probably an awkward transition for normal writers to write. Taking characters from ordinary to extraordinary can be difficult but that's why people like John Gatins gets paid a lot more than I do to write the screenplay for this film.

The other mistake this movie made was not only taking itself WAY too seriously, but they addressed this film like a superhero origin story as opposed to the monster destruction movie it clearly should have been as evident by the end of the film.

Listen, the final fight of the film is not very good. It was too little, too late. But as I was watching it and the Power Rangers get geared up into their Zords, I got a glimmer of the action sequences from a movie like the first Pacific Rim. The action got a lot cooler and a lot less hokey when they were in their dinobots and fighting Rita's giant gold monster. In a way it's the Transformers movie we probably will never get that would still be terrible, but I would be more interested in than the Transformers fighting with King Arthur.

I don't want to see a Transformers Power Rangers crossover. I have no interest in seeing either one of these film franchises come back in any way shape or form. But one of the biggest complaints I've heard about the Transformers films is that they focus way too much on the human characters and not enough on the actual Transformers. My thoughts are, if you're going to continue focusing on the human characters, why not make them Power Rangers and have them be able to go toe to toe with the Transformers?

Again, I am in no way endorsing this crossover and I'm pretty sure it wouldn't happen due to the fact that they belong to two different studios, but if they insist on continuing to waste money on these franchises that I have no interest in, you might as well just throw everything into it, make it the wackiest concept you'll ever see and just invite me to spend money on it, chances are I might just out of Fear of Missing Out.

Is Power Rangers as bad as I thought it was going to be. For the most part yes. It is not a good movie and I didn't think in any uncertain terms that it was not going to be bad. But there were more parts that I enjoyed than I expected. Still bad, but it at least gave me some fun ideas that will probably never happen due to copyrights.

But what did you think? Did you watch Power Rangers as a kid? Did you like this movie? Should they make a sequel? Should they make a sequel crossing over with Transformers? Or Pacific Rim? Isn't Bryan Cranston the best? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @MovieSymposium as well as send me your requests for films I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

I'll leave you with this. Seriously, if you have 15 minutes to spare, just treat yourself to this fan film. It takes the concept of Power Rangers and takes it WAY WAY WAY too seriously almost to the point that it works. Check it out here.