Nerds That Geek Movie Review: 'Power Rangers'

Written by Mike Cervantes

THIS IS THE EMERGENCY SPOILER ALERT SYSTEM...YOU ARE ADVISED TO READ AT YOUR OWN RISK...

This is a hard one right out of the gate. I admit that I was a fan of the original 1993 version of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. But, as a 12 year old soon-to-be film critic, I admit that I never saw it as a 'holy grail' or a 'sacred cow' franchise. For me it was simply a fun show. You got to see Japanese footage of dudes in multi-colored spandex air-kick monsters with visible zippers on their backs. It was simple Saturday Morning joy, although, as most people forget, there were a lot of parents groups that immediately swarmed on this show, and before long our pre-teen martial arts fantasy was intercepted on all sides by endless PSA's teaching much younger kids basic morals and the ability to tell fantasy from reality.
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I bring this up because there are only a handful of reasons that movies tend to get made these days, and this one is here to cash in on the obvious lucrative trend of creating a movie for adults based entirely on a nostalgic kid’s property, and continue the new tradition for franchises similar to this one in keeping the story dark and gritty. It was only a matter of time before this happened, but I can’t help but shake away a certain disappointment from my youth. I always wanted there to be a truly great Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers movie. Sure, I got one in 1995, but it was too full of cluttered plot points and non-canon weirdness that I couldn’t appreciate it even at the time. Then there was a second one in 1997 that was so far removed from the concept I most loved, that it wasn’t even worth seeing in theaters, and that’s a big statement from a teenager.

So now we have this film, and to be fair, it had a decent shot. The franchise has since linked arms with Viacom/Nickelodeon and they’ve acknowledged the appeal of the original series, if only for nostalgic reasons. This movie is also produced by Haim Saban, making it, to my knowledge, the first modern reboot of a kid’s property that is still manufactured by one its original creators. Is it the version of the movie that the young Mike always wanted to see?

Nnnnnno.

But hang on, because you still might find within this review a good reason to see this one. 

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Like I already said, we’re making this one grittier! We’ve got a Jason (Dacre Montgomery) who is under house arrest for stealing a school mascot…and flipping a truck. We’ve got a Kimberly (Naomi Scott) whose been kicked off the cheer team for shooting off a sex photo of a teammate. We’ve got a Billy (R.J. Cyler) that is autistic, obsessed with different patterns of colors, and has a propensity for causing explosions. We’ve got a Zack (Ludi Lin) who always takes unnecessary risks, out of fear that he will soon lose his sick mother, and we’ve got a Trini (Becky Gomez) that is 'indicated' to be a lesbian, but is mostly just an angry loner.
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All five of these teens are brought together when, after sneaking into an arbitrarily restricted area, Billy sets charges and blows up the side of the mountain, revealing the five power coins. Absent of any aptitude towards the martial arts, they each take a coin and suddenly begin developing superhuman strength, incredible leaping abilities, and invincibility. They find themselves continually drawn to the same patch of dirt where they eventually reveal the command center, a UFO imbedded in the earth’s crust during the Cenozoic era. There Zordon (Bryan Cranston) and Alpha (voiced by Bill Hader) inform them of their ultimate destiny: defeat the newly resurrected and horror-movie hideous Rita Repulsa (Elizabeth Banks), before she robs the city of Angel Grove of all its gold, resurrects a giant faceless monster named Goldar, and destroys the earth by ripping the ancient Zeo Crystal from its place of burial, which will cause lots of explosions, or something.

We’re mercifully spared the concept of a great destiny battle when Jason uncovers the true scandal behind this ancient conflict: that Zordon and Rita were once Power Rangers on the same team when Rita first betrayed him, and Zordon’s attempts to train a new team of rangers was simply to resurrect the Morphing Grid and return himself to Earth. Problem is, this team is failing to morph because they’re virtual strangers to each other, and simply can’t pull together enough teamwork to tap into their full powers…there’s your 'very special message from the Power Rangers' right there.

Once everything can be resolved between the wholesome family-friendly concepts of their source material, and the modern day angst of their current cast, they can finally take the battle to Rita in the center of Angel Grove. Like the franchise reboot this movie most wants to be, (*koff*Transformers*koff*) the third act of this movie provides the ultimate payoff for the hours of teen angst and character self-doubt present in the beginning. Unlike that movie, however, the inevitable giant monster battle feels 100% like an installment of the Power Rangers TV series. The pacing and sequence of that payoff scene is done well enough to at least make you feel like you’re watching Saturday morning TV all over again.

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This movie does all it possibly can in order to take it to the monotonously long-run Transformers series that birthed it. There’s even a 'take that' moment when Jason accidentally steps on a yellow car while learning to drive the tyrannosaurus zord. Sad as it is, then, that the CG zords don’t completely fail to resemble the overly cyberpunk-ish designs of the CG film version of the transformers, as do Alpha and Zordon. There are some shining moments amongst the cast characterization. R.J. Cyler’s Billy is the real standout; both because he gets a Triceratops’ share of the funny lines, and ultimately becomes the nucleus that pulls the team together.

Generally, though, the film is in a frantic search for a rhythm it can’t fully find. Jason goes from getting shushed from saying the word 'shit' in one scene, to later shouting 'Let’s save our shitty town!' in the middle of a motivational speech. Then there’s the issue of having the black and yellow rangers pushed into the background. There was obviously much more to say about a near-suicidal Zack’s need to bring control to the chaos he was dealt in life, and the necessity for Trini to ‘come out’ in order to fully accept her powers. It certainly seemed more important a thread to follow than it was hearing how sorry Kimberly was for sex-shaming someone.

If my review of this movie came down to a simple 'watch or don’t watch' rating, I would say, by all means, give it a watch. In the end, I appreciate the fact that, despite its need to provide direct competition to the Transformers franchise, it didn’t completely forsake the concepts left to it by the original series. Once the heavy-handed jaded pasts of the characters can be effectively pushed into the background, I might even actually learn to enjoy the inevitable sequels. It’s more likely, though, that I, and a lot of other people, will be taking the nostalgic spark this movie left us, and immediately retreat to Netflix to watch the reruns of the original series. 

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