I watched the Power Rangers starting at 6 and for much too long afterward. The zords (giant Ranger robots) were front and center of my Lego adventures, the source of a great many adventures and bundles of joy. To say the previous Ranger movies were disappointed would be an extreme understatement; they broke my heart cause they were horrendous. Those nostalgic kids longing for a good Power Rangers movie will be…hopeful? This Ranger reboot does some welcome good things to build a franchise, but still has some work to do to iron out what it wants to be.
The reboot sets up our heroes as outcasts: Red Jason (Dacre Montgomery, get used to the colors for a bit), Black Zack (Ludi Lin), and Yellow Trini (Becky G) are thrill seekers with crappy home lives, Billy Blue (RJ Cyler) is on the autism spectrum, and Kimberly (Naomi Scott) is self destructive. Most of them meet in detention, and the rest at a mine where Billy goes to do experiments at night. The five stumble upon power coins, which make them super human and lead them to a spaceship housing robot Alpha 5 (Bill Hader) and Zordon (Bryan Cranston), a previous ranger who’s essence is stuck within the ship. Zordon is more than pleased, because not only have the rangers returned, but so has Rita Repulsa (Elizabeth Banks) a psychopathic menace intent on absolute power.
Power Rangers is based on a Japanese property that relies on Camp David level campiness and uber simplicity. The movie subtly twists the fatal flaws into at worst minor distractions and at best, real assets. The racism of the TV show (they seriously cast a black person as the black ranger and an Asian person as the yellow ranger) gets turned into a super positive in the movie; the blue ranger is now black, but also, he’s on the autism spectrum somewhere, a superhero first. We also have Latina, Asian, and pissy teenage (ok, that one’s the same) rangers, giving little boys and girls everywhere a ranger that looks like them. In addition, their ethnicity does not define them, but provides specificity to the story that I’m sure will be exploited in future endeavors. Morphing was fun in the show, but here it’s used not only for thematic relevance, but as critical to any future story: unless rangers are in sync and connected to each other, they cannot morph. Connection and working as a team was always front and center of a Power Ranger episode, so it only makes sense to weave it into the actual morphing. And coupled with the outcast setup, each of these kids gets rewarded for being a great friend by transforming into a superhero. That’s a pretty wholesome message if you ask me.
However, there’s still some severe issues the movie franchise has to work out. The fan service is to be expected, but the question is how far. The cameos are a nice, subtle touch, as well as enhancing the look of the crony bad guys, putties. The mythology of the show really made no sense; it’s just there to service the plot, like here at one crucial moment when a character’s life is threatened. Then there’s poor Elizabeth Banks, who must have been given another script. She’s going Over the Top of even Sylvester Stallone, cackling and pompously delivering crazy. You can’t help but laugh at her, which clashes MIGHTILY with the sweet, coming-of-age story the rangers are going through. Thus, when the two come to blows, you don’t really care what happens and only care if it looks cool (thankfully, it mostly does). The parents are also pretty one note here; hopefully, that gets used to set up a distrust of authority for Zordon, but here it’s mostly wasted. These flaws, though, are more peripheral; the most powerful stuff in Power Rangers is those 5 misfit teens trying to work out their problems, and more consistency from the periphery will help make the central story pop even more than this solid first outing.
With all the adult superhero movies out there, I’m ok with Power Rangers staying in the PG realm. This series was always meant for kids like me, a dork who was kinda smart but wanted to be a superhero. Billy was that Ranger for me growing up, and I hope a new generation of kids gets to find that type of connection in one of those Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, and also learns why a killer theme song makes a franchise better. SO happy they played it at least a little.