Power Rangers

With the seemingly endless popularity of superheroes, robots, dinosaurs and gigantic monsters on the big screen, it was only a matter of time before a franchise where superheroes transform into gigantic robotic dinosaurs to battle gigantic monsters would be resurrected. That's right: everyone's favorite half-hour toy commercial from the '90s is back to kick nostalgic butt! The "Power Rangers" have been re-booted with a slickly made, big-budget popcorn flick that wants to remind you of your care-free childhood days spent in front of the TV. It also probably wants you to forget the atrocious 1995 film.

It almost works.

With a gang of fresh young faces in place, the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers get back into action, sans the clumsy Mighty Morphin title. Also missing in action is a great deal of the trademark humor and inherent corniness that made the original series so much fun to watch, even long after most of us had grown up and out of it. In place of these elements are a stronger focus on character and backstory, as we not only get to know more about the teen titans, but also about their allies and enemies. Yep, even the Rangers' big-headed mentor Zordon and his haywire sidekick Alpha (played by Bryan Cranston and Bill Hader respectively) get some time to shine, as we learn more about how they came into contact with the power of the Rangers. Likewise, villainess Rita Repulsa (Elizabeth Banks) is given ample time to roam and wreak havoc, as she murders her way across town in search of gold, all the while jamming some Social Distortion. We're a long way from after-school Fox TV, friends.

The kids all play variations of the characters we came to recognize in the original run. Here we have Jason/The Red Ranger, the natural leader and jock with a heart of gold, as played by Dacre Montgomery. Stealing nearly every scene is RJ Cyler as Billy/The Blue Ranger, a brainiac who proudly confesses to being on the spectrum. Naomi Scott steps into the role of Kimberly/The Pink Ranger. This version of Kimberly is a rebel and a frequent target of bullies (haters gon' hate). Rounding out the crew are Becky G as Trini/The Yellow Ranger and Ludi Lin as Zack/The Black Ranger. These characters feel slightly under-cooked in comparison to the three "leads." Trini and Zack both appear troubled and withdrawn, proud conformists who are tough as nails. A glimpse into their respective home lives gives each character a little more dimension. Together, the five teens must learn to work together if they are to stop Rita's plan to end all human life. In spite of the film's short-comings, all five actors are on point and keep things are lively as possible, even when the script fails them.

Most folks are going to come into a film like this expecting a super smash of monster on robot action, and although the back half of the film makes good on that promise, the hour and a half (!) that leads up to it might leave some viewers (especially the younger ones) a bit cold. While the increased focus on character is more than welcome (given how shallow the original series was), it gets a bit redundant a third of the way in. The new characters are established firmly from the start, but the story doesn't quite know how to advance from there, leaving the middle piece of the film a little laggy and repetitive. A lot of the story beats we've seen from other (and better) superhero films are repeated and to be quite honest, it gets hard not to tune out. When the slam-bang finale comes crashing down, it (mostly) quenches the thirst for big, goofy fun but not quite. The end result is a film that feels a little muddled, as if the committee that pieced it together didn't quite know what target audience they were trying to reach. Not as dumb as "Transformers" but not as fun as, say, "Guardians of the Galaxy," "Power Rangers" straddles the middle a little too comfortably. Or maybe these characters and their accompanying concepts work better in smaller doses. There's still some fun to be had here, make no mistake, but more often than not, it feels like these Rangers are operating with slightly diminished power.

I didn't grow up with the power rangers. I really didn't care for the power rangers and the people who liked them. This movie was a good movie. Better than alot of crap Hollywood pours into us.

I didn't come in to this film expecting much, but I was pleasantly surprised when the film began with a very nice start. The build-up and introduction of the first few characters was very well paced and I started to become more interested in the movie, even if it was a generic "outcast is special" scenario. Unfortunately, just as I was starting to gain interest, the film started to lose its speed. As I mentioned before, the first few rangers introduced were done very well, and I even felt a bit invested in these characters. The remaining rangers, however, seemed to be awkwardly shoved into the plot. With little to no background given other then that they just happened to be in the right place at the right time with the other characters. The acting was also not that great in some areas either. Especially Dacre Montgomery as the Red ranger. Don't get me wrong, he wasn't a horrible pick for the leading ranger, he just could have done better in some moments. You can definitely pick out the times when the acting was very poor. Another thing to note is that the pacing felt off at times. The first half was set up very nicely, with good introduction to the world we were being introduced too, but what the film does wrong after that is it takes the audience's new knowledge of this world and shoves the climax of the film in our face. One second the protagonists are on their knees clearly defeated with no real answer on how to win, and then, in what feels like less than a minute or two, they're an unstoppable force that no one can defeat. My friends and I were laughing the entire duration of the climax, it was just so ridiculous and off paced we couldn't help it. Overall, not the greatest movie. I could go more in depth about the action and antagonist but that just reaffirms what I already said. I will admit that the film it had its good and funny moments, especially the first half. Go see it if you've got nothing else to do and want to laugh at some corny jokes. Otherwise I'd recommend seeing or doing something else with your free time and wait till it hits redbox.

I was one of the first people to be asked to watch power rangers in December of 2016. I went into the theater not expecting much from this movie but I was wrong, it was a good movie. Not great or OK it was simply good. It had great CGI and the acting was good for a young cast. I loved the first 2 acts of the movie they were really strong and had good story telling. But act 3 in my opinion seemed silly and sort of rushed. The first 2 acts were great because of 2 things. Great characters and a steady pace. The character development was great and I liked how the writers really stuck to making them interesting so that the audience would care about them, especially RJ Cylers character. Nothing was rushed and was going at a great pace and then all of a sudden act 3 came into play and it turned into a mediocre action film and wasn't very exciting and I believe that is due to the villain. I was not a fan. Her motives are too over used and simply a lame character. The actress was fine but the character it'self wasn't anything special and made the action scenes dull. Other than that the kids will love it and if you are a power ranger fan I think you will be pleased. It's fun for the whole family.

Two hours long and it takes them 90 minutes to finally don the costumes. That's the essence of "Power Rangers", a movie that offers plenty of buildup with a clumsy payoff. A lot of money and time went into the mo-cap, but there's something to be said about the fluidity of spandex fight scenes. And strangely enough, I think I liked it better while it was a generic superhero origin story, "Breakfast Club" archetypes and all. Even still, these are decent actors and they breathe life into a pretty weak script.

It's funny, I was never a Power Rangers fan growing up (though I certainly put in the effort) but I didn't end up liking this movie because of the writing; too much effort turning this into a serious teen drama and not focusing on the goofy appeal of the show. It was silly then and it should be now.

5/10