Power Rangers (2017 Film) Review

With Lionsgate out of reliable franchises, can Power Rangers be their next big franchise? Before I begin, I know nothing about the Power Rangers material that's outside this movie, so if you're looking for a comparison to the 90s tv show, you're gonna be disappointed.

The film stars Dacre Montgomery, Naomi Scott, RJ Cyler, Becky G, Ludi Lin, Elizabeth Banks, Bryan Cranston, and Bill Hader.

So rather than clump them all together, I'm gonna go through the characters individually and then go from there. There's quite a few things to discuss. Don't worry, there will be no spoilers as usual. Once again, here's my Kids-In-Mind review.

Kids-In-Mind Review

The Rangers

So of course we have the five Rangers. Jason (Red), Kimberly (Pink), Billy (Blue), Trini (Yellow), and Zack (Black). I have to say, right off the bat, not all the Power Rangers got well-defined for me. The ones that I think were, were Jason, Billy, and maybe Kimberly. I wasn't sure about her at first, but at the end, I felt she was defined enough to break the cut. I have to say, all the actors playing the five Rangers did a wonderful job with their characters. Billy and Jason were my two favorite characters. They were very funny with their jokes and I liked their friendship between one another. All of the kids meet each other in detention, but I didn't like what Kimberly did to get herself in detention. It made the character very unlikeable at first. Trini and Zack didn't have much of a role. Their characters were not well-defined. They didn't have much of an arch. They didn't have a lot of lines in the film. Especially Trini, who was silent in the first few minutes of her screen time. I understood a bit of their motivations and personalities, but to a lesser extent than I knew Jason, Billy, and Kimberly's. The lines of dialogue were very sophisticated for this kind of movie. However, there were lines of dialogue that were really dark. Not a lot, but I believe Jason actually says "Let's go kill Rita." That really surprised me. It's kinda hard to hear a protagonist say that kinda thing, no less a teenager, but that line lends itself to the edginess that the film is aiming towards, but sadly, it doesn't work. More on that later. The team they formed is very believable. They really work together and form this friendship that is moving at points.

Zordon and Alpha 5

I thought Zordon would be in it a bit more than he was. He and Alpha 5 were in the film very little. I would've expected a bit more of them considering they're characters that were major parts of the series, but I guess there's only so much you can do with the time given. Those of you that are Power Rangers fans can feel free to correct me, should I get my information wrong. I certainly liked the first few scenes of Zordon, but he kinda got old. I applaud Bryan Cranston for being able to showcase so many ranges of acting through a Pin Art though. That's no small feet. Speaking of Bryan Cranston, the Blue Ranger's name is Billy Cranston, named after Bryan Cranston, who's been involved with the brand before. Bill Hader was simply playing a robotic version of himself when it comes to Alpha 5. He was funny and commented on the diverseness of the cast, but I think he seems like he'd be more entertaining for younger children. The two were only really there just to help get the Rangers get trained and ready to fight Rita. Once they were finished, they seemed pushed to the background. I will say though that I'd like to see Zordon a bit more expanded in the sequels, I want further depth applied to his character. Maybe defining these characters a lot wasn't on the agenda, because this was likely made for fans of the brand.

Rita Repulsa and Goldar

Remember when I said that the dark tone didn't work? This character is the reason for that. For me, Rita worked and didn't work. She didn't fit into the tone that was established with the Rangers. Way up till her introduction, this was established as a sort of grounded, dark adventure that had little-to-no campiness to it. Then she was introduced and that's when the film got really cheesy. The character continued to be that way, but I'd say that once she attacked Trini, that's when Elizabeth Banks dialed the campiness back a bit. She may have been so cartoony for her first few scenes, but she also had a few scary moments here and there. There were parts where she was a not-as-good female Gollum, crawling around on all fours and everything.

Aside from the over-the-top acting delivered, I liked the backstory given to the character. I wonder if that was the character's actual backstory. Again, I invite you guys, who may be Power Rangers fans, to correct me. I thought her minions, the Putties, were the typical disposable army that's in almost every other superhero film, but Elizabeth Banks's fighting was pretty impressive. There were points where Rita was very meta and she actually refrained from monologuing. I'm surprised. I thought that would be something she'd actually do, but, like this entire movie, she surprised me. If the point of the character was to be cheesy, Elizabeth Banks certainly did her job, but I have to say that kinda disjointed the tone.

As for Goldar, everyone in that mine should be embarrassed. If Rita Repulsa is able to create a giant monster made entirely out of gold, they are not doing their job very well. Granted, there's a lot of ground to cover, but c'mon, if this town's been here a while, they should've found a lot. Goldar's main purpose was to fight the Rangers. That's all he did. I assume it's a he, they didn't clarify the gender in the film. I'd be lying if that fight wasn't cool though. He was essentially the boss for the battle in a sense.

Suits and Zords

I'm gonna go out on a limb really quick and draw a comparison to a better film than this. Power Rangers is almost like Batman Begins in a way. HEAR ME OUT! Here's why I'm making the comparison. For a movie called Power Rangers, they don't show the Power Rangers in their suits a lot. People are calling it out for that as a negative thing. I say that it's a strength. Batman Begins didn't show Batman much for the start of it either. Bruce Wayne had to train and master his skills and then he created the Batsuit and his many toys. Power Rangers does the same thing. They don't show them in their suits until the end of the second act. I appreciate that, because it shows that the movie is strong enough to not rely on using the actual suits. As for the Zords, I thought that they were pretty cool. Tin their Zords, the Rangers did a lot of awesome fighting in them. Though I have to admit, I enjoyed the Power Rangers more when they were fighting on the ground and not in their Zords. Cool as they may be, I would've liked to see them do more hand-to-hand fighting. I wonder why some of the Zords were all designed after different dinosaurs. Jason's was a T-Rex, Billy's was a Triceratops, and Kimberly's was a Pterodactyl. The only two that weren't dinosaurs were Trini and Zack, whose Zords were designed after a Sabertooth Tiger and a Mastodon respectively.

Production Design, Score, and Effects

Before I conclude on my review, I wanted to give the production design, the score and the effects their own category to shine. I enjoy a superhero flick where the scope is very small. It's a refreashing thing to see. Especially since we see films that have grand locations that either waste them or are just conspicuous ploys to appease the global markets. I thought Zordon's ship was stunning on the inside with the main gathering center as well as the pit with the holographic Putties. Even though I think we spent a little too much time in there, it was still an opertunity to further explore the ship. If they built a portion of the ship, than that's mighty impressive. What if they found a way to get Zordon's ship up and flying again? Now that would be an awesome thing to see.

Brian Tyler has done a lot of medium-range scores, but of the scores that he's done that I've heared, I think this might be the best work he's done so far. In it, it has some techno elements to it and that typical superhero, coming of age feel, but this time, there's something really fresh about it. It's very fun to listen to. In fact, I listened to pieces of it while writing this review.

I'm not sure whether or not the Power Ranger's suits were real or CGI, but they certainly didn't look so CGI heavy to me. If they were, than kudos to the effects team for making it look believable. If the suits were really practical, then the costume team did an awesome job about making real suits. I thought the CGI was really well-balanced. The film didn't rely on it too much and it wasn't crappy CGI that was used. You would think that this would be the perfect film to bring out CGI in every frame, but the filmmakers didn't do that and they deserve props for doing that.

Grade: B+

There is a mid-credits scene in the film that hard-core Power Rangers fans will get and non-Power Rangers fans will get a kick out of. Should you see Power Rangers? Yes, please do. Children and Teens will love the film particularly. Parents may enjoy some of the meta jokes/references, the more serious elements, and the themes/messages. If you're a Power Rangers fan, you've probably already seen the film, but if you haven't, you'll probably enjoy this film more than I did. If you're able to see it in the theater, at least go for a matinee. You'll have a great time, and hey, if you end up not liking it, at least you didn't have to pay the full price. Since I just went with my Grandpa, I don't know whether or not children under eight will sit down to watch this. They may, they may not.

Conclusion

Why do I have the sudden urge to go to Krispy Kreme all of the sudden? Anyways, so that's my review of the 2017 Power Rangers movie. If you saw the film, what did you think? Do you agree with my review? Did you like the film or did you not like the film? Are any of you Power Ranger's fans? Write thoughts in the comments section below, share this with your friends, and also let me know what film you want me to review next. Thanks for reading, I'm the Film Fanatic, bye-bye.