After a somewhat bizarre and hardly convincing opening, set in the dark past, we get the back-story of how five troubled teens from the small US town in California became Power Rangers. Although hardly ground breaking, that component was quite involving as, arguably, were the moments they respectively found out they had super powers. Beyond that, this is a ham fisted, elongated clunker, which lacks any sense of credibility … as the world is on the verge of being obliterated by an alien threat.
Power Rangers began life with a live action series in Japan in 1975, meshing special effects with comical action, following an ever-changing team of five brightly coloured heroes battling a madcap variety of monsters. Each season of “Super Sentai” featured a different collection of heroes. It was in 1984, while on business in Japan, that television producer Haim Saban found himself drawn in. “I was watching these five kids in Spandex fighting rubber monsters and I just fell in love,” Saban recalls. He quickly tracked down and secured the rights worldwide outside Asia. That’s how the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers were born, premiering on American television in 1993.
The show transported the setting to fictional Angel Grove, where five teenagers with attitude, each assigned their own individual colours and powers, are chosen to defeat an extraterrestrial sorceress. Featuring an unusual mash-up of high-flying action footage from the Japanese series, blended with American-shot dramatic scenes, the show quickly established its own playful tone and allure. Some were skeptical it could work in the US, but young audiences fell madly in love and that love spread worldwide. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers soon became the most-watched children’s television program in the United States, a hit franchise brand and a global phenomenon. “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers was one of the first multi-ethnic superhero shows and also one of the first to feature superhero girls,” notes Saban. “It really struck a chord and ever since it has been on air in more than 150 countries.”
In the ensuing years, the Power Rangers went through many incarnations. Yet the appeal of their classic good vs. evil battles, optimism, loyalty and chromatic costumes continued. As the passion for Power Rangers persisted, the idea of re-visiting the origin of the rangers – and bringing them into the high-tech realm of 21st century cinema for the first time – started to gain traction. What would the rangers look like if they formed inside a real 2017 California high school full of complex kids facing a fast-moving future? The idea was irresistible to Saban – and pretty much everyone who heard it.
Pity then that what was dished up was a load of bunkum when it came to the supernatural elements of the script. As I intimated, I quite liked the coming of age battle that the five youngsters faced, confronting issues like bullying and peer pressure, family pressure and an uncertain future.
Jason, the Red Ranger, is a former football star who inadvertently made a career-ending mistake. Kimberly, the Pink Ranger, is a Queen Bee who fell from grace, while Billy, the Blue Ranger, is a super-smart but socially challenged kid who has never been able to make friends. Trini, the Yellow Ranger, is a rebellious loner who doesn’t fit in and Zack, the Black Ranger, is a tough-guy secretly in an even tougher family situation. They have to learn to get along and deal with their suddenly superhuman strength and heroic destiny that is thrust upon them without warning.
Setting the film apart from the TV series, in Saban’s Power Rangers the team of teens has to earn their ranger status, which proves to be no easy task. Rather than being immediately empowered when they find the ancient coloured coins that is the source of their power, they must first uncover the key to morphing into full-fledged power rangers. Only when they fully bond as a united group can they attain the height of their powers – so they must learn to lower their teenage masks before they can don their ranger armour.
Directed by Dean Israelite (Project Almanac), Power Rangers stars Dacre Montgomery, Naomi Scott, RJ Cyler, Becky G and Ludi Lin, and features Bill Hader, Bryan Cranston and Elizabeth Banks. The screenplay is by John Gatins (Kong: Skull Island). I really struggled with the script and the jump cuts in it – one moment the five were in subterranean territory given instruction by a well meaning robot and Red Ranger’s predecessor and the next they were back in their rooms. They also have a far from convincing battle with the villain of the piece, Rita Repulsa (Banks) who has an insatiable appetite for gold and has as her evil henchman a towering gold winged creature.
Superhero movies have moved beyond what we get dished up in Power Rangers. They are more stylish and sophisticated, with layers and nuance. The humour has subtlety – not so here. It just looked like amateur hour and I couldn’t wait for it to end. I can only hope kids will get more out of this than I did … and yet it is rated M so the real littlies probably won’t get to see it. Power Rangers scores a 4 out of 10.
Director: Dean Israelite
Cast: Bryan Cranston, Dacre Montgomery, Elizabeth Banks
Release Date: 23 March 2017
Rating: M
Alex First
David Edwards is the editor of The Blurb and a contributor on film and television
