Power Rangers (2017)
A remake that shows care and grace
To start this review, I’ll confess/admit/say that I’m not a Power Rangers fan. Growing up, I watched an odd episode here and there, but I always felt a bit…weird doing so. Like I was ashamed that I was a) watching this ‘trash’ show and b) enjoying it. I mean, I always joked around about Power Rangers, mocking the hand signals or whatever.
Fast-forward to 2017. 2017, a year in the middle of the era of Hollywood remakes of old IPs and ‘childhood’ shows/movies. 2017, the year in which Power Rangers had a serious movie made of it.
Serious is not the best word for what this movie is. Okay, yes, it’s a grittier reboot of Power Rangers but let’s be honest with ourselves, a super gritty Power Rangers would suck.
And it is clear, so wonderfully clear, that the people who made this film understood that. That explains the movie well. It was made by a group of people who obviously cared about the IP enough not to make something that just made a profit.
They made something with real heart and that heart is primarily found in the cast.
Yeah, we get a new cast of Power Rangers. An incredbly diverse cast.
We have a white guy (Jason) who is jockish but rejects the stereotypes as the Red Ranger, an Asian guy (Zack) with a really sick mom putting on an alpha facade as the Black Ranger, a girl of Indian descent (Kimberly) wanting to not be a mean girl as the Pink Ranger, a Hispanic lesbian girl (Trini) trying to deal with her feelings of being an outsider in her family as the Yellow Ranger, and an black guy (Billy) on the spectrum as the Blue Ranger.
We are in the twenty first century.
But yeah, diversity diversity, who cares if everyone is written poorly except for the white guy? True. But the character development and writing is pretty even. Everyone has their own mini-arc. Billy steals the show for sure. There’s a scene with him that was emotionally painful. But it ended right and the group just worked together. The chemistry is there.
The plot is there too, but it’s Power Rangers so the definition of plot is pretty simple (and absurd.) They didn’t try to hide their origins using fancy terminology or get to realistic with it. The Power Rangers have coins that give them powers to protect the Zeo Crystal. They talk to a face on the wall (voiced by Bryan Cranston!) who is aided by a robot.
And they are fighting Rita Repulsa.
They didn’t even try to hide her. She’s crazy. Her thrust of the movie is to make a monster out of gold to get the Zeo Crystal which will give her immense power. Of course.
And the Power Rangers, after training montages, fight her using the Zords.
Zords being giant mechanical-robot dinosaurs of sorts. They are as cool/crazy as that sounds and more.
The movie didn’t hide the color under grays and black or turn the Zords into something else or make it ‘edgy.’ They basically made a high budget, smart, Power Rangers film that isn’t trying to be what it’s not.
Smart as in, when the time came, they went back to their roots hard.
I’ll spoil this one scene:
The Power Rangers, united, are in their Zords running across the scene.
And the original Power Rangers theme belts out.
I was so pumped at the moment. I had no nostalgia for Power Rangers and the intensity of the scene made me tear up a bit. It was great.
Great. Yeah. This movie was pretty great. It’s not high art, but Power Rangers isn’t but this movie is fantastic. Like it’s B-grade executed in a A-form. Super fun, slick, and enjoyable. Definitely recommend for fans and non-fans. It’s good fun all around that really raises the bar for remakes and for casting in general.
