Power Rangers Review
The highly anticipated Power Rangers movie came out this past weekend and my inner child was as excited as a 13 year old girl at a One Direction concert. I watched the trailer for the movie leading up to the release at least once a day. When I was young I used to come home after school every day and record the new episodes on VHS. I had the complete season, without commercials, because I would stand by the VCR and stop recording when it went to commercial and start recording when it came back on. Power Rangers were life! Every Christmas I would get action figures from Santa, it was a no-brainer. I didn’t even have to ask him for them, he just knew. But I had my concerns when seeing the new trailer; it seemed as if the Power Rangers were now superheroes with super human strength and abilities. I was concerned they took the Power Rangers past the “teenagers with attitude” and made them the next Avengers team. So I went into the theater a little reserved, excited for the idea, but hesitant on already loving the idea.
I walked out loving everything about! A misconception of the trailer is the non-stop action, there is really only about 20-30 minutes of the Power Rangers actually being Power Rangers. The build-up of the characters and seeing them learn how to morph was not rushed, and really made you relate and care about the characters. I felt like it was The Breakfast Club with super powers. The anticipation of them actually getting to morph was also well done and really does leave you on the edge of your seat. The acting is what you would expect from a bunch of no name actors, not great but not terrible, very CW like. Elizabeth Banks played a great Rita Repulsa, but was not excited about the Goldar, who was literally made out of nothing but gold. They left out a lot of the basic things that made Power Rangers, Power Rangers. No Bulk & Skull, no putty clan made out of putty, no assigning dinosaurs to each Ranger, no showing of the Zords becoming the Megazord, it was very brief and you really couldn’t tell what you were looking at. Some of these things I know can be introduced in the 5 sequels that are planned according to producer Haim Saban, but some could have been included, and if the mid-credits scene doesn’t get you excited for a sequel than you probably shouldn’t have even seen this one.
My love for the Power Rangers as a kid probably gives this movie a little more credit than I should…
4 out of 5 stars.