Movie Review: Power Rangers - Morphenominal!

For years I dreamed of a Power Rangers movie reboot akin to what J.J. Abrams did with Star Trek, taking something cheesy and giving it a serious re-imagining. I never thought it would happen, or that it would at least be a decade or two. Now that it's here, it did what I expected, but probably needed a little more to be a complete success in my mind.

Starting with the Rangers, the film does a good job at bringing something new to the original five while still, in my opinion, staying true to their conception at least in some way. Jason's still the courageous leader, Zack's still the cool kid, Billy's still the nerd, and Kimberly's still the pretty girl. If anything though, Trini had the least amount of character back in the original series, so while her new character traits were different, they were still welcome to me. Trini's not the only one though, as there are new layers added to all the Rangers. While the original versions of the characters can be seen as archetypes for the young audience to aspire to, this film depicts them as real teenagers with real issues but still ready to rise to the challenge in front of them. They're also just now meeting each other as opposed to already being friends, which means there's a lot of team building, which in my opinion is the best part of the film.

Zordon himself, played brilliantly by Bryan Cranston, also has a bit of character added. In the original series, he was always seen as the wise mentor who usually had all the right answers and information. Here, he can be bitter about the situation he's found himself in and not too crazy about entrusting the fate of the world to adolescents. He has hopes and doubts about them, the latter outweighing the former however. There's one aspect to Zordon's character arc that makes him look selfish that I won't spoil, but I'll just say that it leads to great development.
Alpha 5 is a little more snarky in this version, but that makes him more entertaining in my opinion. I also wasn't sure what to expect with Bill Hader voicing him, but he did surprisingly well.

Rita Repulsa, played by Elizabeth Banks, is quite different from her original version, and not just in the obvious character design. She can be downright scary at times. Some may see Banks' performance as over the top, but let's be honest, so was the original. I mean if you look at it, Rita's personality can be seen as inspired by the Wicked Witch of the East, and I think that shows through Banks' performance too.
Goldar's there too, but only as the 'monster of the day'. I mean, it works in context, but it just seems like a downgrade for the leading henchman for the first three years of the show.

As the movie goes on, it does a great job at introducing and building the characters, but it's when the climax comes and the Rangers are finally morphed that I started to have some problems. For one, they don't fight the Putties long while they're morphed. They looked cool when they were on, but I expected it to be longer. I mean, Jason used his Power Sword, so couldn't the other Rangers have gotten their personal weapons? (Axe for Zack, Lance for Billy, Daggers for Trini, and Bow for Kimberly.) The suits, for as long as we saw them though, were a very good update on the classic suits, combining alien technology with the skin of their respective dinosaurs.
After that, we have our standard zord battle against the giant Goldar. The zords looked pretty good for a modern update and showcased their individual arsenals. The problem though is when they form the Megazord, as in we don't actually see the process of the zords combining. There's just a big explosion and boom, there's the Megazord. For me, watching the zords combine was one of the best parts of the show.
I guess the main problem is that film kind of rushes through the actual Power Rangers parts of the film, while they were still entertaining for as long as they were on.

Overall, I believe this film succeeds at reintroducing the Power Rangers in a different way that I think will bring in new fans and still please the older ones. I myself did geek out at certain parts (Alpha's ai-yi-yi's, Zordon going through the three rules of being a Ranger, Rita saying "Make my monster grow!", and certain cameos). Any other problems I had seem inconsequential for the most part. I know there are sequels planned, but it's not always a guarantee. Honestly, I would be fine either way, but at least we have some ideas of what may come in the future. There's one certain character that's a guarantee, and while it wasn't specifically hinted at, I'm expecting Lord Zedd to come along too. All in all, go go see this movie (and that second 'go' isn't a typo).

RATING: 8/10