Director: Dean Israelite
Writers: John Gatins, Matt Sazama, Burk Sharpless, Michele Mulroney, Kieran Mulroney
Cast: Dacre Montgomery, Naomi Scott, RJ Cyler, Ludi Lin, Becky G., Elizabeth Banks, Bryan Cranston, Bill Hader
Runtime: 124 mins.
2017
One of the first lines of Power Rangers is a joke about masturbating a cow. Power Rangers features three characters who are or have been dead, but never bother to dwell on the ramifications of that fact. The only straight white male on the Power Rangers team is the de facto leader, and he is told outright that his opinion matters more than the others'. In Power Rangers, wise mentor Zordon is an enormous cock, berating the Rangers constantly, acting needlessly petty, and manipulating them towards his own ends. Power Rangers ends the way Toy Story 3 would have ended if the toys actually did fall into the fire pit, and instead of getting burnt up, they inexplicably become one powerful Megatoy that kicks the purple bear's ass.
Power Rangers' version of Rita Repulsa is both sexy and grody, and she drips everywhere she goes. Power Rangers' version of Rita Repulsa goes a lot of places, yet she only seems to saunter casually whenever we see her on the move. Power Rangers' version of Rita Repulsa also straight up murders a bunch of people and eats their gold.
In Power Rangers, a building may explode despite being a jewelry store with no flammables inside. Power Rangers features an autistic character who figures out the location of an important MacGuffin using only maps and the power of his autism. The Power Rangers crew slaps a character so hard she flies into space. The CGI in Power Rangers is so vomitously designed that one can tell that the red ranger's Zord is a T-Rex, but the rest are pretty much a grab bag of prehistoric-seeming Transformers knockoffs. There are about ten scenes in Power Rangers in which the corporate franchise Krispy Kreme is either mentioned or attended.
For all the multitudinous ways one can make fun of Power Rangers (and I'm surely forgetting many of them), it's not a movie you could be terribly upset at. Even when the execution is shoddy, the film more or less appears to have its heart in the right place. It's charming.
Good thing, too, because this film cannot coast on spectacle alone. What action there is is halfway decent, but it comes late in the movie. Most of Power Rangers is spent waiting for its main characters to learn how to morph. The result is a pretty strong foundation in character, or at least stronger than we're used to in a movie like this.
Jason (Dacre Montgomery), the Red Ranger, has a contentious relationship with his father and is frequently in trouble with the law. Kimberly (Naomi Scott), the Pink Ranger, is a disgraced cheerleader embroiled in some sort of sexting incident. Zack (Ludi Lin), The Black Ranger, is caring for a mother who is very sick. Trini (Becky G.), the Yellow Ranger, is an outsider who is hinted to be in the closet. As you can probably tell, Power Rangers tries to strike a balance between broody teenage angst and cheesy popcorn fun. Although the interplay between the tones is never fully functional, neither of them is at any point disrespected.
Those two sides of Power Rangers dovetail nicely in its crowning achievement (or maybe tied with Elizabeth Banks's scenery-chewing Rita Repulsa): Billy (RJ Cyler), the Blue Ranger. Billy is the best part of this movie, hands down. Billy is a person of color on the autism spectrum, a bit of representation unheard of in blockbuster cinema. Not once is Billy's autism the butt of any jokes. Instead, it is treated as one shade of a fully developed and entirely likable character, one who is often the best comic relief, and is always a force for pathos. The film was savvy enough to realize it had a remarkable character on its hands, as Billy is at the center of all the biggest character moments. It helps that RJ Cyler is the only performer in the main quintet who is doing anything beyond the typical Young Adult act-dramatic-and-look-pretty shtick.
The plot and logistics of Power Rangers may be nonsense, the script may be lousy with redundant character beats, the effects may be incoherent, the themes may be trite, and the tropes may be overplayed, but for all those fallbacks Power Rangers is a movie that simply cares more about what it has to offer than most cash-ins of its ilk. For that reason, and for reasons of culturally conscious representation, and for reasons of having a brainless good time, Power Rangers is likely to becomes a cult classic for a lot of people.
2.5 / 5 BLOBS
In Power Rangers, a building may explode despite being a jewelry store with no flammables inside. Power Rangers features an autistic character who figures out the location of an important MacGuffin using only maps and the power of his autism. The Power Rangers crew slaps a character so hard she flies into space. The CGI in Power Rangers is so vomitously designed that one can tell that the red ranger's Zord is a T-Rex, but the rest are pretty much a grab bag of prehistoric-seeming Transformers knockoffs. There are about ten scenes in Power Rangers in which the corporate franchise Krispy Kreme is either mentioned or attended.
For all the multitudinous ways one can make fun of Power Rangers (and I'm surely forgetting many of them), it's not a movie you could be terribly upset at. Even when the execution is shoddy, the film more or less appears to have its heart in the right place. It's charming.
Good thing, too, because this film cannot coast on spectacle alone. What action there is is halfway decent, but it comes late in the movie. Most of Power Rangers is spent waiting for its main characters to learn how to morph. The result is a pretty strong foundation in character, or at least stronger than we're used to in a movie like this.
Jason (Dacre Montgomery), the Red Ranger, has a contentious relationship with his father and is frequently in trouble with the law. Kimberly (Naomi Scott), the Pink Ranger, is a disgraced cheerleader embroiled in some sort of sexting incident. Zack (Ludi Lin), The Black Ranger, is caring for a mother who is very sick. Trini (Becky G.), the Yellow Ranger, is an outsider who is hinted to be in the closet. As you can probably tell, Power Rangers tries to strike a balance between broody teenage angst and cheesy popcorn fun. Although the interplay between the tones is never fully functional, neither of them is at any point disrespected.
Those two sides of Power Rangers dovetail nicely in its crowning achievement (or maybe tied with Elizabeth Banks's scenery-chewing Rita Repulsa): Billy (RJ Cyler), the Blue Ranger. Billy is the best part of this movie, hands down. Billy is a person of color on the autism spectrum, a bit of representation unheard of in blockbuster cinema. Not once is Billy's autism the butt of any jokes. Instead, it is treated as one shade of a fully developed and entirely likable character, one who is often the best comic relief, and is always a force for pathos. The film was savvy enough to realize it had a remarkable character on its hands, as Billy is at the center of all the biggest character moments. It helps that RJ Cyler is the only performer in the main quintet who is doing anything beyond the typical Young Adult act-dramatic-and-look-pretty shtick.
The plot and logistics of Power Rangers may be nonsense, the script may be lousy with redundant character beats, the effects may be incoherent, the themes may be trite, and the tropes may be overplayed, but for all those fallbacks Power Rangers is a movie that simply cares more about what it has to offer than most cash-ins of its ilk. For that reason, and for reasons of culturally conscious representation, and for reasons of having a brainless good time, Power Rangers is likely to becomes a cult classic for a lot of people.
2.5 / 5 BLOBS
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