Considering that the original television shows regularly featured actors in rubber alien suits fighting against teenagers in multicolored skin tight suits, having a serious take on the Power Rangers is just as silly a concept as the source material.
However, whether or not the movie is an accurate representation of the show doesn’t really matter, so long as the movie itself is, from a critical standpoint, good.
Unfortunately, “Power Rangers” is not good. In fact, it is quite bad. Not completely terrible, but the redeeming qualities of the film extend to just a few things: the music, the Blue Ranger and the actors portraying the Rangers.
The score, composed by Brian Tyler, is fun and underscores the action well. It manages to be big and bombastic and really sets a great tone with the theme blaring at the beginning.
Another thing the film does get right is that the casting of the Rangers is good. All of the kids are likable and charming, but the writing is awful. Only three of them get actual story development and the Yellow Ranger, played by Becky G., appears to have only about two and a half pages worth of dialogue in the entire film.
The standout of the group is the Blue Ranger, Billy Cranston, played by RJ Cyler (“Me & Earl & The Dying Girl”). He is not only the most charming of the group, but he’s often at the center of the plot. He brings a warmth to a character that is otherwise poorly written.
Bryan Cranston as Zordon the talking wall and Bill Hader as Alpha 5 are both fine. Not great, but not bad. Elizabeth Banks as Rita Repulsa is laughably bad, though. She isn’t “so bad its good” bad, she’s just bad.
Bad as well is the camerawork. About 50% of the film takes place in caves or at night, but it’s difficult to see what is even happening as the screen is so dark that telling each character apart is almost impossible.
The cinematographer must have decided that tripods don’t exist in this universe, as even scenes where characters are sitting at a table wobble back and forth with a hand-held camera aesthetic.
While it makes sense to have a character drink a name brand soda, or eat a name brad chocolate bar in a film like this, there is one piece of product placement that is so obnoxious and obvious that it just makes the entire film feel stupider.
Overall, the film isn’t funny or silly enough to be as campy as the original series and it isn’t compelling enough to be taken seriously. It’s poorly written and shot, with thin forgettable characters. “Power Rangers” doesn’t do the cheesy source material justice or even make a compelling film in its own right. It’s a no-go, Power Rangers. 2/5
Power Rangers: Photo Courtesy of Lionsgate and Temple Hill Entertainment
