Power Rangers

With the seemingly endless popularity of superheroes, robots, dinosaurs and gigantic monsters on the big screen, it was only a matter of time before a franchise where superheroes transform into gigantic robotic dinosaurs to battle gigantic monsters would be resurrected. That's right: everyone's favorite half-hour toy commercial from the '90s is back to kick nostalgic butt! The "Power Rangers" have been re-booted with a slickly made, big-budget popcorn flick that wants to remind you of your care-free childhood days spent in front of the TV. It also probably wants you to forget the atrocious 1995 film.

It almost works.

With a gang of fresh young faces in place, the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers get back into action, sans the clumsy Mighty Morphin title. Also missing in action is a great deal of the trademark humor and inherent corniness that made the original series so much fun to watch, even long after most of us had grown up and out of it. In place of these elements are a stronger focus on character and backstory, as we not only get to know more about the teen titans, but also about their allies and enemies. Yep, even the Rangers' big-headed mentor Zordon and his haywire sidekick Alpha (played by Bryan Cranston and Bill Hader respectively) get some time to shine, as we learn more about how they came into contact with the power of the Rangers. Likewise, villainess Rita Repulsa (Elizabeth Banks) is given ample time to roam and wreak havoc, as she murders her way across town in search of gold, all the while jamming some Social Distortion. We're a long way from after-school Fox TV, friends.

The kids all play variations of the characters we came to recognize in the original run. Here we have Jason/The Red Ranger, the natural leader and jock with a heart of gold, as played by Dacre Montgomery. Stealing nearly every scene is RJ Cyler as Billy/The Blue Ranger, a brainiac who proudly confesses to being on the spectrum. Naomi Scott steps into the role of Kimberly/The Pink Ranger. This version of Kimberly is a rebel and a frequent target of bullies (haters gon' hate). Rounding out the crew are Becky G as Trini/The Yellow Ranger and Ludi Lin as Zack/The Black Ranger. These characters feel slightly under-cooked in comparison to the three "leads." Trini and Zack both appear troubled and withdrawn, proud conformists who are tough as nails. A glimpse into their respective home lives gives each character a little more dimension. Together, the five teens must learn to work together if they are to stop Rita's plan to end all human life. In spite of the film's short-comings, all five actors are on point and keep things are lively as possible, even when the script fails them.

Most folks are going to come into a film like this expecting a super smash of monster on robot action, and although the back half of the film makes good on that promise, the hour and a half (!) that leads up to it might leave some viewers (especially the younger ones) a bit cold. While the increased focus on character is more than welcome (given how shallow the original series was), it gets a bit redundant a third of the way in. The new characters are established firmly from the start, but the story doesn't quite know how to advance from there, leaving the middle piece of the film a little laggy and repetitive. A lot of the story beats we've seen from other (and better) superhero films are repeated and to be quite honest, it gets hard not to tune out. When the slam-bang finale comes crashing down, it (mostly) quenches the thirst for big, goofy fun but not quite. The end result is a film that feels a little muddled, as if the committee that pieced it together didn't quite know what target audience they were trying to reach. Not as dumb as "Transformers" but not as fun as, say, "Guardians of the Galaxy," "Power Rangers" straddles the middle a little too comfortably. Or maybe these characters and their accompanying concepts work better in smaller doses. There's still some fun to be had here, make no mistake, but more often than not, it feels like these Rangers are operating with slightly diminished power.

Two hours long and it takes them 90 minutes to finally don the costumes. That's the essence of "Power Rangers", a movie that offers plenty of buildup with a clumsy payoff. A lot of money and time went into the mo-cap, but there's something to be said about the fluidity of spandex fight scenes. And strangely enough, I think I liked it better while it was a generic superhero origin story, "Breakfast Club" archetypes and all. Even still, these are decent actors and they breathe life into a pretty weak script.

It's funny, I was never a Power Rangers fan growing up (though I certainly put in the effort) but I didn't end up liking this movie because of the writing; too much effort turning this into a serious teen drama and not focusing on the goofy appeal of the show. It was silly then and it should be now.

5/10

From a power rangers point of view, I think this movie was a 10 on 10. People who are interested in watching this movie, must go into the cinema with the right expectations.

Please don't expect this power rangers movie to be as deep, as a movie like 'the dark knight', 'batman v superman' or 'shawshank redemption'. Historically speaking, power rangers had a corny production vibe to it, especially visually and this is one of the reasons kids fell in love with it. Kids at a young age, aren't as could as they are when they get older at interpreting deep philosophical messages; which is why power rangers in general isn't the type of show/movie you watch, expecting to leave the theater with a huge epiphany about life.

I'd class this movie as overall fun and entertaining to watch. What I loved about it is the was never a scene whereby I felt bored. Though let me not exaggerate things and make you feel like every scene has got action in it, which is obviously not true. The point is the movie manages to keep an audience who walks into it with the right expectations, actively engaged in it.

The were moral lessons one can learn by watching the movie. Issues like how to work as a team, how to be a leader, human mortality, opening yourself up emotionally to your friends, resisting conforming to societal expectations and having an open mindset.

A few downsides to this movie were the graphics kind of looked cheap -- as in the visual effects weren't as real-like, like a movie like star wars the force awakens in my opinion. The villain came off as corny and audiences who like serious movies, probably won't like this movie. Though keep in mind -- the cheap looking graphics, corny villain and sometimes lack of seriousness in this movie is what makes power rangers the franchise it is today.

So don't go into the theater expecting a movie with extremely deep philosophical points, that tells us humans are ultimately self-serving individuals etc.

I was one of the first people to be asked to watch power rangers in December of 2016. I went into the theater not expecting much from this movie but I was wrong, it was a good movie. Not great or OK it was simply good. It had great CGI and the acting was good for a young cast. I loved the first 2 acts of the movie they were really strong and had good story telling. But act 3 in my opinion seemed silly and sort of rushed. The first 2 acts were great because of 2 things. Great characters and a steady pace. The character development was great and I liked how the writers really stuck to making them interesting so that the audience would care about them, especially RJ Cylers character. Nothing was rushed and was going at a great pace and then all of a sudden act 3 came into play and it turned into a mediocre action film and wasn't very exciting and I believe that is due to the villain. I was not a fan. Her motives are too over used and simply a lame character. The actress was fine but the character it'self wasn't anything special and made the action scenes dull. Other than that the kids will love it and if you are a power ranger fan I think you will be pleased. It's fun for the whole family.

Everyone that is writing a negative review of this film is saying that it didn't live up to expectations, ruined their nostalgia, was boring, was stupid, etc. So let's address some of that.

Didn't live up to expectations: If you're going into this movie expecting something amazing and ground-breaking, you're going to have a bad time. If you're expecting something more like Transformers, you'll have fun.

Ruined nostalgia: Nostalgia is a self-ruiner. Nothing ever lives up to what you remember when you were a wide-eyed child filled with wonder. Let's face it. Power Rangers was a really dumb kid's show even back then. We all just think it was baller, because we were kids when it was airing.

Boring: Some say it was boring, and I'll admit it was slow to start. It took a while to get it's stride, but if you can stick it out, it's a pretty fun movie.

Stupid: This movie has all the teenage high schooler tropes. I mean, you would almost think it were a modern day John Hughes film in the first half hour or so, because god is it tropey. That's okay though. I feel like the production team did this on purpose. This film doesn't take itself that seriously, really.

My take on it is that it was fun. There were parts where I cringed. There were parts where I wanted to just shut it off. I'm glad I stuck it out, because it's not a terrible film as long as you're not expecting something on the level of Hitchcock. If you are expecting that...why?

Remember, think for yourself when it comes to film. Don't take reviews too seriously, because not everyone has the same tastes.