Power Rangers 2017

Buying this movie was of course pretty much a request from my kids although I have to confess that I, as a Science Fiction geek, was at least a tiny bit interested in seeing what they had managed to cook together on a big budget. For the record I find the television show absolutely awful. Therefore I am quite surprised that I found the movie to be not exactly good but at least watchable.

Make no mistake, it is indeed a silly and simple plot, teenage wet dream, stupid and illogical kind of story that you would expect. However, it was actually mildly fun to watch. Most of my enjoyment came from the special effects and action sequences of course. The dialog and behavior of the teenage heroes were as stereotyped and generally awful as one would expect.

This of course means that the first half of the movie is less interesting than the second half when the action picks up. Actually, although there are some fun moments during “training”, I felt this entire idea of them not being able to use their powers before they had gotten into the right “mental state” to prove that they were actually Power Rangers was just a rubbish one.

Once things started to pick up speed it became more interesting. The different means of transport of the Power Rangers was absolutely silly but still great fun to watch.

Well, I really do not have that much more to say. The last parts of the movie was one big special effects feast with a few comic elements in it, most of them rather … teenage. Fun to watch for a science fiction geek like me.

So, the verdict? Was it a fun movie to watch? Yeah, it was pretty okay. Was it a good movie? Well, that is probably stretching it.

First, they should have kept more of the original music.

The suits look cool. Too bad you only see them for 3 minutes. You could say the same thing of the Zords, but only if you saw ads picture because you never have even one clean shot of them in the movie. That's really stupid. It could have been nice to keep the cheesy style of the show, but if you go for modern super cool looking, at least show it, otherwise there's no point.

Elizabeth Banks is pretty good as Rita. Except her (small) tirade when she's losing, that made no sense, what the fuck is she even saying ?

Bryan Cranston as Zordon, it's nice that he did that, as he was a voice on the show and the blue ranger was actually named after him.

How much did Krispy Kreme paid to be advertized on this ? That's way to much for product placement !

Kinda strange to have the intro with previous era rangers be 65 millions years ago. Just to justify the Dino Zords I guess. But then, nobody else came for the crystal in all this time ? The spaceship, Alpha, the Zords, everything is still working ? The name Rita was already popular 65 mya ? And the 5 new Rangers happened to be in this really abandonned place on the middle of nowhere, on the same day that Rita is randomly fished out of the sea. Wow, that's precision.

And by the way, the coins are supposed to find worthy people ? Yeah, well they just took the first thing available. The first group of five losers that happened to pass by in this remote place. Well the others are just loners, but Jason and Kim are stupid assholes. I mean it's not even that what Kim did was that bad, it's the fact that she didn't even realize it was bad: either she's very very stupid or her moral compass is way fucked up. Either way, not a great choice for saving the world.

And you can immediately see they're not worthy. Litterally two minutes after getting the coins they act really really stupid and get killed while probably hurting a lot of people on the train too. That should have been a sign. But no, they just wake up in their bed in the morning. Which is never explained by the way. Let's say they had become string enough to survive an impact with a train without a scratch, how did they get home ? Each one in his own bed. There is nothing in the whole movie that can explain that!

One good point of the movie is the way they have powers even without the suits. The kids discovering their super powers trope has been done thousands of times but it's funny. The everyday life and background was nice to have. The character development was worth it. Though they're supposed to not reveal their identity, they're not really discreet about it.

The whole we have to be best buddies to get our armour was really really bad though. It's stupid, and even if I liked the background stories of the character, we need to wait 1h30 before they can morph ! On a 2h movie that was a really bad choice. Specially when it's made longer by creating artificial hostility. Like why would Jason go and punch Zack for that during the training ?

So here comes Rita. Just appearing in Trini's house. Apparently she can know there are Rangers, who they are, where they live, what their past is and even stuff they discussed in private conversation. Wow. maybe she's the one who sent them to their bed in the first place then ? She even knows that Billy knows where the crystal is. But not where it is. Strange.

By the way same goes for him. How did he find out ? And why does he stupidly wander around in the middle of the street looking at his map when he already found out the exact spot on his map at home ?

First encounter, Rita just owns them. Normal. But they should already have the suit at this time to test drive their power before the final fight. And with her assured victory, she just kills Billy (that drowns in like 15 seconds whereas they were swimming underwater for minutes to find the base) and... immediately free the others. Not killing them, not even leaving them prisonners for 30 seconds... OK, that was not a smart move.

Finally, 1h30 into, they get their suits. The morphing scene just sucks. It's good that they trained so hard because they immediately get into an underwater fight, that they totally didn't train for, and rock it. Little fight, nit great but ok. The only 3 minutes we see the suits.

Here Goldar is a giant monster/robot made of free flowing gold. Yeah, why not. Didn't hav any time left anyway. Also if there were enough gold left in this mine to make a 40m giant, why did they even close it ?

They get the Zords and apparently no training was required to operate extremely advanced war machines, but let's leave a free pass on this one. Like I saud, they seem really cool, but you can't even see them. Then it's normal for the show, they get their ass kicked, make a MagaZord and win. But would it have been too much to ask for a 5 seconds clip of Zordon telling them to push the button to create the MegaZord ? No, it just happens. They lost, they are falling and dying and pouf, they all magically combine, erasing all traces of dammage by the way. And Rita goes totally crazy, like wtf is happening. Why is she even surprised ? Wasn't she a Ranger before ?

She finally gets bitch slapped into space. Well that was ridiculous. First there's no way the MegaZord is powerful enough for that (I'd love to see the calculation). Then that was not a heroic thing to do. And definitely not a smart one. She should have been taken prisonner and brought to Zordon.

Nice cameo of the original Kimberly and Tommy at the end. Had to check it was him, but definitely recognized her. Nice hint at Tommy too in the post credits. Though I don't think there will be a second one.

I was very excited for this movie to come out, and I must say, it met all my expectations. I enjoyed it soooo much! Let me start off with one thing that really stood out for me. That was the camerawork. Absolutely brilliant if you ask me. From the beginning where they filmed from the backseat of Jason his car to the very end. It was truly great.

I never saw or knew anything about the Power Rangers except for their suits so I'm writing this without knowing the old ones. I think this is a great way to introduce us to the Power Rangers and get to know them on a kind of personal level. Also, it's very fun to see how they got there. To see that "superhero's" aren't always flawless and all that. They had struggles and I thought it was pretty cool that we saw those struggles and we saw how they handled them. However, I do feel like the part before they start fighting for real is kinda long. I wouldn't have minded if they cut that a bit shorter. I love the diversity of the characters and the actors. They are all strong individuals but do work amazingly well together. I don't think the characters really grew throughout the movie, but I get that because we were just introduced to them. That is something I really like to see in the second movie though if there is ever going to be one.

The animations were great, I loved the camerawork. The storyline, although a bit slow, real great (also as an introduction to the Power Rangers) and the characters are amazing. (great casting!) I really recommend this movie, you won't regret it.

Let's clear somethings first: cheesiness and questionable acting are essentially trademarks of the Super Sentai franchise and it's American descendant. You can't have Power Rangers without it.
This movie however, while produced by Saban like the original series, has very little of the feel of the original, even if those two traits remain. First, the characters might share the same name with their previous counterparts but couldn't be more different, with each offering an edgy bite to the stereotype they represent. Thanks to that, and the whole detention setting, their relationship gives a fair nod to The Breakfast Club, which I thought was awesome. In fact, there was another nods to a popular 80's movie with the the whole cave exploration and finding a secret lake, clearly taking a bit from The Goonies, which, like the Breakfast Club, was raging around the time the concept of super sentais came about.
The plot, as expected from PR, is simple and barely passable, but still tolerable, when you consider the targeted audience, which I don't think were the those who watched the original show at all - and I think bringing new and younger audiences into the franchise is a big part of the reason behind the new super shiny and cool visuals (which I wholeheartedly approve - for the most part, as I'm still not sure about the new Megazord, or even the smaller zords, as their shapes were hard to discern and the metallic colors sort of muddled together when combined). I also think that the interest in new audiences changed the dynamic of the group - in both versions you have the super cheesy "circle of friendship" thing, but where the MMPR were idealists in saving their city, this group leaned more towards a selfish side, that I think is easier for our current youth to identify with in our culture.

I did love all the small references to 80's and 90's kids shows and movies, and both the Japanese and American franchises. It felt like really cool easter eggs, and I kept pausing to text an old friend to confirm if the movie really was referencing this or that (he was watching at the same time in his own house, and it turned into a really long conversation about decoding everything!).
I think I could honestly recommend this movie to both children and adults who were/are fans of MMPR. It wasn't perfect, but it was quite cool, and it was very essential Power Rangers, in the good and the bad.

8/10
Great
I was a massive massive fan of the original, the first Power Rangers t.v show a very very long time ago so I really wasn't expecting much from this remake
movie of same said name which
i actually bloody loved.
I was really surprised how much fun I had with this and
the fact it wasn't Woke Garbage, virtual signalling rubbish like I thought it would be was a lovely
surprise. What really helped me enjoy it from the get go was we had princess Jasmine from Aladdin and Liu kang from mortal kombat 2021, and with the actress who played princess Jasmine who I absolutely loved playing my favourite pink Ranger was an instant love for me. Billy was my favourite I thought he was Awesome and
i definitely thought he was the best part of the hole movie, he stole every scene, when he wiggled it out at the end I died. This was a lot of fun and I thought they did the tv show justice and payed homage in all the right places and it definitely transported me back to my childhood in a fun and loving manner.

X FINAL THOUGHT:
The special effects we're great and I loved the revamped power Rangers theme song so much.
This movie is so much fun and super entertaining
and a damb good time
with laughs in all the right places
and the humour is spot-on,
I had some real laugh out loud moments.
It's just a real shame not enough people enjoyed
it as much as i do,
so we could have got a sequel because I would have really liked to have seen whats next for our band of Superheros.

Because not having a number 2 is like a
"Slap To The
Face, Weird, Right"