Power Rangers: Fixing Old Problems

If you, like me, were a kid in the early 90s, chances are you heard of Saban's Power Rangers, a Fox Kids staple that featured bad stereotypes of teenagers who used their karate powers to operate giant dinosaur robots in their eternal battle with Moon monsters. While I'll admit that last part in the description sounds ridiculously awesome, the show never quite reached its potential as a watchable series mainly because 1.) the dialog was laughably bad, 2.) none of the main characters were anything short of bad 90s stereotypes (the funny one, the smart one, the hot one, the leader) and, regardless of how hard I tried, 3.) I just couldn't find a real world scenario where five attractive, smart and athletic “teenagers” could be possibly bullied by an overweight greaser and his moronic sidekick (that's Bulk and Skull in case you were wondering). In the end, the human element never felt real because any characterization always came off as forced or written by someone who'd never even met a teenager. Now, with that particular franchise run into the ground (almost 20 seasons of this stuff!) and Saban Studios seemingly desperate to relive the “good times”, we've been given Power Rangers, the first iteration in the franchise that actually feels like the writers knew what they were doing. And it's awesome!

Yes, Power Rangers, despite being based on one of the dumbest kids shows of the 90s (an era dedicated to dumb kids shows), has somehow managed to bottle lightning and become far more awesome that its predecessor could ever hope. The characters are likable and display actual depth, the script seems to realize how bad of an idea its inception was and actually tries to fix its most glaring problems, Elizabeth Banks is fun and campy as Rita Repulsa, the action is fluid and the dialog doesn't feel like it was written by a childless thirty-year-old. Throw in a straight-faced Bryan Cranston as Zordon and ACTUAL BACKSTORIES for everyone and you have what Saban should have done twenty years ago: write smarter scripts and rely on your audience's intelligence.

Unfortunately, while the movie works great as an origin story, the actual “morphing” into multi-colored ninja warriors and flying giant mech parts still reeks of a property woefully connected to its past. While its not all bad (there's a pretty awesome Rita vs. giant robot moment that's perfect in its build up and execution), its still sad that the franchise succeeded so well in making believable characters just to skimp on the crazy monster fights at the end. Oh well, at least you have interesting kids fighting monsters this time.

As for watching it, do you remember growing up with this tripe in the nineties? Chances are you've either booked tickets far in advance or renounced all connection to that series permanently and are, thereby, confined to that opinion regardless of what I say. Have you only heard of Power Rangers in minor passing references and always wondered what all the fuss is about? This would be a much better starting point than the T.V. Series. Pick how you want to watch Karate-infused teenagers fight monsters, I guess.

Dean Israelite (Project Almanac) tries to get away from bad found footage movies with pretty resounding success with Power Rangers, a movie that didn't have to be as good as it was for a reboot. Basically, five teenagers stumble across karate powers and use them to fight monsters while wearing tights, driving giant dinosaur robots and kicking rock monsters in the face. Yeah, its actually as awesome as it sounds. Go for it.

My score: 8/10. There have been many great lines in movies over the last century, yet I am hard pressed to find a better recent one than, “We have to stop Rita from destroying the Krispy Kreme!” That's like Shakespeare for millennials there...