Five teenagers, after finding coloured jewels discover they have chosen to be Power Rangers and tasked with saving the world...
When the TV series Mighty Morphin Power Rangers came along in 1993. Personally it arrived at the wrong time for me. Had it come along maybe ten years before that, I might have been closer to an age that was right for it. Instead, despite watching a few episodes, I never really got into it at all. However, it's popularity has kept it going for years, in many incarnations, right up until the present day. Now we get the big budget film version, no doubt inspired by the likes of Godzilla or Pacific Rim or maybe even Transformers.
Never being a fan of the series, it was the trailer that caught my eyes. It did look like it was a fun film. It certainly had potential. Bryan Cranston and Elizabeth Banks are usually worth watching and it looked a solid action film. The one thing I did notice was that it seemed a more 'grown-up' approach taken with the film, compared to the TV series.
But does that approach work?
The opening of the film, has echoes of The Breakfast Club, (a film referenced by producers as an influence) before the five different teens are brought together after one of them causes an explosion at a quarry. Finding the jewels, puts them on the path to meeting Zordon (Cranston) who along with a robot explains who they now are.
The five lead actors, Dacre Montgomery, Naomi Scott, RJ Cyler, Luni Lin and Becky G., are all okay in their roles. Bryan Cranston as Zordon is a CGI wall character and doesn't get much to do. Elizabeth Banks plays the villain, Rita Repulsa and is not bad in the role.
One thing that the film has definitely been influenced by are the many big budget monster and superhero films that have come along. It's perhaps a darker film (albeit on rated 12A in the UK) that you might have expected, considering the source material. Having said that, I think in a way this was a choice made by the producers to bring in that older audience. On the whole, I think the film gets a tone that is just about right.
It's written by John Gatins and directed by Dean Israelite and both have done well. Despite the story having four other people, Gatins has written a not bad script, even if some story details seem odd at times, for example Rita goes to the home of one of the power rangers, but how did she know where she lived? Perhaps it was something in the editing but it is never really explained.Some of the humour doesn't quite work at times either. Israelite directs the film well, the action is well staged, the blend of live action and CGI is well done and the more character building scenes are done well too.
While on the whole the film is okay, there are some problems too. It is far too long, running to around two hours. As is often the case in a film like this, each teen has their own issues to overcome. However, they aren't really. One posted an embarrassing picture of a girl but it's never resolved, instead the girl on the receiving end comes over as a bully of sorts, which seems odd. Another has autism but that is only an issue at the beginning of the film. Once they get the jewels it is dropped totally from the storyline. The issues each has is never really dealt with at all, which you would think would be something to overcome so they can become power rangers, instead only token lip serivce is paid to them.
But despite the issues, Power Rangers wasn't bad. A trashing of Transformers in one scene actually made me smile. It is too long certainly, but I would say I was never bored watching the film at all. It won't be a film that will seriously challenge the really big franchises like Marvel or DC or Transformers, but I wouldn't be against a second film coming along.
Power Rangers is a watchable film, one you may enjoy at the time but also one that I don't think will linger long in the memory after.
Rating - 3/5
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