102.
Power Rangers
6/10
So the remake has come around since the original in 1995 and the TV series in 93-99. Those were the only ones that existed to me, mighty morphin all the way. With Bryan Cranston as Zordon, Goldor being involved and now better abilities with CGI, I had a lot of faith in this film but unfortunately I was treated to a luke warm attempt to reprise a franchise.
We are set a story back in time when a war on spills over onto Earth, rangers are scattered and dead whilst Cranston, the red ranger, is crawling to retrieve the yellow rangers's power coin and the green ranger Rita Repulsa stands over him asking him to join his force as she searches for the Zeo Crystal to take over the world. He refuses and a blast goes off, sending her and her coin flying into the ocean as the scene ends.
Present day and we are treated to a sign saying 'Angel Grove' so we already know we are at the home of the Power Rangers and I already know that I'm going to be typing the word 'Rangers' so much that I cannot wait to get to bed and forget about this write up. We are introduced to our first character Jason, who is pulling a prank on another team by stealing their mascot, leading to him getting arrested after suffering a pretty bad car accident on their escape. He's now under house arrest and must attend weekend detention. This is now where he meets the rest of the group, helping Billy with a school bully. Kim leaves the room for the toilet to meet her friends, who disown her because of past events and she then proceeds to cut Kim out of their friends picture. Once alone Kim gets the scissors and cuts her own hair. We are already building up characters backgrounds for each member before they find their next path in their lives. After detention Billy thanks Jason and tells him that he can help him with his police tag if needed, but in exchange he needs a lift somewhere.
Turning up at some sort of quarry they walk up a hill with loads of equipment and Jason isn't too fussed with carrying on so leaves and bumps into Kim who's swimming in a lake. Meanwhile another student Zack is creeping on fellow student Trini as she's doing yoga. They discuss running away and starting a new life until an explosion, caused by Billy, makes all the characters run to the scene where part of the side of the hill has been exposed and the power gems are fossilised into the side of the rock. They rip them off the wall whilst alarms go off and the Jason and Billy run to their vehicle, turn around and head to pick up the others. Escape means beating a train to the crossing and attempting it fails, cause the van to over turn and then the gems start glowing.
We leave the grove for the next scene where Sam, Jason's father is fishing and has his men pull up a load of fish as the weather worsens, below deck, he discovers Rita's corpse amongst the fish. The kids meanwhile all wake up in their rooms, somehow unharmed but discover they have enhanced strength as Jason breaks off some sink and Kim crushes her phone. They still have their power stones with them and at school Billy's bully tries to beat him up but as he head butts him, he knocks himself out and everyone thinks Billy did it himself so cheer loudly. Once the gang meet up they discuss that they should go back up the mountain to find out what is actually happening to them. They bump into Zack already there doing the same and Trini is at the top of the wall, climbing to stay away from the others. They all club nearly vertical to follow here, she proceeds to take a massive jump over a crevice in order to get away. So far we are shown over a quick space of time the advances their bodies have made regarding strength and agility, as they all jump across and Billy nearly doesn't make it, climbing up, celebrating and then falling down to what the others think is certain death. Hearing laughing, he calls them to jump, which they all fancy even though Kim needs to drag Trini down. They land in water and swim down to find a ship with advanced technology. A small robot, Alpha-5 appears, played by Bill Hader. I was so used to the larger robot from the series that I didn't take to this small adaptation what so ever. He takes them to Zordon is in nice within the ship, on the morphing grid and looks like one of those kids toys, with all the little needles that take a mold of your face. They explain that because they found the coins, they have been chosen to be the next Power Rangers. The story of Rita being part of the team once and betrayal becomes a 10 minute part and ends with her motives and wanting to create Goldar. The team are asked to step on their grids and morph but it fails and Zordon decides they should start training even though he has no confidence in them. They all want to prove him wrong. Another cut scene back to Sam's boat and we see a cop checking out Rita's body, we find out that her coin has revived her to a degree and she kills the policeman.
Back at the cave and we see a usual part of a movie where the gang train, fails, try to morph, fail, then get back to failing at fight training again. They are then shown their Zords, which they can control in time, but aren't ready yet. Zack doesn't agree and takes his out, failing to control it and crashing back into the cave, Jason doesn't react well and starts a fight with Zack, Billy breaks it up and the gang are shocked to see that he has morphed. Problem is, he cant remember how to do it again. Apart from every viewer realising that its because of his passion of wanting them to work as a team. The Rangers set up a campfire and play out a scene that no one needed but tried to attract the audience by each one of them talking about their problems in life and sharing secrets. Between not being accepted by their family, family illness, the need for attention and family loss, it is all shared. It would have worked just as well with the next few sequences on their own. Rita is seen in a gold shop, devouring and adding it all to her staff, after earlier taking people gold teeth and jewellery off their bodies. The police tell her to stand down but she makes a puttie monster which kills him instead.
Kim goes over to Jason's house to reveal her secret as too why she was in detention and again I feel like its trying to reach out too much to wards the new generation of fans because it mentions explicit photos taken on phones and spreading them around for revenge. Down to this and keeping it from the team, she thinks its her fault that they can't morph.
Over to Trini's house and a now full healed Rita taunts her that she's killed rangers before. After seeing Elizabeth Banks in other films and television series, it was interesting to see her as a villain and it worked very well. Rita demands that Trini follows her orders and to lure the team down to the docks where she traps them all. Making Billy reveal where the Crystal is, she heads off to find it, dropping Billy into the water anyway, killing him. The four carry his body to the cave to see Zordon as Jason reveals how he feels he has failed his team for letting him die. The morphing grid has now activated ad this gives Zordan the chance to get back to his own body. His faces goes away but soon comes back and everyone is shocked to see that he isn't returning in the way he wanted. Instead, he's decided to bring Billy back, to the delight to the rangers and no the morphing can begin.
As soon as they step out of the cave we are straight into the action with more putties attacking the rangers and these ones are real. Outnumbered, they now jump in the Zords and now can control them, fighting their way into town to face a giant Goldar. The design on this was truly awful, made out of melted gold, it has now real face, personality and anything that made the original and actual feared monster. Jason's his father in trouble and goes to save him without revealing who he is. Goldar then pushes all of the Zords into a fiery pit whilst Rita is still trying to get to the crystal. The rise to show they have somehow worked out how to join their Zords together to make Mega-Zord. Using it to fight Goldar, Rita goes inside it to give the creature more power, but it is defeated by a giant sword and she falls out in the molten gold. Jason orders a surrender by its refused and she is slapped into outer space in what can only be described as a terrible ending to the fight, but then it actually got worse. The massive robot gives a dance for victory which everyone whips out their mobile phones to celebrate. Within the crowd, some of the old cast members of the rangers can be seen as a cool homage to the originals. The town recognises the Rangers as their saviours and Zordon gives a voice over expressing gratitude and that they will continue to protect the Earth and carry on the legacy of the Power Rangers. Shortly after the end credits the teacher in detention is calling Tommy Oliver, another character from the originals, but he is nowhere to be seen. This could be something to in involved with a sequel.
Overall this movie wasn't what I expected it to be, it wasn't a complete failure but it wasn't far from it. It focused way too much on trying to touch the audience of youths now but adding life issues, technology problems involving controversy and not enough on the simple things. too much cheese with the dancing and even a tiny segment when first riding the Zords, it played the original music for a few seconds which actually made me cringe. The storyline moved way to fast at times and the rest of it was as predictable as you could have imagined. Having already mentioned the design on Goldar, I should mention how much I didn't like the new armour too. It felt really space like and not colourful enough, unlike the original costumes. The armour didn't show as much emphasis on which animal each colour was linked with either. Overall this wasn't a reason to rekindle my childhood memories and far from made me want to see what else was in store.
Turning up at some sort of quarry they walk up a hill with loads of equipment and Jason isn't too fussed with carrying on so leaves and bumps into Kim who's swimming in a lake. Meanwhile another student Zack is creeping on fellow student Trini as she's doing yoga. They discuss running away and starting a new life until an explosion, caused by Billy, makes all the characters run to the scene where part of the side of the hill has been exposed and the power gems are fossilised into the side of the rock. They rip them off the wall whilst alarms go off and the Jason and Billy run to their vehicle, turn around and head to pick up the others. Escape means beating a train to the crossing and attempting it fails, cause the van to over turn and then the gems start glowing.
We leave the grove for the next scene where Sam, Jason's father is fishing and has his men pull up a load of fish as the weather worsens, below deck, he discovers Rita's corpse amongst the fish. The kids meanwhile all wake up in their rooms, somehow unharmed but discover they have enhanced strength as Jason breaks off some sink and Kim crushes her phone. They still have their power stones with them and at school Billy's bully tries to beat him up but as he head butts him, he knocks himself out and everyone thinks Billy did it himself so cheer loudly. Once the gang meet up they discuss that they should go back up the mountain to find out what is actually happening to them. They bump into Zack already there doing the same and Trini is at the top of the wall, climbing to stay away from the others. They all club nearly vertical to follow here, she proceeds to take a massive jump over a crevice in order to get away. So far we are shown over a quick space of time the advances their bodies have made regarding strength and agility, as they all jump across and Billy nearly doesn't make it, climbing up, celebrating and then falling down to what the others think is certain death. Hearing laughing, he calls them to jump, which they all fancy even though Kim needs to drag Trini down. They land in water and swim down to find a ship with advanced technology. A small robot, Alpha-5 appears, played by Bill Hader. I was so used to the larger robot from the series that I didn't take to this small adaptation what so ever. He takes them to Zordon is in nice within the ship, on the morphing grid and looks like one of those kids toys, with all the little needles that take a mold of your face. They explain that because they found the coins, they have been chosen to be the next Power Rangers. The story of Rita being part of the team once and betrayal becomes a 10 minute part and ends with her motives and wanting to create Goldar. The team are asked to step on their grids and morph but it fails and Zordon decides they should start training even though he has no confidence in them. They all want to prove him wrong. Another cut scene back to Sam's boat and we see a cop checking out Rita's body, we find out that her coin has revived her to a degree and she kills the policeman.
Back at the cave and we see a usual part of a movie where the gang train, fails, try to morph, fail, then get back to failing at fight training again. They are then shown their Zords, which they can control in time, but aren't ready yet. Zack doesn't agree and takes his out, failing to control it and crashing back into the cave, Jason doesn't react well and starts a fight with Zack, Billy breaks it up and the gang are shocked to see that he has morphed. Problem is, he cant remember how to do it again. Apart from every viewer realising that its because of his passion of wanting them to work as a team. The Rangers set up a campfire and play out a scene that no one needed but tried to attract the audience by each one of them talking about their problems in life and sharing secrets. Between not being accepted by their family, family illness, the need for attention and family loss, it is all shared. It would have worked just as well with the next few sequences on their own. Rita is seen in a gold shop, devouring and adding it all to her staff, after earlier taking people gold teeth and jewellery off their bodies. The police tell her to stand down but she makes a puttie monster which kills him instead.
Kim goes over to Jason's house to reveal her secret as too why she was in detention and again I feel like its trying to reach out too much to wards the new generation of fans because it mentions explicit photos taken on phones and spreading them around for revenge. Down to this and keeping it from the team, she thinks its her fault that they can't morph.
Over to Trini's house and a now full healed Rita taunts her that she's killed rangers before. After seeing Elizabeth Banks in other films and television series, it was interesting to see her as a villain and it worked very well. Rita demands that Trini follows her orders and to lure the team down to the docks where she traps them all. Making Billy reveal where the Crystal is, she heads off to find it, dropping Billy into the water anyway, killing him. The four carry his body to the cave to see Zordon as Jason reveals how he feels he has failed his team for letting him die. The morphing grid has now activated ad this gives Zordan the chance to get back to his own body. His faces goes away but soon comes back and everyone is shocked to see that he isn't returning in the way he wanted. Instead, he's decided to bring Billy back, to the delight to the rangers and no the morphing can begin.
As soon as they step out of the cave we are straight into the action with more putties attacking the rangers and these ones are real. Outnumbered, they now jump in the Zords and now can control them, fighting their way into town to face a giant Goldar. The design on this was truly awful, made out of melted gold, it has now real face, personality and anything that made the original and actual feared monster. Jason's his father in trouble and goes to save him without revealing who he is. Goldar then pushes all of the Zords into a fiery pit whilst Rita is still trying to get to the crystal. The rise to show they have somehow worked out how to join their Zords together to make Mega-Zord. Using it to fight Goldar, Rita goes inside it to give the creature more power, but it is defeated by a giant sword and she falls out in the molten gold. Jason orders a surrender by its refused and she is slapped into outer space in what can only be described as a terrible ending to the fight, but then it actually got worse. The massive robot gives a dance for victory which everyone whips out their mobile phones to celebrate. Within the crowd, some of the old cast members of the rangers can be seen as a cool homage to the originals. The town recognises the Rangers as their saviours and Zordon gives a voice over expressing gratitude and that they will continue to protect the Earth and carry on the legacy of the Power Rangers. Shortly after the end credits the teacher in detention is calling Tommy Oliver, another character from the originals, but he is nowhere to be seen. This could be something to in involved with a sequel.
Overall this movie wasn't what I expected it to be, it wasn't a complete failure but it wasn't far from it. It focused way too much on trying to touch the audience of youths now but adding life issues, technology problems involving controversy and not enough on the simple things. too much cheese with the dancing and even a tiny segment when first riding the Zords, it played the original music for a few seconds which actually made me cringe. The storyline moved way to fast at times and the rest of it was as predictable as you could have imagined. Having already mentioned the design on Goldar, I should mention how much I didn't like the new armour too. It felt really space like and not colourful enough, unlike the original costumes. The armour didn't show as much emphasis on which animal each colour was linked with either. Overall this wasn't a reason to rekindle my childhood memories and far from made me want to see what else was in store.
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