Can five modern teenagers tap back into the zeitgeist and capture a new audience?
If you head to your local theater this week, you’ll find quite a few incredible movies. Kong: Skull Island wows audiences with a giant gorilla smashing anything and everything explosive; Get Out terrifies moviegoers with mind-twisting themes; and Life reveals the true horrors that lie outside Earth’s atmosphere.
But another thing you’d be hard-pressed not to notice is that there are currently three remakes, or adaptations, showing. Chips, Beauty and the Beast, and, what every ‘90s kid has waited decades for, Power Rangers.
It’s a trend, it seems, of these last few years that nearly every week there is a film playing that’s either a remake or a big-screen adaptation of a popular television show from years ago. It’s hard to see your favorite things redone. Will it stick true to the elements you loved so much in the original or completely ruin your childhood in just two measly hours?
Worldwide audiences can attest that Beauty and the Beast has done a spectacular job of sticking to the script from the 1991 original, but there are mixed reviews from critics and audiences about this new Power Rangers.
Of the many things this film did well, the first was giving a plausible backstory to The Power Rangers and how they come by their new abilities. Learning of their newfound responsibility in both the original show and the movie goes about the same, with Zordon, the proverbial leader of The Power Rangers, basically trapping five unassuming teens in a spaceship to explain their new roles in protecting the universe from the evil Rita Repulsa.
In the original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Zordon bestows power upon the teens, while in the film, Jason, Billy, Zack, Trini, and Kimberly, all happen upon a rock formation that Billy, the Blue Ranger—formerly the nerdy, smart one in the 90s version, while now the intelligent, spectrum-based teen in the reboot—has managed to locate in his spare time.
In this rock formation are the five Power Coins, red, blue, black, yellow, and pink. Each teen grabs one, gifting them the ability of super strength and, at this point, super curiosity, as their journey begins.
With us so far?
The teens chosen to portray the Power Rangers were impeccably cast, with the Red Ranger, Jason Scott played by Dacre Montgomery, taking the lead beautifully, and RJ Cyler, Billy the Blue Ranger, proving his acting chops more and more as the movie went on.
The choice to cast relatively unknown actors as the Rangers was a smart move, as it allowed audiences to lose themselves in the story rather than recall every other character they’ve seen that actor portray.
The pacing of the movie was surely an issue for some audience members as it felt like a lot of build up to the first Morphin Time, but ultimately ended with a good ol’ battle scene.
Watching the movie with the knowledge that there will be more movies after this first one meant the pacing wasn’t an issue for me as a story like this one needs quite an introduction. You can’t just put the kids in suits and expect them to be super right off the bat.
These things take time in a normal universe, something that I was happy to see from this film, as they took their time setting up our Rangers and their responsibility to our world.
While this first film may not have packed the punch some audiences expected, the second film in this saga will surely morph into a fantastic feature as our Rangers will have some skill under their belts and the understanding of just how important they are to the safety of our world.