I remember watching the first American Mighty Morphin Power Rangers show from the early 90s and I was excited when they announced that this movie would be made. I thoroughly expected to like if not love this movie.
If you aren't familiar with the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers I would suggest that you watch at least one episode just to understand why this movie wasn't as good as it could have been. You might find that you love the film more. If so, that's great (no sarcasm). If not, oh dear.
The film opens with a battle being fought on Earth during the time of the dinosaurs. Zordon The Red Ranger (played by Bryan Cranston) hides some coins in the hopes that some future generation will discover them. Just after hiding them, Rita Repulsa The Green Ranger (played by Elizabeth Banks) attacks Zordon. Before either can kill or defeat the other, both are killed by a large explosion that flings Rita deep into the sea.
Fast forward to present day Angel Grove, California. Over a brief course of time we meet a group of troubled youth including Jason (played by Dacre Montgomery), Kimberly (played by Naomi Scott), Billy (played by RJ Cyler), Zack (played by Ludi Lin), and Trini (played by Becky G).
All happen to end up at the local gold mines and find the coins that the audience observed Zordon hiding. Jason gets the red one, Kimberly gets the pink one, Billy gets the blue one, Zack gets the black one, and Trini gets the yellow one. Just after finding the coins the teenagers attempt to flee from the authorities who have come as a result of Billy's setting off explosives to retrieve the coins in the first place.
While fleeing the group seems to be involved in a car accident that should have at least injured if not killed some or all of them. Instead they all wake up in their respective homes with no memory of how they got back home. Each has their respective coin that they retrieved.
They all start to notice unusual abilities that they seem to have developed overnight. They all go back to the mine to find out more answers and end up finding Alpha 5 (voiced by Bill Hader) who leads them to Zordon. From both Alpha 5 and Zordon the teenagers learn that they are the new Power Rangers. After learning this, they initially panic and flee but come back for more answers. Then follows a montage of training to become Power Rangers.
Meanwhile Rita Repulsa has woken up and is on a mission to rebuild her golden monster Goldar. Zordon tells the Rangers that once Goldar is revived he will attempt to destroy the world by destroying a massive orb that rests under Angel Grove. The Power Rangers have about a week to get their crap together and become Power Rangers in order to stop Rita.
I really really wanted to like this movie more but I have a few complaints that make this difficult. My first complaint is Trini. She is so full of unexplained and unnecessary drama that she is actually a caricature of a teenager rather than a real teenager. She comes from a fairly normal household and it isn't clear why she is so troubled. The only thing that comes up is a hint that she might be struggling with her sexuality. I can't relate to that but I can appreciate that such a struggle might be troubling depending on circumstances. But the struggle with sexuality felt more tacked on to make Trini more troubled rather than a genuine aspect of the character.
I was bothered that the word autism was depicted as shameful in this picture. The characters were more comfortable talking about Trini's struggle with sexuality than talking about autism. Neither situation is shameful in any way. The characters all but say the word autism. They describe it, they refer to it but refuse to use the word autism. Why? If anything I should think that actually stating that a character is autistic would be a good thing because A) It's bringing awareness B) how many autistic people does one come across in any movie/show? C) If I knew someone personally who had autism or had autism myself I should be glad to see a hero depicted with autism.
I had heard someone say that this movie seems to take itself too seriously and I have to agree. It's all well and good to add their own spin to the franchise but I think that the filmmakers dropped the ball in this case.
On the plus side, I was impressed with Elizabeth Banks portrayal of Rita Repulsa. In my opinion, her character was improved in this movie versus the original show. She's diabolically evil. She's actually a little scary. I really liked that they made Rita Repulsa a former Power Ranger. It was also a nice tie in to the original show in that the original Green Ranger started out evil but became good.
Finally, my hands down favorite part was at the end when you can clearly see some of the actors and actresses who portrayed the original Power Rangers in the crowd. That made the movie worth watching for me.
There's an end scene during/after the credits that hints at a possible sequel or at least references another character from the original show.
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