It was nice to see a franchise film other than Marvel or DC in which I saw the film in an unbiased manner and with no wonder about the original material in which the 2017 sci-fi superhero flick Power Rangers was based on. While I wasn't overly excited to see this film, I'm glad I did.
Power Rangers is a fun film that is suited for fanboys of the originals and for younger audiences who love seeing things go "smash", "boom" and with lots of color to boot. It was incredibly cheesy to say the least and was a "by the books reboot" in every sense of the word, including a typical: plot, cast of heroes, villain, and a finale that you've seen a hundred times before. Now is that a bad thing? Not necessarily. There were definitely some elements that the producers had going for it.
As mentioned before, Power Rangers does manage to entertain with fun comedic moments and top notch CGI that is some of the best in recent memory. The team had very good chemistry and there were a lot of times I found myself smiling and really enjoying the movie. But what impressed me the most was lead actor Dacre Montgomery’s performance as Jason Scott/Red Ranger. He definitely has a future in the film industry. To take a film and role that doesn’t have much content to grab ahold of and turn it into a compelling performance is pretty wow, especially for an inexperienced actor. We expect that from a Tom Hanks or Robert Deniro but Montgomery definitely stepped it up in this film. He’s exactly the type of superhero I would have idolized as a seven year old kid and is one of the few reasons I’d be willing to sit through a sequel.
Dacre Montgomery portrays a hero we can all get behind all the while leading an ensemble cast including Bryan Cranston, Elizabeth Banks, and Bill Hader - out performing all of them.
The pop song choices were great for the film and once again added more “fun” to this popcorn blockbuster, including Twenty One Pilots and Kanye West among the numerous artists featured in the film. Power Rangers also has a good score to the film. It wasn’t jaw dropping but it was good enough to have left an impression after leaving the theater.
Best moment of the film? Easily the morphing scene. I am no Power Rangers fan and even I could sense the lead up to this moment. I was sitting next to a die-hard Rangers fan and he could not keep quiet. The lead up for their “morphin’ time” was completely worth it. Even as a casual movie goer I was pretty psyched in those few seconds. The filmmakers executed it to perfection. And that’s all you can ask for.
Of course there were quite a few roll my eyes moments in the film. While there a lot of good jokes, there were cheesy lines and moments aplenty. It definitely started to annoy me as the film progressed. Bryan Cranston was “whatever” while comedic relief Bill Hader was actually pretty funny, doing his job just right. Elizabeth Banks definitely underachieved as the films main antagonist, Rida. She had her moments and was even scary (sometimes). But by the end of it, you don’t really care about her and her plan. She was “meh”. The final battle had a lot of epic moments but was anti-climatic. Luckily it wasn’t long. I was worried they would go the Transformers route and go on for another twenty minutes. Keeping the fight to a shorter length was definitely a saving grace, making the fight much more enjoyable.
Power Rangers wasn't the best sci-fi movie. Wasn't the best superhero movie. It won't be the best of 2017. And it certainly won't stand the test of time. But it did what it wanted to do: it entertained. While it didn’t get me excited about the idea of investing myself into another superhero franchise (there’s a bazillion it seems like these days) or the sequels I can’t say it was bad film. It entertained, and that’s the best I can say about it.
Although be on the lookout for Montgomery. He could be going places.
Final grade: 5.5/10
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