POWER RANGERS Review

Well... that was certainly better than I expected it to be.

Let me clear when I say that this IS a good movie despite some many flaws that, if seen elsewhere, could kill an entire movie. Is the script sharp? Nope. In fact, some of the dialogue is so bad, I'm surprised it made it through any part of the rewrite phase of production (which brings me to a fun fact that the script to this flick has gone through so many hands, that even Max Landis did a few drafts at one point). Speaking of Landis, does it use elements from other better movies in the genre? Oh, without question, yes. Case in point, half of this movie feels like Chronicle and the other half feels like a lighter version of Man of Steel (at least in terms of the visuals). Also, the camerawork does get a bit dodgy at times; it almost feels like constant movement is just thrown in case someone in the audience might be losing interest (short version: feels like the filmmakers are basically dangling keys in the face of its audience). Plus, one of the film's biggest plot points involves a subtle-as-a-jackhammer promotion for Krispy Kreme; that's a move so slimy and gleefully shameless that I couldn't tell if I should be furious or absolutely astonished that the creative team behind this thing had the chutzpah to actually to put this in the actual movie.

Even with all of that negativity, Power Rangers is still compelling and fun enough to succeed as a decent movie in spite of those flaws. While it's not Oscar-worthy by any stretch of the imagination, there is some pretty solid acting in this. Again, not on the level of Laurence Olivier, but good enough to effectively sell the chemistry between the protagonists and that these are actually teenagers with real issues rather than the Wonderbread personas from past incarnations of the franchise. Actually, let me take a moment to talk more about the actual Power Rangers in this movie. Mainly because the fact the movie does take its time to establish likable, interesting enough leads is easily one of the movie's biggest strong points. Aside from the main characters, there's still some positive things I can say about the rest of the cast. Bryan Cranston is always good in pretty much anything. Bill Hader gets a few chuckles as Alpha-5 (even if the character's redesign is so ghastly, I'm shocked wasn't used in one of the Star Wars prequels). Now, let's get to the elephant in the room: Elizabeth Banks as Rita Repulsa. Oh, how do I describe her in this movie? Just picture Charlize Theron in those Huntsman movies combined with the maniacal mannerisms and cackling of a demon from the Evil Dead movies.Whenever she's onscreen, I was instantly jumping for joy. Every frame she inhabits clearly shows that she's having a ball just playing up how deliciously evil the character is.

And how about the action? Well, for what little of it we actually get, it's pretty good. Until about the third act, there's really no action sequences outside of a couple car crashes and some training montages. While it is a tad disappointing to realize how little action there is when all is said and done, the film ultimately survives by learning a lesson from other films in the genre: if the pre-action origin parts are well-paced and entertaining enough, your movie will be fine. Outside of that, the climax is basically an episode of the original TV series pumped to cinematic proportion and I mean that in the most way imaginable.

Bryan Tyler's score is pretty good even if it isn't entirely original (certain musical cues seem to be directly borrowed from Tron: Legacy, Stranger Things and even the composer's previous work from Avengers: Age of Ultron). And, that's probably the best way to sum up this whole thing in a nutshell. Power Rangers feels like a mish-mash of dozens of other things that amounts to something more coherent and enganging than it had any right to be.

POWER RANGERS gets a...
GOOD TIME out of 10

Check it out, especially if you have kids, they'll probably eat this up!