Now that I am older, I look at good times and see it for what it was, a good time, but now being older I am into other stuff that is more important. Haim Saban on the other hand has decided to reboot the franchise while at the same time putting out new seasons for the show, using action footage from "Shuriken Sentai Ninninjer" to make his new "Power Rangers: Ninja Steel", which at this point is the second and a half ninja themed season. I'll probably watch the first episode and leave it at that like I always do because Power Rangers is not for me anymore, it is for kids with an amazing imagination. However, Saban wants to come out with a movie that an older generation will love and enjoy, but I am very skeptical. This because he has already made two movies in the 90's that were box office busts and extremely grueling to make.
I fear that this movie will be no different. This will be a review of the official trailer that is shown on Youtube and my personal reaction to what I see in it. I do not wish to speak on it with a negative tone, but I am coming into it as someone who still has the source material fresh in their mind and as someone who isn't the biggest fan on the "reboot" style. I can understand a series like "Star Trek" getting rebooted because the source material was originally made in the 1960's. However, I can go straight onto Netflix to watch a new episode of Power Rangers as well as the old episodes, so it isn't like these things are difficult to find. The other thing is that this movie is noticeably marketed towards a more mature audience, much like Jason Bay's "Transformers" was as well.
The opening portion starts, showing a picture of the "Welcome to Angel Grove" sign. So, okay, I am guessing that this is taking place in a Southern California beach town with a seagull on the sign and the houses looking like ones you would find at a beach town. Angel Grove was a town that was supposed to be in California and while in the source material it wasn't exactly known as a beach town, it did have a large lake in it that many episodes were filmed at. Not to mention there is a figure riding down a hill as a bell rings. Right off the bat, I am guessing that this is the character Jason, but I am not sure.
Then we transition to a hallway where a girl is walking down it and passing a lighter skinned guy. A voice announces "none of us really know each other..." as an African American kid searches in his locker and stairs intently. Kind of funny to me because when we first saw the Rangers in the "Day of the Dumpster," the five were best friends. Jason was the karate teacher to Billy and sparring partner with Zack, Trini was friend to Kimberly and both girls were supportive of Billy. We then see the three with the girl in front, the white guy in the middle and the black kid in the back and she is saying "we are all screw ups"... Again, in the show, they were not screw ups, they were really good students who rarely got in trouble. And when they got in trouble, they were able to get through it by doing the right thing. They were multi-faceted individuals because while they attended school, they were scientists, karate instructors, gymnasts and extremely active in the community. They were anything, but screw ups.
As the black kid runs his hand along a stone wall the narrator continues "but somehow..." and the wall collapses into the water. The five walk up to a light and the white kid says "we were all at the same place at the same time when Billy found those coins" as he picks up and it glows and they all fall into the water. The white guy then says "hey guys, check out how we glow!" We finally catch sight of the rangers and their colors with the two girls being yellow and pink, the white guy being red, the Asian guy being black and the black guy being blue. The African American one announces "I'm blue!" and then the Asian guy responds "I'm black", to which the African American one says "no you aren't," and the Asian one responds "yes I am" as the five laugh.
To me, this is the second biggest problem with the trailer. In the original show, the red ranger seemed white/Native American, the pink ranger was white, the blue ranger was white, the black ranger was, well, black and the yellow ranger was Asian. And while a lot of people seemed to have a problem with this, we as kids didn't. When we played power rangers at school, the black kids wanted to be the black ranger and the Asian girls wanted to be the yellow ranger. We didn't have any classification of race because we got to be whatever ranger that we wanted to be. By pointing out that this is in some way is scaring people off from being what they wanted to be. It also doesn't work on a continuity level. Billy's last name in the show was Cranston and Zack's last name was Taylor. Now tell me something, how many African Americans do you know with the last name Cranston and how many full Asians do you know with the last name Taylor? Doesn't make any sense to me, but I guess since they can re-invent the series, they can do whatever they want.
Jason gets out of bed, shirtless, and notices that he has raging muscles and then one of the girls breaks a glass with her bare hands. Then it cuts to Jason going up to his sink and smashing it. Zack says, "we're strong" as a girl jumps a really far distance between to rocks. Billy exclaims "extremely strong" as Zack jumps between two cars. This is the first revelation that I actually preferred in the trailer. In the original show, the Power Rangers were originally regular teenagers with decent martial arts skills and when they morphed into the costumes, they became almost invincible fighters. This actually shows that the rangers gain a decent power boost after getting the power and likely gain strong armor after morphing but are still powerful when they are un-morphed.
In a large room, a bellowing voice yells "The answer to what is happening to you, is here..." as scenes of the Command Center are shown. Bryan Cranston as Zordon then says, "you five ARE THE POWER RANGERS" as we see that Zordon is not a floating head in a tube, but rather a face on a wall. Zack then exclaims, "did he just say that we are Power Rangers?" One of the girls follow up by saying "are we talking to a wall? This has got to be a joke!" Then Alpha says, "I was expecting a little more." Let me say that while a bald "Break Bad" Bryan Cranston as Zordon is absolutely awesome and I have ZERO problem with him being a floating head on a wall. I never understood how he was a floating head in a tube anyways as it was always a question of whether he was technology or magical.
Then we are brought to the yellow ranger's house, which is next to the water and a voice says, "where were you last night?" To which she responds, "me and four kids found a space ship underground, I'm pretty sure that I am a super hero. To which her brothers announce, "cool!" And then I am guessing her mother tells her to pee in the cup. I don't know what to think of this because originally the rangers were not only supposed to keep their super hero status to themselves, but also the fact that drugs were never a huge part in "Power Rangers". I am guessing the character of Trini was struggling with a drug problem in this movie, but she never struggled with a drug problem in the show. To me it is just a step to make this person more like teenagers of now, but I don't know many parents that tell their kids to pee in a cup.
"Power Rangers were a legion of warriors, you must become these warriors..." As the putties of the movie form themselves. They appear to be giant clouds of smoke and rock as the black ranger says, "they are just a hologram, like a video game," as he gets his butt kicked and then laments "not a video game..." I don't really mind that this is what the putties look like, I know they used to be dudes in spandex costumes and this might allow them to be easier to generate and use. The rangers then climb up a rock face and I am guessing that Kimberly kisses Jason, which will be really weird if the sequel includes the Green Ranger, which all of the fanboys and girls will go bonkers about. A train goes by and a cloaked figure does karate on it as Zordon says "you were born for this..."
We then see a "Poison Ivy" looking lady that says "I will destroy everything..." as she lands on top of the rangers. Zordon announces "she is pure evil" as people run away and she throws a girl against a wall. Personally, I don't think that Rita Repulsa looks good like this. The makers of this movie should have merely started up a whole new villain or actually made this bad guy look more like Rita. Again, there is no part of the original Rita that was green, this person looks like a carbon copy of Uma Thurmond's Poison Ivy from "Batman and Robin." It just looks lazily put together like someone was like "I think this would be a good idea," when it actually sucked.
Trini, looking dejected asks "how are we going to stop her?" as Rita comes out of the chaos. Jason exclaims, "it's morphin' time," goes onto a platform and morphs. They walk out of the Command Center, take a step onto the ground and fight the putties. Then we see their zords, which by the way are one of the better parts of the trailer. Goldar, on the other hand, looks like cow crap with the black ranger exclaiming, "that's a lot of gold!" Goldar is like a golden monkey with wings, claws and sharp teeth. His Japanese character was called Grifforzer in Zyuranger and nothing like he is shown in this trailer.
Zordon then says, "this is your destiny" as Jason helps someone out of a wreck, Kimberly flies her zord into Goldar as he slashes her away. Actually, I like his face, I don't like his body on the other hand. Red ranger is moving through the mud and he is actually shown with his visor off. This in my eyes defeats the purpose of them having a helmet besides protecting them. Them keeping secret identities is the reason why they have costumes in the first place. It might be a cool piece in the movie, but I would much more prefer them with their visors on. We then see the word "GO" twice as the saber-toothed tiger jumps onto Goldar to attack. Zordon then says, "this is your destiny..." as the megazord reveals itself punching Goldar. I am not much of a fan of the megazord itself, more of a fan of the individual zords because the megazord just looks like a CGI mess and that is the end of the trailer.
To the things that I like about this, I like Bryan Cranston's Zordon, I like the individual zords, I like the fact that them having powers expands to out of costume powers, making them super human. I also didn't mind what their suits looked like and I also didn't mind that Zordon was a floating head on a wall. And that is all that I can say that was good about the trailer. I hate, hate, hate the fact that they got their ethnicities wrong, I hate the way Alpha looks, I hate the way Rita looks even more, and I don't like the fact that these kids are all misfits and nobodies. The original power rangers weren't screw ups, they were mostly decent people. I once saw a "Power Rangers" fan movie that showed the rangers in detention, but they weren't all messed up kids, some it was more of a "Breakfast Club" situation where one got bad grades, one was a bad kid, one got in a fight with the school bully, and the other just did something stupid. I forget because it was a long time ago, but they weren't all screw-ups.
Regardless, I think that a lot of 18 to 30 year olds will watch this movie and I think they will enjoy it, especially those who like the "Fast and the Furious" and the "Transformers" movies. However, it looks really junky in some areas. Not saying that it won't be good, but I just am not a huge fan of the reboot style. I think that they are often times cheap ways of making money and I think that if Hollywood really had time on their hands, they would try to make something creative instead of trying to ride a cash cow that never did well in movies. That is just me, regardless, I do want to see it, I just might want to wait until a pirated version comes out.
