Do you ever feel like Iron Man is too grown-up for you? Do you find that there’s just too much man in Batman or that Superman is a little too super? Would you like to see more of a Private or Corporal America? Perhaps you would enjoy some more accessible super heroes, the Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers – why they’re teenagers and have neither skills nor experience; in other words, they’re pretty perfect for the Trump White House, but might just be in over their heads if confronted by, you know, a problem.
Power Rangers establishes early on that BMOC Jason (Dacre Montgomery –check out the link for the douche-iest imdb photo ever) is destined to be the leader of the squad. We can tell this by the way he gets caught smuggling a cow and then crashes a car. True leadership. In fairness, Jason exhibits a more adult persona in his Breakfast Club befriending of Billy (RJ Cyler) and Kimberly (Naomi Scott). Billy is the spectral denizen who unwittingly makes the Rangers happen by enabling Jason’s delinquency and then doing some extracurricular geology in the foothills. I know this is a movie, but Billy the kid –a nerdy and frail teen with Aspergers—actually detonates explosives after hours, unsupervised, in an inaccessible-to-public and emergency vehicle nightmare location—and the film is not only OK with this, it’s focused at the time on Jason’s social life. “No, no. Don’t mind me, folks. I’m just a fifteen-year-old with C4 trying to blow up a mountain…”
For a film that is almost aggressively diverse, Power Rangers focused on the cool white guy when the Poindexter of color was busy unearthing the special power discs. The explosion attracts immediate attention from two more teens: Zack (Ludi Lin — geez, did imdb have a special on douche-y index pics?) and Trini (Becky G.). Overnight, the quintet all discover they have awesome new powers, like
the ability to cut class and make cafeteria food taste awful.
And after the “look at what I can do” scene, we get into the actual plot, which involves underground lairs and aliens and evil and a whole bunch o’ other crap. We know the power in Power Rangers comes from an advanced alien race. How do we know they’re advanced? They’ve mastered Pin Art.
TBH, this film had my attention until Rita Repulsa (Elizabeth Banks) decided she was trying to win an evil beauty pageant – you know, the part where she suddenly shows up in a tasteful one-piece bathing suit, captures the Rangers and starts behaving as if she’s responding to job interview questions: “… and Rita, what would you do to make this world a worse place?” (Pause) “Gosh. I think I’d start by torturing children ? … and then attempt to claim a weapon that would end civilization as we know it? –wait, do I still have more time? Yes? Well, then I’d also start a life-killing
virus of sorts? … you know, an AIDS or Ebola or maybe something insidious? …” “I’m sorry, your time is up. Thank you.”
I was actually much more interested in the lives of the kids before they became Rangers, which, I think, is the highest compliment I can pay a film like this. Problem here is the film has “Power” and “Rangers” in the title, not “misfit” and “teens.” The movie simply isn’t as good when the kids start mastering their new abilities. This makes it almost a polar opposite of Chronicle – which is, now that I think about it, a much better watch for this age group for several reasons.
Some kids in a quarry for fun
Found magic pogs by the ton
“I’m super! That’s cool
It’s time to save school!”
But first I must pass Spanish I
Rated PG-13, 124 Minutes
D: Dean Israelite
W: John Gatins
Genre: Woohoo! I’m super!
Type of person most likely to enjoy this film: Nerdy teens
Type of person least likely to enjoy this film: Parents of nerdy teens
