It's too bad this film flopped at the box office, because it did have some good ideas going for it. It just gets lost in a sea of trend-chasing antics that drag the rest of the film down.
There were high hopes for another Power Rangers film after the severe underperformance of Turbo in the late 90s — a film I'm old enough to remember seeing in the theatres. The problem is that Power Rangers, especially in its heyday, were an event — it was like nothing else on U.S. TV at the time, and it felt like every episode (and eventually, the 1995 film) were appointment viewing. I can't say the same about the 2017 reboot.
The sole high point is the casting — the producers did a great job of finding a mix of actors who have good chemistry and feel like they were a natural group of outcasts who are forced together by fate and share similar goals. The problem is that everything else around them falls flat.
Much has been said about the film's tendency to feel like it's chasing trends from other, better franchises being released around this time. Robot designs heavily inspired by the Transformers Film Series. A dash of the "let's all die together, and come back even stronger than ever" ending from Guardians of the Galaxy. The third act all-CGI-beat-em-up that plagued so many films being released in this era.
Cranston's performance as Zordon and some of the additional lore/backstory given to Rita are interesting, but I feel like this reboot was made solely to capitalize more on trends than craft a long-term vision that was compelling. You watch this once, and it's disposable popcorn filler. The stuff you really want — Tommy, more characters, better villains — are held off for a sequel that will never come, while the film is essentially an ersatz adaptation of the original show's pilot without much of the Totally Radical attitude and novelty of the Sentai footage that set it apart from other shows at the time.
(And I will never forgive the filmmakers for ruining this film's Signature Scene — the first shot of the Zords running together through the quarry, with the 1995 theme music — with a dumb sight gag of the Triceratops Zord running backwards.)
Here's hoping they try again with another reboot that leans more heavily into what made the original work so well.
It's a dog.
It's too bad this film flopped at the box office, because it did have some good ideas going for it. It just gets lost in a sea of trend-chasing antics that drag the rest of the film down.
There were high hopes for another Power Rangers film after the severe underperformance of Turbo in the late 90s — a film I'm old enough to remember seeing in the theatres. The problem is that Power Rangers, especially in its heyday, were an event — it was like nothing else on U.S. TV at the time, and it felt like every episode (and eventually, the 1995 film) were appointment viewing. I can't say the same about the 2017 reboot.
The sole high point is the casting — the producers did a great job of finding a mix of actors who have good chemistry and feel like they were a natural group of outcasts who are forced together by fate and share similar goals. The problem is that everything else around them falls flat.
Much has been said about the film's tendency to feel like it's chasing trends from other, better franchises being released around this time. Robot designs heavily inspired by the Transformers Film Series. A dash of the "let's all die together, and come back even stronger than ever" ending from Guardians of the Galaxy. The third act all-CGI-beat-em-up that plagued so many films being released in this era.
Cranston's performance as Zordon and some of the additional lore/backstory given to Rita are interesting, but I feel like this reboot was made solely to capitalize more on trends than craft a long-term vision that was compelling. You watch this once, and it's disposable popcorn filler. The stuff you really want — Tommy, more characters, better villains — are held off for a sequel that will never come, while the film is essentially an ersatz adaptation of the original show's pilot without much of the Totally Radical attitude and novelty of the Sentai footage that set it apart from other shows at the time.
(And I will never forgive the filmmakers for ruining this film's Signature Scene — the first shot of the Zords running together through the quarry, with the 1995 theme music — with a dumb sight gag of the Triceratops Zord running backwards.)
Here's hoping they try again with another reboot that leans more heavily into what made the original work so well.