Hello my wonderful intrepid movie-buffs!

Today I go into detail on a very fun movie I just recently watched: Power Rangers. Enjoy!

Power Rangers begins its story with the unruly Jason Scott pulling off a heist with the school mascot: a bull. He is caught by the cops and forced to attend detention while also keeping a tracking device on his ankle. Jason stands up for Billy Cranston who is being bullied and Billy agrees to help Jason with his ankle device if he drives him somewhere.

Meanwhile the once popular and lovely Kimberly Hart is having issues with her fellow cheerleaders. The two mean girls kick her off the team, which prompts Kim to cut her hair (?). She takes a swim near the mine where Jason dropped off Billy. She and Jason, mutually attracted to each other, talk of running away from Angel Grove before an explosion at the mine derails their conversation.

The duo quickly investigates to find Billy has unearthed a glass-like wall. They are joined by neighborhood kids Zack and the mysterious Trinity. All five of them unearth strange coins each with a different color. An alarm blares, which causes the teenagers to hightail it in Billy’s van. They are promptly hit by a train.

The next day all five teenagers awake in their homes without the slightest bit of damage. They all return to the mine where the five of them explore their newfound powers; climbing up rocks at breakneck speed and making impossibly long jumps. What’s more Billy grew a whole foot taller! (?) Once they take a dive in the river below they find an underground cave with a large spaceship. The teenagers enter the ship and are greeted by a bizarre robot named Alpha and a large sentient holographic face called Zordon.

Zordon tells them they are the power rangers and that they must join forces to defeat the evil Rita Repulsa who was once the Green Ranger. The rest of the film is the band of misfit teenagers learning to work as a team and become friends in the process.

I loved this film. On the positive sides; I liked the pacing, plot, soundtrack and costume designs. I liked Rita Repulsa’s design and mannerisms. She comes across as eccentric, cruel and over-the-top. For a series directed towards kids she’s the ideal candidate villain. As I watched Power Rangers I was captivated by the mesmerizing audio and visual effects. The quality of the picture and sound was simply crisp and vivid; breaking glass sounded like broken glass and slaps sounded like really painful slaps. It felt as though the movie was truly taking place in front of me.

On more critical notes, I hated Goldar’s design and thought they could’ve used a better monster, but I won’t begrudge this movie for it too much. After all, he was extremely big and gave the Power Rangers a good fight. I also didn’t like how there was no explanation as to how Rita was resurrected at the same time as the Power Rangers. Was it the coins? It seemed too convenient.

When skimming this movie for my favorite parts I find that my favorite moment in this film was the campfire scene. I know some readers will question: ‘huh? You prefer them sitting around a campfire talking instead of beating up bad guys?” My answer to that is “yes.”

I think this quintet of teenagers was highly unacquainted with each other. In fact, they didn’t even touch hands when teaming up. But, in a fit of random diversion Zack chooses to spend the night on the mountain. Trinity, and the others, all agree to stay too. During their night at the campfire the group expose their secrets to each other and it comes off as genuine. Zack confessed he fears for his dying mother and that he does not want to be alone. Billy, although he says less, manages to bring out some humor: “I love country music” Billy, in this scene, shows that he is the spirit of the team; he believes in their cause and is willing to support his friends. This is despite the others, including even Jason, who frequently doubt the team and each other. Kimberly and Jason didn’t say much but we got a glimpse into the very mysterious Trinity; “My family is normal, too normal.”

I felt that this one segment broke away from most hero movies. This movie stopped itself from being just another cliché where the heroes inexplicably get along and everything works out. In this scene, we see that Zack hides a lot of pain beneath his whimsical jibes and romps, and that Trinity wants to be understood.

These facts alone make me invested in the cast. I now want to see more character development in the sequels.

Of all the characters Jason is my favorite. He is headstrong, confident and stands up for others. Zordon trusts him to lead the team and keep things together. However, Jason doesn’t think things through much, and I still don’t understand why he threw away his chances with the football team.

Despite this, Billy is my favorite character to watch. He was intelligent, caring and quirky. Most of the humorous lines in this movie came from him! It is only natural that he was the one character to briefly die; he had endeared himself to the audience more than anyone.

Overall, this was a very fun movie. It had a few throwback moments like the campiness of the 90’s with the kids fooling around the mine and the tricky camerawork with Jason’s heist early on. The creators of this movie even included the original theme in the fight scene. However, the movie did remember to be relevant to modern times with contemporary pop culture references, smart phones and contemporary pop music in the soundtrack. I give this movie 4.5 out of 5 stars.

Thanks for reading!