Digital-Ranger here and on Thursday the 23rd I saw the premiere of the 2017 Power Rangers movie, and my fresh thoughts on this movie were AWESOME! LIKE this movie BLEW AWAY MY MIND from just how awesome it was! Now presumably just like all of you I was worried that this movie could be another Ow the Edge bad reboot movie from just the first Trailer and the designs. So when the 2nd trailer aired I had more faith in the movie BUT STILL hoped it would be good. Now after seeing the movie for myself I can say that I Love this movie so far it is the best Power Rangers Movie we have to date (although that's not a hard thing to try and do since the other 2 were not good).
This Blog Post is more like my first initial Impressions impressions of this movie and will be me listing off the Charters, The Good, The, Bad, and Some Easter Eggs in the movie. Now keep in mind 2 things 1. I am a person who does not like the popular option like the example I had fun with the Amazing Spider-Man movies But Jurassic World SUCKS! And 2 I never grew up with Mighty Morphin and while I respect the first season and the first team I never grew up with it. SO I do not have that personal love for the Season 1 MMPR Rangers. Spoiler Free here also so you can see the movie for yourself.
The Characters
The characters in this movie surprised me from how much I loved them. A reason why I think I love them so much is from the actors themselves because the actors themselves were all fantastic. Considering that this all of these actors first time acting in a Superhero movie like this they all did great with what they had to work with and do hope the best for these actors and hope they do bigger and better roles from this point on worse. And I will talk a bit about their characters now.
Jason while a little bland and you the basic action movie hero but was enjoyable and took charge when needed to. And Thought he was fine or at least better than the happy go lucky hot head Red Rangers of recent.
Billy surprised me and became my favorite character in the whole movie. You would think that he would be the annoying one but no he was funny and stayed out of that annoying spectrum. Speaking of the spectrum I am getting this out of the way now, Billy is the first ever Super Hero in a Superhero movie with Autism. And as a Person with Autism myself, it's nice to a person with Autism in a positive manner.
Now you would think giving Billy Autism would be a disservice character right?... WELL actually no. let me explain here, Rick from the Onyx Tavern said something about Nerds from Tv shows and Movies from the 80-90's were another form of Autism which YEAH makes sense and is believable in this grounded universe these writers are going for (link to see that video is here). SO I communicate the writers for doing something bold like this.
Zack was the one who did the least amount of stuff in the movie and he was also a bit of a wise-ass at times. BUT with that 1 scene in the movie (which I can not spoil) involving his mom, it was sweet, to say the least.
Trini was another good character in the movie. She was more aggressive and kept her distance from everyone from the group. But the reason for that is quite unique because of her family (Mom and Dad) because she does not like her decision. That decision of her being GAY! Trini is also the first Gay there has been a Gay Super Hero in a Superhero movie.
I really like this To Trini’s character because it’s not a gimmick here but instead integrated with who she is. The best part is that they don’t even blab out she is gay but it’s in the context of the movie and downplayed which makes things good. Also, she gets brownie points because she is Hispanic and there aren't many Hispanic Rangers out there. So I guess 1 FOR ME AND MY HISPANIC PEOPLE!
Kimberly was the weakest one of all because there was built up to her being this big thing she had and by the end of the movie, it felt more like the mellow drama than an actual dilemma. But her actress was
Rita was just OK and only OK. While some people say she is kinda bland and had a 1 minded goal. BUT her presence in the movie worked with her being both scary and threatening at the same time.Ruined a bit by here over action but you could see that as like “I’m evil and being evil bring me joy”? To clear up something up YES Rita is a Power Ranger making her out first ever Green Female Ranger in Power Rangers before (let's not kid ourselves here) 2 years before Kyuranger Power Rangers Adaption. And Rita is not the only former Ranger either.
Bryan Cranston as Zordon is something that I thought worked with him being a former Ranger like Doggie Kruger from S.P.D. Zordon was the refreshing mentor to see with him being a former mentor who (Spoilers Failed fighting against Rita). And he proved to be good. While not being a father figure as he was in the show he was a good mentor with a secretive motive that came as a shocker! I give my thanks for Bryan Cranston for choosing to be in the Power Rangers movie because he believed in the script and thought this movie was good on its own.
Bill Hader Alpha was funny and enjoyable. While those eyes Alpha had been still bad (and he even blinded with those eyes but you could hardly seven notice it) You get “use to it” but Bill Hader’s performance just WORKED with his voice and Dialogue he had.
What I liked in the movie.
The comedy was great, my fellow review and good friend @PowerRangerTalk said that the comedy in the movie is more organically and feels natural compared to a Marvel Movie where there are quips almost every second which can feel over born and even ruin the scene of a movie. But here it’s done properly and I also hope Disney takes a few notes from this movie.
The passing while slow (a bit too slow at times for me) was focusing on the charters and their struggles which are so damn refreshing since basically everything after Gokaiger and post Gaim most tokusatsu shows has been cultured with nothing more than action scenes and at times bare bone charter development and also insulting.
The Tone felt Mature but not Dark. it felt like the proper of both Serious, Mature, and also know when to be funny all at the same time. Now if only other movies did that same tone of blending all 3 tougher.
The environment, while it is still saving the world the stakes were this is the Rangers own hometown in a small unknown place, where most movie showdowns are big buildings and city landscapes which can get boring now. So this was refreshing to see.
This felt like an origin story for a big cast of characters, mind you this also means not morph until the very end of the movie where at that point it was rushed. Finally, Just the chemistry between the cast worked and just them talking to one another worked and I am glad to see more of this.
The action in this movie was pretty solid, with just about almost every movie having shaky came it was nice to see something like this with only a little bit of shaky came in the movie.
What I didn't like
There wasn't too much that I saw but again fresh thoughts compared to sitting down and taking notes is a different story all tougher.
Now the last 30 minutes 30 minutes of the movie is the is the fight scenes where that was the Power Rangers fighting and yeah it was short and wished it had more room to breath or the rangers fighting the putties. and the last bit was the Megazord brawl but I am OK with that like it was fine feeling. The Zords fighting while cool but the Megazord fight scene was a lackluster fight scene only lasted a few minutes especially with the swords being used to end Goldar. I will give it some leeway because this is Lionsgate first time having a giant CGI Robot.
Speaking of the Zords, the Zords themselves just APPEAR out of nowhere. Like for us power Rangers fans we get it the Zords are made and just appear get it happened in a number of the season prior. but as a normal movie going audience where did the zords come from?
The designs still are not the best designs ever, I mean they are better in motion than just being static and still. But it would be nice to have something less busy on the other hand. Then again it could have had been worst then the concept art I suppose
Goldar is just a monster and only a monster that the rangers destroy.
Spoiler here but (The Zeo crystals. The Rangers didn’t even acknowledge or take a closer look at the Zeo Crystals, or even MOVE THEM AWAY SO PEOPLE WON’T GET HURT!).
More spoilers here (Billy dies and comes back to life which makes no sense. If Again you are an average movie goer. But for Us we know the Morphin Grid can help with life (look at RPM) but there is no dialogue in the movie to show that to the audience).
More of a nitpick here but Jason's Sword where did that come from? no explanation is given to it at all it just suddenly appears out of his hand. and the reason why this sucks is because is that they were going so well with being a team and having teamwork and RED is over there into a fancy new toy to himself just rains this. But then again #AllHailRedRanger!
Easter Eggs
As you would expect in a Power Rangers Movie there are some Easter Eggs, I won't talk about all of them (because I did not catch them all or did not notes them all) but I will talk about the ones I saw. There are some key phrases from Power Rangers like It’s Morphin Time, Make my monster grow and Key terms like Morphing Grid, and even saying Sentai, MAYBE?
In the Trailer, We saw Trini had a Z puttie toy in her house. Something similar happens but with Billy’s having a Finster, Squatt, and Baboo 93 toys in his room. A big surprise for me was they mention Mariner Bay from Lightspeed rescue which I LOVE because Lightspeed rescue is after all my season. The 95 movie theme was used in the movie.
They make a reference to Yellow being male in the movie, which is a call back to Yellow was a male in Japan while in America yellow was a female. Also on that, a newspaper had a headline with Masked Heroes (Saban's Masked Rider Movie confirmed???)! This could be a stretch here but the text for the alien Lounge that Zordon and Alpha 5 talked were in Yellow a reference to a bunch of the early subtitles that subgroups put out AGAIN this is just me here being like that but still. it seems we might get Rit's moon palace might be a thing.
To no one surprise, there is indeed a mid credit scene at the end of the movie which has TOMMY! Although we don't get to see Tommy himself we see his jacket which is green and WHITE. Speaking of JDF him and Amy Jo and make a quick appearance in the movie near the end of the movie.
By the way, JDF was booted out of the premiere of the movie. NO JOKE he was filming the movie with his phone and was booted out of the movie, I'm serious this is real. The last thing to note is when Jason was Driving and his radio was playing the ToQGer opening with English lyrics, I think! If so DAMN YOU PAN PIZZA. I'M SORRY I MEAN PAN! PLEASE FORGIVE ME LET ME ON YOUR PODCAST PLEASE I'LL DO ANYTHING FOR YOU PAN, ANYTHING, ANYTHING, ANYTHING, ANYTHING!
Overall you guys I had so much fun with this movie and enjoyed and it was well worth the 3 years wait we had to get this movie. Despite Rotten tomatoes being at like a 45% as I am making this it’s still better than 2/3 DC movies at this moment. After this movie, i am more than excited for this movie sequel (because of course there would be a sequel because of the Chinese box office and Bandai of America making movie toys until Spring 2018, and the budget of the movie is only 105 million also).
The 1 thing to take away from this movie is that people will now see Power Rangers seriously and no longer see it as the goofy season 1 MMPR from the past. BUT rather it becomes like the next MCU. If this movie does well enough then this could be the big competitor to both Marvel and DC. Right now with the critics saying it’s just Ok at the moment I can hope that in time with a sequel this movie and movie Franchise can become something Great. This is really what us Power Rangers Fans have needed for such A long time, and I am glad to see some real life into this franchise again.
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