Power Rangers? Oh? That’s the next ripped-right-out-of-your-childhood piece of nostalgia that’s making the transition to the big screen? … Okay!
These were my thoughts after seeing the trailer for the Power Rangers reboot months ago. Don’t get me wrong; I was excited! The Power Rangers were a big part of my childhood, and at one point, the Red Ranger was my favorite superhero. I watched Power Rangers: Dino Thunder religiously, and my poor mother probably spent hundreds of dollars on toys so I could have every Ranger, every villain, and every Zord at my disposal.
But when I think of superheroes making their way to the big screen, Power Rangers definitely isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. If I’m being honest, they’ve always been a bit on the cornier side, and far from the potential to be groundbreaking.
I was wrong!
Power Rangers is a surprisingly entertaining experience. It’s desperately trying to play catch up to Marvel and DC, and it shows, but it holds its own well enough so long as the audience remembers that it is watching Power Rangers, and not Spider-Man or Batman, after all.
The first half of the film sets up the characters who will become the Power Rangers in the classic misfit teenager story: five outcasts are brought together through impossible circumstances and must reluctantly learn to work together in order to thwart the evil Rita Repulsa (Elizabeth Banks). The Breakfast Club, Lemonade Mouth… you’ve seen these characters before, but they feel just fresh enough to make you like them.
There’s Jason (Dacre Montgomery), star quarterback turned delinquent, Billy (RJ Cyler), who is autistic (along with the actor that portrays him!) and still reeling from the death of his father, Kimberly (Naomi Scott), angsty mean girl, Zack (Ludi Lin), who skips school to care for his sickly mother, and Trini (Becky G), new girl to town that struggles with her sexuality.
It’s a great time watching these characters go from complete strangers to best friends that form a team. Each character is relatable enough to sympathize with, but not so cliched that they feel distant and plastic. Billy is, undoubtedly, the funniest of the five, and he is so much fun to watch.
The second half of the film is, well, one long Power Rangers episode, in the best possible way. Longtime fans of the franchise will feel right at home, and newcomers will figure out the formula soon enough. When the Rangers finally charge into action with the classic theme song blasting behind them, the movie hits its high point.
What’s most surprising about the film, though, is how diverse its cast is. Four out of the five Power Rangers are people of color, two are female, one is autistic, and one is canonically a member of the LBGT+ community. This representation from multiple fronts is huge for a superhero film, which is traditionally dominated by portrayals of white, male superheroes.
I am a huge advocate for diversity in film, and it fills me pure excitement and joy to see Power Rangers celebrate such diversity in such a simple way. Putting people of color in these roles, having one of the characters be LBGT+, and having one display a disability has little effect on the progression of the story and on the the Rangers’ path along the Hero’s Journey. In my opinion, that’s how it should be. What it does do is make these heroes feel so much more real to a much wider part of the audience that goes to the movies.
Those that are Asian, Middle-Eastern, Hispanic, Black, suffering from a disability or questioning their sexuality do not have to feel alienated when watching the film; rather, they can see themselves in the Rangers as they discover who they are and what it means to be heroes, in the same way that characters like Moana (Auil'i Cravalho) and Captain Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) from Rogue One made waves back in the fall.
Power Rangers isn’t an Academy contender, but it is good fun nonetheless, and it seems to have a better grasp on the importance of representation than some of the other blockbusters out now that still seem to miss, or just deliberately ignore, the point (I’m talking about you, Ghost In The Shell).
With that being said, grab the kids and/or some friends and go-go to the theater to catch this one before it’s gone!
