‘Power Rangers’ is stuck in a mire of nostalgic cheese
Zords, aliens, and doughnuts offer a sugar high, too
Zordon, Zords, Megazord, Goldar and Repulsa.
No, a cat just didn’t walk back and forth on the keyboard. For fans of the supremely campy 1990s TV phenomenon Mighty
Morphin Power Rangers, these are very powerful proper nouns — ones that loom large 20 years later in director Dean Israelite’s big-screen reboot.
But Power Rangers ( eeEE out of four; rated PG-13; in theaters nationwide Friday) only somewhat lives up to its nostalgia trip. It takes about 90 minutes of angsty teen-superhero origin story before it figures out that, hey, it’s a Power Rangers movie and therefore requires the most ridiculous action-movie climax in recent memory.
A giant robot bumps and grinds, folks. You can’t unsee that.
Power Rangers centers on five high-school kids who are all dispirited sorts. Jason (Dacre Montgomery) is a disgraced jock, Billy (RJ Cyler) is a nerdy kid on the autism spectrum, Kimberly (Naomi Scott) is a broody excheerleader, Trini (Becky G) is a loner with overbearing parents, and Zack (Ludi Lin) is a thrillseeker who cares for his ailing mom.
They stumble upon five colorcoordinated power coins that give them superhuman abilities and lead to a meet-weird with Zordon (a computerized Bryan Cranston), an alien who trains this multicultural Breakfast Club to be a world-saving squad.
They don’t jell quickly — a fact unhelpful droid Alpha 5 (voiced by Bill Hader) reminds them of regularly — and the rookies have to work through their issues before they don their shiny Iron Man-esque armor and pilot mechanical dinosaurs called Zords. (By the way, five Zords equal one Megazord.) The clock is ticking, too, because the nefarious Rita Repulsa (Elizabeth Banks) has emerged from an ancient ocean slumber to terrorize the town, find an all-powerful crystal and steal enough gold to reform the enormous monster Goldar.
The last half hour is filled with cheeseball visual effects, B-movie monsters and Banks — by far the most enjoyable aspect — hamming it up the best she can, even chowing down on a doughnut mid-battle. (Give it up for Krispy Kreme, which not only gets prime product placement but also finds its way into the narrative as an important plot point.)
There’s an admirable commitment to absurdity, yet it belies the thoughtful coming-of-age journey for the five teens up until they hit “morphin time.” The first half boasts a realism reminiscent of Chronicle in how youngsters deal with the responsibility of having nascent superpowers, and John Gatins’ screenplay creates surprisingly touching relationships among the kids. There’s even a discrepancy in color palette — with the initially dark and muted tones moving to a rainbow of vibrancy as the film turns toward the silly — but the film lacks a certain confidence by not taking either tack.
Anybody who screamed “Go, go, Power Rangers!” as a kid will find all their favorite things still here, and the movie is a serviceable introduction to a new generation who want to check out cinematic superheroes without “Marvel” in the credits.
For everyone else? Hope you take your Zords with a large helping of cheese.