STARRING: Dacre Montgomery, Naomi Scott, RJ Cyler, Ludi Lin, Becky G., Bryan Cranston, Bill Hader and Elizabeth Banks
DIRECTED BY: Dean Israelite
RELEASE DATE: March 24, 2017
The year of 2017 is yet another year with a list of highly anticipated blockbuster films. Power Rangers is one of those films that’s on most people’s to watch list. Fans, especially those who have watched the original Power Rangers’ shows, were very excited to see this movie. People knew how advanced the movie would be prior to the shows from over a decade ago. Fortunately, no one was disappointed and the film was not a waste of time.
The film begins with a flashback showing a Red Ranger escaping from danger during the Cenozoic Era and being destroyed by a Black Ranger. Before he is destroyed, he buries 5 coins that glowed the colors red, black, yellow, blue and pink for the purpose of finding those that are worthy of becoming the next generation of Power Rangers. Later in 2017, Jason Scott (Dacre Montgomery), while at school detention, meets Billy Cranston (RJ Cyler), who is a science and tech nerd and Kimberly (Naomi Scott), the pretty girl of the school. After the three become acquainted they each decide to go to the mountains and help Billy dig something up that he saw in a cave. While there they run into Zack Taylor (Ludi Lin) who lives in those mountains with his mother who is sick and Trini Kwan (Becky G.) who is quiet but extremely resilient. Once introductions are made the five new friends continue to help Billy dig when they discover the glowing coins that were buried by the ancient Red Ranger in the beginning of the film. Once each of them picked up a coin, they heard police sirens, so they all took off running to Billy’s SUV. They were all heading to safety away from the police until they attempted to outrun a train and had a terrible accident.
The teens awake in their homes the next morning with extraordinary new powers. Jason, Billy and Kimberly agree that they should go back to the cave where they found those coins and find out exactly what’s happened to them. When they return, they spot Zack and Trini who also are looking for answers because they have acquired strange new powers as well. Upon further exploration of the cave the group comes across an ancient spaceship.
While roaming the spaceship, they had an encounter with a robot who calls himself Alpha-5 (Bill Hader). Alpha-5 was apparently waiting for the Rangers to return for 65 million years. This robot is another comic relief character like Billy. He takes the teenagers to the heart of the spaceship to show them the first Ranger: Zordon, who was the one who hid the coins in the beginning. He warns them of a threat coming to their town of Angel Grove, who is seeking to destroy them and try to take over their world. Her name is Rita Repulsa (Elizabeth Banks) and her plan is to find the Zeo crystal that gives her the power of life and death and recreates an ancient giant monster called Goldar. When this news was given to the Rangers, they knew that only they could stop Rita and her minions with extensive training. So Zordon tells them to get ready to morph into the legendary armor that the Power Rangers are known for wearing. The armor was within them which was making them very strong, so they had to bring it out. However, it would not work because they were not ready, so they had to train without the armor.
The teenagers bonded more and more as they got better with their fighting skills but because they’re teenagers they became impatient because their armor was not manifesting itself fast enough so they decided to bring the fight to Rita first without the armor which was a colossal mistake. Rita captures them and forces them to tell her where the Zeo crystal is. After retrieving the crystal Rita wreaks havoc on Angel Grove causing the Rangers to finally fight as a team which sets the stage for a climatic final confrontation.
The fight scenes with the Rangers were impressive and the introduction of the Zords were jaw dropping. Power Rangers was an excellent surprise because it wasn’t expected to be as good as it was. It was very true to the original shows and a very fun movie. A sequel is planned for 2019. Power Rangers receives 7 stars out of 10 stars.