Power Rangers - Did It Suck?

     After 10,000... no wait, a couple of years the Power Rangers reboot is in theaters. If you don't know what Power Rangers is first of all how? Second of all I'll tell you. Power Rangers is a TV franchise where a group of teenagers with attitudes are giving powers by a giant talking head in a tube called Zordon who are tasked to save Earth from evil aliens. It was Japanese footage from the series Super Sentai mixed with American footage and American actors that made 30 minutes of awesome. The series is still running after 30 years, but during the 90s it was a mega hit. I'm talking about HUGE. There were an insane amount of merchendise and toys that drove parents crazy, including my own. Now there the original story is being re-introduced to a new generation retold as an more grittier reboot. I saw it. Did it suck?

Story
You've heard the story before. Zordon recruits a team of teenagers with attitudes to become Power Rangers and save the world? The story is a bit different this time. We were promised that this movie will be a more darker and grittier reboot of the series. It wasn't darker or grittier as the movie gave the original characters from the show: Trini, Zach, Kimberly, Billy and Jason more character and backstory. It's very much teenagers with not only attitudes but with problems. Think Degrassi, with superpowers. You got a lot of character background in this movie. Billy is the nerdy outcast, Kim is the a not so popular popular girl, Jason is a football jock that once had so much promise but fucked things up by getting into trouble with the law, Zach has to care about his ailing mother, and Trini aside of a running gag of everyone getting her name wrong is basically Ally Sheedy. I think the director had the Breakfast Club in mind while making the movie. It's cute and all, but it's obvious that Breakfast Fast club had a better job with character development than Power Rangers. At least the movie in its two hours had better character development than the tv series did the original cast during their run on the show. Action did take a bit of the back burner in order for you to get to know the characters with all the serious stuff happening in the later half of the movie. The movie did have a lot of jokes. They were the saving grace of the movie which made it a lot more entertaining. It took the opportunities to poke fun at certain things not only in the movie, but the show itself, which is not a bad thing as the show itself is now considered to be camp and over the top watching it now.

Acting
Most of the cast except for Zordon, Rita, and Alpha are mostly unknown actors. When it was announced who will be the Power Rangers in the movie, we were a bit skeptical. Will they do a good job, being the characters? A matter of fact they did. The biggest surprise has to go to RJ Cyler who played Billy and Darce Montgomery who played Jason. Both actors were the break away characters in the movie. Most of the cast did a great job, well most meaning everybody except for Elizabeth Banks. Her rendition of Rita seemed off. Not the iconic screechy voice in the Tv series, off but let me using different accents in certain scenes off. This surprised me as Banks is usually good in other roles I've seen her. Brian Cranston was great a Zordon, not a surprise as this is Walter from Breaking Bad. Bill Herter did an alright Alpha that didn't turn out as annoying, like in the show.

Final Verdict
Power Ranger overall seemed to be cute. It was a nice throwback to the series and in most cases it was funny. However with it main focus which was character development, it did a good job, but there are other movies that do it better. It tried to be a superhero version of the Breakfast Club but it didn't do a morphinominal job at that. Despite that it was a good movie, not great. Good. It gets a 3 out of 5.