Quick thoughts on POWER RANGERS (2017)!

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I'm going to write a full-blown review for the new Power Rangers, but I will give you some quick thoughts on the movie.

The movie reminded me a lot of Chronicle, although none of the kids who get superpowers this time around decide to be a villain instead.  Well, I guess that's not entirely true.

SPOILERS AHEAD...

 We learn that the Power Rangers have been around for millions of years, originally a colony of aliens who are on Earth to protect the Zeo crystal, the source of all life on Earth (or any planet, really).  Rita Repulsa was once a ranger herself, the Green Ranger, to be exact.  But she went rogue.  She killed all the rangers, including the then Red Ranger, Zordon.  Upon his death, his essence was absorbed onto their ship's matrix by Alpha 5.

Sixty-five million years later, five random Angel Grove teens dig up the ranger crystals/coins.  But becoming the Power Rangers isn't as cut and dry as it seems.

They need to learn how to morph into their suits/armor, but can't seem to quite figure it out.  So they actually learn how to fight Rita's Putties outside of their suits in a virtual simulation that Alpha 5 sets up.  Really, it's pretty cool.

Elizabeth Banks as Rita is great.  She's a lot more villainous than the old school Rita we're used to.  And Bill Hader's Alpha 5 is hysterical.  Now, it seems that Bryan Cranston is sort of phoning in his Zordon role, but that's okay, I guess -- it still works.

My only real complaints with the movie are the fact that it took nearly an hour and forty-five minutes for the kids to figure out how to morph, and the severe lack of the Power Rangers theme song (although we do get a taste of it when they finally power-up their dino Zords.

The movie really worked for me, mostly because it was a great dose of nostalgia.  And the movie isn't bad.

There's a cool moment in the final battle when the ranger's Zords are being pushed backward into a pit, and after they fall in, the Zords all become one, creating the Megazord -- which is something Rita had no idea about.

They use their Megazord to defeat Goldar, a giant monster that Rita created to retrieve the Zeo crystal.  And then the Megazord smacks Rita into outer-space...literally -- which really sets up Rita being on her own planet like the original TV show.  And the rangers now have possession of Rita's green coin.

After they defeat Rita, all the town's people are gathered around taking photos of the giant Megazord -- and two of the residents are none other than Amy Jo Johnson and Jason David Frank (the original Pink and Green Ranger), so that was cool.

All in all the movie was cool.  I liked it.  It wasn't great, but that's okay.  It was fun and all the rangers are extremely likable.

And there's a cool post-credit scene where the detention teacher announces that they have a new student joining them, and he calls out, "Tommy Oliver...Tommy Oliver..." and there's a quick shot of an empty desk with a green jacket thrown over the chair.  A clear Green Ranger foreshadow.

I dug the movie, and if you grew up with the original series than you will too.
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