If your brain cells die a little at the thought of a big-screen version of the 90s kids’ TV show Mighty Morphin Power Rangers then don’t worry, you’re not alone. Even the people behind Power Rangers seem reluctant to do what it says on the box, or perhaps they know that once our five young heroes turn into Power Rangers – once they “morph” into colour-coded warriors and start fighting aliens – then that’s it, we’re in Saturday-morning-TV land. The film does its best to delay that moment for as long as possible, which is actually a good thing. Power Rangers is an emo teen drama in the guise of a chintzy kids’ adventure.
Another way of putting it is that much has changed since the show’s dubious heyday 25 years ago. Superheroes are part of the landscape now, and the superhero template always begins with an origin story – hence this $100 million reboot, telling how five high-school kids stumble on some magical coins that allow them to save the world. “You mean to tell me that the fate of the universe is placed in the hands of these – children?” splutters Zordon, the guardian of the Crystal (don’t ask) who’s trapped in another dimension since an unfortunate mishap in the Cenozoic Era. “They’re teenagers,” notes Alpha 5, a talking robot whose cute antics come from another, more carefree movie.
Zordon is right to be dubious, since the youthful quintet take ages to sort themselves out – but that’s how origin stories work, as a fail/try-again/fail-better structure with success as the final catharsis. Marvel is just part of the template; also in the mix is Harry Potter, another case of an ordinary kid who found out he was special (“You were born for this!” Zordon tells Jason a.k.a. Red Ranger, the leader of the team), and Potter was an origin story stretched to absurd lengths. I recall watching the third or fourth movie and wondering when exactly Harry was going to start showing some talent at wizardry – but that’s why the franchise worked, because the endless build-up made Harry and Co. seem more vulnerable and allowed character detail to pile up while we were waiting.
Power Rangers works the same way. Our heroes can’t morph (which will give them body armour and allow them to fight ‘Rita Repulsa’) until they’ve bonded, and they can’t bond till they open up to each other emotionally – and meanwhile we learn that Billy (a.k.a. Blue Ranger) is autistic, and Zack (Black Ranger) lives alone with his sick mother, and Trini (Yellow Ranger) is ambiguously gay and misunderstood by her family, and Kimberly (Pink Ranger) lost her friends due to a sexting scandal. “We’re all screw-ups,” admits Jason, who himself has a self-destructive streak and threw away a promising football career. The film unexpectedly channels teen angst à la John Hughes (three of the five meet in detention, like the kids in The Breakfast Club) – at least till the last half-hour when our heroes finally morph and get the armour, flying assault planes called Zords (so why did they even need the armour? never mind) and battling Goldar, a giant monster made entirely of gold.
You see the problem: this is a film that’s embarrassed by its own premise, fighting its own incipient silliness. Power Rangers even throws in a snippet of the old theme song at the climax (not really a song, more a glorified ringtone), as if confirming that the battle is lost and we are indeed watching a big-screen version of a 90s kids’ TV show. Before that, however, it tries hard to be something more – very much including trendy notions of representation, given that the five include a disabled Ranger (autistic Billy) and ethnic diversity. “Different colours, different kids, different-coloured kids!” quips Alpha 5. “I’m black,” notes Zack, who is Asian but also Black Ranger. “No you’re not,” says confused Billy, who is indeed black (as well as Blue).
For a while, it semi-works, mostly because the teens’ attempts to understand their new powers match their attempts to make sense of their lives in general – yet the film is clearly doomed, Power Rangers being what happens when a studio greenlights a bad idea and no-one involved has faith in that idea. The climax features what’s rapidly becoming a cliché, a clash-of-the-titans battle between two giant behemoths; one may ask why it’s become so popular (is it the reflection of a corporate society where we instinctively think in terms of giant conglomerates?) – but the point is also that one of the behemoths is actually the five Power Rangers rolled into one, Ranger-hood having literally taken away their individuality and turned them into one generic action figure. “What does it mean, when all this is over?” Kimberly (a.k.a. Pink) asks the others earlier, before the film goes astray. “Are we Power Rangers? Or … are we friends?” They should’ve stuck with the second option.
DIRECTED BY Dean Israelite
STARRING Dacre Montgomery, Naomi Scott, RJ Cyler
US 2017 124 mins