By Emilio Frenk.
Director: Dean Israelite
Cast: Dacre Montgomery, Naomi Scott, RJ Cyler, Ludi Lin, Becky G, Elizabeth Banks, Bill Hader and Bryan Cranston.
Rating: Average.
Dean Israelite, director of “Project Almanac” brings “Power Rangers”, a movie based on the nineties tv show and the results could have been much better.
The movie tells the story of five high school kids conformed by Jason (Dacre Montgomery), Kimberly (Naomi Scott), Billy (RJ Cyler), Zack (Ludi Lin) and Trini (Becky G) who have nothing in common until one day they go to a mine and they find a series of mysterious gold coins.
This will eventually take them to a secret cave where they will meet the robot Alpha 5 (Bill Hader) and Zordon (Bryan Cranston) who recruits the teenagers and the become the Power Rangers.
Now the Power Rangers are in a mission to stop Rita Repulsa (Elizabeth Banks) who wants to collect all the gold from Angel Grove and create the monster Goldar. This will represent a threat to humanity and now the Power Rangers have to stop her before she does real damage and takes total control of the planet.
This version of “Power Rangers” could have been a better film if the story was better told. The screenplay by John Gatins, which credits include “Flight” and “Coach Carter” was predictable and weak and I´m surprised since the previous movies he wrote had not only very good dialogue but had heart on them.
On a positive note there were very good moments and scenes on the film that were very interesting and this was before the characters in their suits as The Power Rangers where it was when the movie became weak and the third act of the film which by the way a rule of thumb no matter what the genre is but this act has to be strong no matter the genre.
I was impressed by the cast of the film and the chemistry between the actors which it did work. Specially RJ Ciller who plays Billy is the one that gives the best performance is the most likable despite of the moments were he was annoying but he has some humor in his character.
Compared to the 1995 film, this version is by far superior and the production was better.
Dean Israelli´s direction by moments look like he was directing a Michael Bay film specially in the climax of the film where we see a battle “Transformers” style that looks to cheesy and I was laughing of how silly it look.
There were positive notes on the film like the ones I mentioned before but in terms of performance specially by Elizabeth Banks, who I consider a good actress but I didn´t buy her character of Rita and I was seeing the exact same version of the villain from the TV Show but scarier.
Bryan Cranston is one of the best things that happen with this film and I consider his personification as Zordon a very good one.
Overall I did enjoy the film but I do think it could have been a better movie if time would have been more invested in the screenplay.
For fans of “Power Rangers” I think you are going to be pleased with this film.
With that being said I give “Power Rangers” a slight recommendation due to the things I previously mentioned but honestly I did think the movie was going to be a complete fiasco but I still enjoyed it.