Hacker Cinema
Power Rangers
2017 · Film · 124 min
Directed by Dean Israelite
ActionAdventureScience Fiction
Five ordinary teens must become something extraordinary when they learn that their small town of Angel Grove — and the world — is on the verge of being obliterated by an alien threat. Chosen by destiny, our heroes quickly discover they are the only ones who can save the planet. But to do so, they will have to overcome their real-life issues and before it’s too late, band together as the Power Rangers.
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3 comments on Hacker News
> Next to zero artists or singers who are familiar with say, the laws of thermodynamics.
You don't have to dig very deep to find counterexamples. Dr. Brian May was the lead guitarist and a founding member of Queen. He holds a PhD in astrophysics. Tom Scholz was a founding member of Boston and has a master's degree in mechanical engineering from MIT. Dr. Brian Holland is the lead vocalist for The Offspring and has a PhD in molecular biology.
As a more personal example, I spent my high school science classes competing on each test for top marks against Wesley MacInnes, who today is an actor and country music singer. (He was the school bully in the last Power Rangers movie. It was an amusing role. Wesley was an extraordinarily kind person in real high school.)
I never liked MMPR when it first became a phenomenon. The characters seemed to me like perfect little balls of nothing -- no unique personality to them, and they were like a hivemind. All of the subordinate Rangers always followed Red's orders -- seemingly in lockstep -- and Red always followed Zordon's orders. It was implied that they only got their powers contingent upon using them in compliance with Zordon's wishes, which is lame. It's like being handed the keys to a Ferrari and being told you can only use it to go grocery shopping for your mom. The way superhero stories work, usually, is that the character receives powers and then has to make the choice to use them for good.
The only distinct one was Tommy, but they were careful to explain that Tommy's bad-boy-ness was due to Rita's evil magic, not his own choices. Thus absolving of any blame but also stripping him of his agency.
(Rita was the coolest thing about that show. I always love a good, sinister female villain... because at the time they were rare.)
I never saw this movie in theaters because it just seemed like more of the same. I saw parts of it on YouTube and yep, looks like it. Like, don't they skydive and then rollerblade for charity in the opening or something? It just hammers home the point that the OG MMPR are what every fortysomething suburbanite parent wishes their kids were: attractive, omnitalented, getting straight A's and scoring a perfect 1600 on their SATs (the maximum at the time), all while lettering in football, participating in all the extracurriculars, volunteering at the homeless shelter and touring with Up With People. And always, always obeying authority figures to the letter.
I wasn't that kid, so I couldn't relate. I did, however, greatly appreciate the 2017 Power Rangers film, because it reimagined the Rangers as messed up kids who gained superpowers and... had to make the choice to use them for good. And were so stubbornly independent that working together as a team was a challenge for them. They were like the kids I actually hung out with in high school. If those Power Rangers were in the original show, I would have been way more into the franchise.
Later seasons of Power Rangers got better. Same hokey production values, but the characters were more human and fleshed out. And the primary original Japanese series behind Mighty Morphin, Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger, was pretty rad in a VERY cheesy way.
> Why not try harder?
Haim Saban didn't become a billionaire by trying harder in that way. He built an empire off of cross-national media translocation, not chasing Citizen Kane.
The movie that tried harder was the 2017 Power Rangers film, with a worldwide gross of $142.3 million, against a production budget of $100 million. Contrast with this movie, doing $66.4 million on a $15 million budget. Mich better ROI on just giving the target demo what they wanted.