POWER RANGERS. What Is the Film’s Biggest Flaw?

Power Rangers are not a relic of the past. In the United States, they have enjoyed continuous popularity for more than a quarter of a century. This film is like synthetic food that has no fat, no sugar, no vitamins or calories, but is sold in eye-catching packages so that we want to chew on it, argued Roger Ebert, one of the most influential American critics, in his review of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie. It’s hard to counter these accusations, considering the script was written on set.

Dean Israelite’s idea is incomparably more interesting, but unfortunately, it too is only good for chewing. First, the positives. It’s worth noting that Power Rangers was a groundbreaking production from the very beginning. Women in superhero roles still distinguish the series from many others. Only relatively recently have characters like Jessica Jones and Wonder Woman appeared, but in 1993, the least stereotypical female portrayal was arguably the debuting Dana Scully.

Moreover, it’s no secret that heroines are usually created by men, who most often dress them in skimpy, impractical outfits. In this regard, Power Rangers is a series worth emulating – women wear exactly the same costumes as the men, fight villains in the same way, and strike no bizarre, overtly sexual poses. The brand is also known for casting people from ethnic minorities in lead roles, which continues in the latest Power Rangers film. The only stain on the long history of Saban Entertainment’s production is the fate of David Yost, the original Blue Ranger.

Yost nearly committed suicide due to harassment from people working on the show (excluding his teammates), which stemmed from his homosexuality. Israelite attempts a form of rehabilitation. One character suggests a struggle with her sexual identity, which is handled subtly, without ideological baggage, and in a way that credibly reflects the formation of young people’s personalities. The theme of rebellious so-called troubled youth is convincingly presented in Power Rangers. One might even suspect it’s a sequel to the best teen film ever made – The Breakfast Club.

The characters in both productions are identical – the rebel, the princess, the nerd, the athlete, the extreme introvert – and all are entangled in a plot lifted straight from Spider-Man’s origin story. The similarities are glaring and reveal the film’s most painful flaw – a lack of consistency with the source material. The drastically altered appearances of Rita Repulsa, Alpha 5, and Goldar outraged many fans, but it’s hard to imagine how these characters could function in a modern blockbuster while preserving their original designs. A much bigger problem lies in the fight scenes. The series was long controversial and even banned in New Zealand until 2008 for being too violent, but one must admit that its fights, though cheesy, felt believable. The first season of Power Rangers aired in 1993. At that time, action cinema was dominated by Demolition Man and Nowhere to Run, so disorienting fight editing wasn’t yet in fashion.

Haim Saban had no choice but to hire young martial arts (or gymnastics) practitioners who simply brought their everyday training to the screen. It’s not Ip Man, or even John Wick, but most of the fights seem realistic… if you ignore all the rubber and latex.

Moreover, the choreography was created by the actors themselves, who only occasionally used stunt doubles. In Israelite’s version, the action appears only at the end, and unfortunately follows the modern convention in which one hit equals one or more cuts. The final giant battle is also disappointing. The Megazord and Goldar stand in place, exchange a few blows, and… it’s over. Even stomping on cardboard cities by actors in ridiculous suits stirred more emotion, which leads to the primary accusation. Two years before the release of Power Rangers, an unauthorized fan film appeared online in which the Rangers end up in a grim, brutal reality.

There’s vulgar language, drugs, violence—in short, the fantasy of an adult fan who doesn’t want to part with the series but can no longer tolerate the sight of pathetic putties. As a fifteen-minute curiosity, it works perfectly, but in the long run, we don’t expect seriousness or emotional depth from innocent entertainment made for kids. Power Rangers is the essence of the phrase so bad it’s good, and only by sticking to that could the film be saved—because at its core, it is kitsch. Do you remember the episode where the Rangers boarded an abandoned spaceship dressed in Space Soldiers suits (not a joke—the costumes were rented to cut costs) and tried to track an alien in a sci-fi horror atmosphere? Or the one where the Rangers watched Super Sentai, the Japanese series their adventures were based on, thinking they were the originals? That’s called breaking the fourth wall! Or maybe the episode where the heroes became pizza toppings, and the later one in which they mocked that situation? Absurdity and cheesiness are the strength of this series—it’s precisely what allowed it to survive so many years. Without them, it turns out merely acceptable, decent, watchable without fatigue—but that’s all.