Imagine “The Breakfast Club” meets “The Avengers” with touches of “Transformers.” Yeah, it’s that awesome.
As March is coming to a close and April is just around a corner, that only means one thing: The dawn of early summer blockbusters. As you can imagine, most films are waiting to be released in the heat of the summer, but a select few daring pictures are set to release in this early period to be the first to bring audiences in by the droves from the cold windy winters. It’s always a hit or miss with these daring movies. They could be the first great blockbuster of the year, or another expensive flop that might be worth a cheap thrill. While Power Rangers isn’t an entirely new franchise, it also isn’t one that’s in the forefront of the minds of audiences anywhere, or one that you’d associate with amazing quality in writing or special effects. I think it’s safe to say to disregard any worries you may have about this film, because Power Rangers is a winner and the first great blockbuster of the year.
Dean Israelite, who directed this film, has a certain propensity to films about teens discovering amazing supernatural power and using it to exact great change. He did a great job with Project Almanac, but that was only a warmup for this film. He was able to masterfully take this kids show and turn it into a full fledged blockbuster worthy of competing with anything else in the market. Any other film you watch this summer is bound to have a ton of great special effects. However, what made his role stand out so much more was his work with the characters and the way he framed the movie. From our interview with RJ, we got to see that Dean took time to actually work with the actors and did everything he could to make this the best it could be. It’s evident in how balanced each ranger feels. It’s very easy to fall into the trap of the red ranger being the only capable person on the team, however, he avoids it with ease. In addition to that, he took the appropriate tone with the film. Instead of making the film overly gritty and grey, he used light appropriately, without too much dour or daylight, but just the right amount to convey tone. His direction of the film is almost Hawksian, or in the style of Howard Hawks, with a friendly, safe space the characters constantly return to, but eventually have to go back into the grey world they have to face challenges in every day, personal challenges as well as challenges they share as rangers.
The screenwriters also deserve a nod, in addition to Dean, for the creation of the characters. He had to have something to work with first and the writers provided great characters with just enough back story to show that their lives weren’t perfect and there had to be something more. However, they took the absolutely necessary and often overlooked step of finding a way to make each character entirely unique and un-relatable, in a way, to the other characters. Characters of different ethnicities as well as sexual orientations and backgrounds really help add to the fact that the power rangers are a diverse bunch with their own unique strengths and personalities.
Now, as for the power rangers, each of them performed marvelously. RJ helped to fill us in with his interview with us that they were also extremely close off camera and it is relevant on camera as well. That kind of comfort and familiarity really showed as the film progressed. The fact that Dean shot the film chronologically certainly helped. Each of the actors are young stars, with some decent experience between them. However, they were each able to prove their acting ability here in their own way by owning who they were in the group.
All in all, if you’re looking for a hot film after a cold winter, this is the film to check out. It is well directed and overall an enjoyable film to watch that will keep you interested throughout.
The film hits theaters this Friday.