Power Rangers (film)

Plot

A group of warriors in the Cenozoic Era, the Power Rangers, were given the mission to protect the lifeforms on Earth and look after the Zeo Crystal. The Green Ranger (Rita Repulsa) betrays them. The Red Ranger (Zordon) takes the rangers source of power, the power coins, and hides them while ordering his assistant Alpha 5 to perform a meteorstrike, killing Zordon and sending Rita to the bottom of the seas and destroying the dinosaurs.

In modern day Angel Grove five teenagers find the Power Coins, and become superpowered.

Jason's father finds Rita's body holding onto her power coin. Rita then goes collecting gold so she can raise her minion, Goldar.

The five teenagers stumble upon an ancient space. They meet Alpha 5 who takes them to the power chamber where they awaken Zordon, whose consciousness was uploaded into the ship's. They inform the teenagers about the original Rangers and about Rita, warning them that they have 11 days until Rita has her full power and finds the Zeo Crystal and uses it to destroy all life on Earth. The five teens leave the ship with no intention of returning until Zordon pleads with Jason to convince the team to prepare for Rita's oncoming attack.

The new Rangers return to train the next day, but they cannot morph. They spend the next week training hard against simulated Putties and trying to morph albeit unsuccessfully. In an attempt to inspire the Rangers and get them to morph, Alpha 5 reveals the Zords. Zack takes his Zord out for a joyride, and almost kills the other Rangers when he crashes it into the cave where they train. This angers Jason and they get into a fist fight. In trying to separate the two, Billy spontaneously morphs into his battle armor. However when Zack touches him, it disappears. Angered at their lack of progress, Zordon dismisses the group. Jason returns to the ship to confront Zordon and discovers that once the Rangers morph, it will open up the Morphing Grid and allow Zordon to restore himself in a physical body. Feeling betrayed, Jason accuses Zordon of using the team for his own benefit. That night, the team camp out at the mine above the ship and bond with each other, but Jason hides what he learned about Zordon.

That night, Rita attacks Trini in her home. Rita easily pins her and tells her to bring the Rangers to the dock. When the team meets up, Jason reveals Zordon's planned resurrection. The team head to the dock with weapons to finally kill Rita. They are ambushed and apprehended. Billy reveals that he found the Zeo Crystal underneath a Krispy Kreme, Rita kills him and releases the others. Mourning the death of their teammate, the Rangers take Billy's body to the ship and ask Zordon to resurrect him, but he tells them that he cannot. The Rangers admit that they would give their lives for each other and resolve to defeat Rita. In doing so, they unlock the Morphing Grid, and rather than use it to restore himself, Zordon uses it to revive Billy. With the team restored, the Rangers morph into their armor.

Rita creates Goldar and attacks Angel Grove to find the Zeo Crystal. She raises an army of Putties to assist. The newly morphed Rangers battle the Putties then set off to Angel Grove in their Zords. In the battle, Jason's father is nearly killed until Jason himself exits his Zord to save him. After the Rangers destroy all the putties, Goldar pushes the Rangers and their Zords into a fiery pit. In the pit, the Zords fuses formingthe Megazord. Seeing this, Rita merges herself with Goldar, and attacks. The Rangers stab Goldar in the chest killing him, causing Rita to fall out. After refusing Jason's offer to turn herself, a defiant Rita tells the Rangers that more will come for the crystal and leaps at the Megazord only to be slapped into spaces. The Rangers are praised as local heroes.

In a mid-credits scene, in detention, the teacher announces a new student Tommy Oliver will be joining them and calls out for, but finds his desk empty, with a green jacket.

Cast

Jason David Frank and Amy Jo Johnson, two of the stars of the original TV series, cameo as Angel Grove citizens.

Development

Saban Capital Group and Lionsgate announced the film in May 2014, with Roberto Orci originally attached to produce. Ashley Miller and Zack Stentz were hired to write the script for the film. Orci eventually left the project to work on Star Trek Beyond. On April 10, 2015, TheWrap reported that Dean Israelite was in negotiations to direct the film. Israelite told IGN in an interview that the film would be "completely playful, and it needs to be really fun and funny. But like Project Almanac, it's going to feel very grounded at the same time, and very contemporary and have a real edge to it, and a real gut to it, it's going to be a fun, joyful [movie] but one that feels completely grounded in a real world, with real characters going through real things." Brian Tyler was brought on to compose the film. Israelite has said that the film updates itself from the original series, being more character-driven and incorporating naturalism and a grounded nature.

Casting

Actors began testing for the roles of the five Power Rangers on October 2, 2015. On October 7, 2015, Naomi Scott was cast as Kimberly. Newcomers Dacre Montgomery, Ludi Lin and RJ Cyler were then cast as Jason, Zack, and Billy, respectively. At the month's end, Becky G was chosen to play Trini. On October 30, 2015, Saban confirmed that the Rangers would have the same first names as those on the original series. When it came to casting the Rangers, director Dean Israelite said, "From the very beginning, diversity was a very important part of the whole process", and that while the races of the characters were switched around, he added that, "we made sure that the essence of each of those characters are who they were in the original show, and this really will be an origin story of those characters.” On February 2, 2016, it was announced that Elizabeth Banks would portray Rita Repulsa in the film. Four months later, Bryan Cranston, who voiced Twin Man and Snizard in the original series, announced he was cast as Zordon. Cranston revealed that he would perform motion-capture and CGI. In September 2016, Walter Emanuel Jones, the actor who played Zack in the original series, stated none of the original cast would cameo in the film. Towards the end of the month, comedian Bill Hader was cast as Alpha 5. During a panel at New York Comic Con, it was confirmed that Goldar would appear in the film. However, the characters of Bulk and Skull do not appear in the movie. In March 2017, it was reported that Amy Jo Johnson and Jason David Frank, who played Kimberly and Tommy in the original series, respectively, would make cameo appearances in the film, despite Jones' comments from earlier.

Filming

Filming was originally set to begin in January 2016 but was rescheduled and began on February 29 in Vancouver. On May 28, 2016, filming was complete. Additional filming occurred in October 2016.

Marketing

On March 3, 2016, Lionsgate released the first official photo of the five Rangers. The following month, the company released the first official photo of Banks as Rita Repulsa, and on May 5, unveiled the first official look at the rangers' suits. Regarding the new suits, director Dean Israelite stated, "The show was about kids coming of age, about metamorphosis, these suits needed to feel like they were catalyzed by these kids and their energy, their spirit", while production designer Andrew Menzies commented that the new suits are "an alien costume that grows on them, that’s not man-made. You can’t win everyone over, but we are trying to appeal to a more mature audience and gain new fans." A teaser poster was released in June, with additional character posters released in July, September, and October. On October 8, 2016, a "Discover The Power" teaser trailer for the film was released.

A fictional Angel Grove High School Newspaper website was created, alongside the official Power Rangers website, which features a GIF creator that allows users to make a GIF out of scenes from the teaser trailer. There is also an official toy line, produced by Bandai, and an extensive merchandising range to promote the film.

Max Landis, who was fired from writing the film, criticized the trailer. He stated that it looked like Chronicle, a film that he had written. The trailer was met with mixed reactions, with some praising it for its darker, contemporary reimagining of the classic characters, while still looking action-packed and fun at the same time, and others criticizing the lack of relation to the original series, and the trailer appearing cookie cutter. The trailer received over 150 million views in the initial two days after it was uploaded. Lionsgate revealed the T-Rex zord toy on October 28, 2016, amongst other toys, and the Power Rangers Twitter account revealed the megazord toy on November 4, 2016. On November 15, 2016, Lionsgate debuted the toys based on the film's individual zords.

On December 8, 2016, a new poster debuted, as well as a photo of Rita Repulsa. On December 19, 2016, Lionsgate and Boom! Studios announced that they would release a graphic novel titled Power Rangers: Aftershock, set immediately after the events of the movie. An international trailer was released on December 22, 2016. Qualcomm and Lionsgate made an alliance for a virtual reality game of the film that was exhibited at the CES 2017, from January 5–8, 2017. On January 19, a second trailer, titled "It’s Morphin Time!", was released. Lionsgate debuted yet another trailer, which it called the "All-Star Trailer", on February 17. New TV spots were released on February 27, two about the Power Rangers, and one about Rita Repulsa. A clip was released on March 6, followed by two more on March 9. Thirty seven stills were then released. Another TV spot was released on March 10. In the final week before the movie premiered, two more clips, as well as photos, were released. The mobile app Power Rangers Movie Command Center was released in the app store on March 8, 2017.

A Build-A-Bear Workshop Power Range product range was announced on March 9, 2017. Krispy Kreme released doughnuts to promote the film, and served as an advertising partner. Placement of Krispy Kreme products and locations were featured in the film numerous times.

The group collaborated with YouTube sports entertainment group Dude Perfect ahead of the film's release, in a video titled "Dude Perfect vs. Power Rangers".

Video game

Lionsgate and Saban, in collaboration with nWay Games, released a PvP fighting mobile game called Power Rangers Legacy Wars on March 23 2017, to coincide with the film's release.

Music

The official soundtrack, with music by Brian Tyler, was released digitally on March 24, 2017, and is scheduled for release on CD on April 4, distributed by Varèse Sarabande.

All music composed by Brian Tyler.

Release

Originally scheduled for release on July 22, 2016, Lionsgate later delayed the date to March 24, 2017. All of the original cast of the Power Rangers series attended the film's Los Angeles premiere on March 22, 2017.

Box office

In the United States and Canada, Power Rangers opened alongside Life, CHiPs and Wilson, and is projected to gross $30–35 million from 3,693 theaters in its opening weekend. The film made $3.6 million from Thursday night previews at 2,700 theaters.

Critical response

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 45% based on 88 reviews, and an average rating of 5/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Power Rangers has neither the campy fun of its TV predecessor nor the blockbuster action of its cinematic superhero competitors, and sadly never quite manages to shift into turbo for some good old-fashioned morphin time." On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating, the film has a score 44 out of 100, based on 27 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.

IGN gave the film a 7/10, saying, "Power Rangers doesn’t quite pull off everything it wants to, but it’s a fun time at the theater nonetheless." Mike McCahill of The Guardian wrote that "the film achieves a functioning mediocrity we perhaps might have thought beyond this franchise", and gave it 2 out of 5 stars.

Mike Ryan of Uproxx gave the film a negative review, writing: "Power Rangers has one of the most zig-zagged tones of any big budget studio film I’ve seen in a long time. It’s jarring at times how often it goes back and forth between 'gritty' and 'silly'." Writing for Variety, Owen Gleiberman also criticized the film's conflicting tones, saying: "...25 years ago, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers was launched as superhero fodder for kids, and there was indeed a place for it, but we’re now so awash in superhero culture that kids no longer need the safe, lame, pandering junior-league version of it. They can just watch Ant-Man or the PG-13 Suicide Squad. Safe, lame, and pandering have all grown up." In a review for the The Telegraph, Robbie Collin gave it 1/5 stars, criticizing the "abjectly embarrassing frenzy of product placement".

Potential sequels

In a conference call to analysts, Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer stated, "We could see doing five or six or seven." On March 22, 2017, Haim Saban detailed that he and Lionsgate already have a six-movie story arc.