Like many kids growing up in the 1990s, I loved Power Rangers. It always got me hyped as a kid. I remember wanting the original Megazord and Dragonzord toys, but they were always sold out. Literally, they were impossible to get. The toy stores were always sold out. That was how crazy Power Rangers-mania was in the 1990s. The shortages made the news.
The franchise has continued on in various incarnations over the last 20 years, some seasons were good, and some were bad. If you want some great stuff on the history of the franchise, I recommend Linkara's History of Power Rangers series. Great videos, very informative and entertaining.
The trailer seems to hit that this version of Jason is may be a bit of a troublemaker, based on the ankle bracelet, but he may have a bit of a heroic heart in him, as showing of his fighting off some bullies. And speaking of bullies, I think we may show that the new Kimberly and Trini may be the victims of bullying themselves. We also see the new Billy getting picked on, too. This and the various scenes we have seen in this trailer with the future Rangers have gotten me very interested. The film does seem interested in portraying these characters as more realistic teenagers, instead of the admittedly rather one-dimensional goody-goody paragons of the original series.
I have heard this film being compared to The Breakfast Club, and I certainly can see why. It does have that vibe slightly. Helps that one could argue the Rangers can fit into the archetypes a but , with Billy the Brain, Jason the Criminal, Kimberly the Princess...wait, what does that make Zack and Trini? Which one's the Basket Case and the Jock?
We do see hints that our heroes get civilian powers of sorts, and I have no real issue with this, considering what the powers are. I watched Linkara's look at SPD, and it made me scratch my head. The powers they had were incredibly neat and useful, but they only used them when unmorphed. You'd think those additional powers would be useful in combat in their Ranger forms, but nope! They never use them in their Ranger forms? What's the explanation in-universe? Did the Ranger forms somehow shut off those powers? Ah, the limitations of editing around Sentai footage.
So why am I not bothered by THESE particular civilian powers? Because they seem like powers they will be using in their Ranger forms: Enhanced strength and durability. The Power Rangers are known for their skills at hand-to-hand combat, so these abilities make sense for them. The Rangers have to be able to take a beating and hand out one. And also, the bit with the bully getting knocked out by trying to headbutt Billy is pretty funny. Not to mention these are abilities they may actually USE as Rangers.
Rita saying she has killed Rangers before in the trailer does raise some interesting questions. Who were these previous Rangers? How did Rita kill them? And what were the circumstances of their battle with her that led to their deaths?
The teaser was also surprisingly colorful, which I liked. They're superheroes, the film should be colorful. I did like the Saban and Lionsgate logos showed the Power Ranger colors. Nice little touch there.
I do like this teaser. I felt it did its job as a teaser. We don't get any full-on reveals, just little tastes of who the new Rangers are, their powers, of Rita, and what they're up against. It has done its job very well, and I am interested in seeing this movie.
No comments:
Post a Comment