It's sweet, sweet morphing time again

Review by Blake Haughton 

I don’t know about the rest of you, but when I think back to childhood, I think of the Mighty Morphing Power Rangers. I mean, it was the show that brought "play fighting" to a whole new level. In fact, for many kids, the Power Rangers were their first window into anything Japanese. Well, mostly Japanese...

That's why I got so excited a few years back, we got a taste of something truly special: a rendition of the Power Rangers with all the heart and charm of the classic childhood series, but with a slight Western twist. The dark gritty nature of this bootleg (video below) drove people (myself included) to say, 'This is something I want to see.'

And...the studios actually listened, which seemed highly suspect. 

Admittedly, I was initially very anxious. With childhood nostalgia at stake, who wouldn't be? But, after having seen the film, I'm relieved to find that those feelings were very wrong.

One aspect of the film that many worried about were the effects; namely, the suits and Zords that the rangers would be using. While the suits don’t obviously mirror the originals perfectly, they still do a good job conveying the feel of the original, and even expressing why they need it to begin with.

The Zords actually do more than you expect, and the battle scenes with them are a whole heap of fun to watch. The music of the soundtrack meshes very well with the action sequences, especially the harkening back to the original series by playing the original theme music during a scene of Zords charging towards the battle, like every episode of the original show (1 min into the clip below). 

All in all, this movie was very good, and shows an actual understanding of how to make adaptations of foreign works effectively. You can see many examples from numerous western interpretations of other popular foreign media, such as Dragonball or Godzilla. That’s where my deep feeling of anxiety and dread came from; I desperately wanted to ensure that a thing I loved from my childhood wasn’t completely destroyed (and I’m sure I wasn’t alone).

The film's greatest strength comes from this: it builds off of a very strong fanbase from years ago, instead of trying far too hard to pull everyone in. It acknowledges enough of its predecessor to be good to longtime fans, and still has enough new content to it that it can draw new people in, and hook a new generation.

I’d give this movie a definite watch, even if you weren’t a fan of the original series. It’s got good characters, a great soundtrack, and solid pacing. If you like action movies, I can guarantee you’ll find something to like.

Rating: 3.5 Megazords outta 5.