Power Rangers (2017) Review

Power Rangers is the 2017 film based on the 1993 television series. It is directed by Dean Israelite, written by John Gatins, and starring Dacre Montomery, Naomi Scott, RJ Cyler, Becky G, and Ludi Lin.

Plot
Five teenagers must work together to battle the evil Rita Repulsa from taking the Zeo Crystal and destroying all life from Earth.

The Positives
I really liked the character composition here. The characters here were unexpectedly pretty decent. I liked how the characters were setup, how the film showed them deal with their struggles and their issues. I liked the actors (especially the Pink Ranger). The chemistry between them were really good I think. To be honest, I think the chemistry between the characters are the one saving grace of this film.

I really enjoyed the more grounded and realistic approach to film in the first Act (excluding the prologue). The film reminded me of Chronicle in a sense in terms of its grounded nature.

The Negatives
As you would expect, the problems of the film is more in the technical aspects of the film. The script has issues. The main problem I had with the script is that it goes for two conflicting tones here. In the first act, I mentioned that the film goes for a more grounded approach. However, once we get in the second Act and introduces the stakes, it goes for a more over-the-top, campy style. These two styles don't mix together well at all. I was kinda enjoying its more realistic tone, but once it got really over-the-top, it didn't mesh. I can tell the director probably had a more realistic vision to this film, but the studio probably came in and told the director to make it more like the original, which was guilty-pleasure and campy.

Also, I didn't like the camerawork, especially during action sequences. The movie would do a slow-motion thing like how Zack Synder does in 300, and it doesn't look good. The sound mixing wasn't good and production design didn't look good to me.

Conclusion
I'll be completely honest here, I didn't watch any of the Power Rangers growing up, but I did realize that it was supposed to be campy and over-the-top. So, I came in not really expecting a well-structured film. I didn't expect this to be like The Dark Knight or The Incredibles that have great writing, production design, direction, and things. I knew it was supposed to be a guilty-pleasure type movie, and that's how I went into it. Basically, I'm saying if you're expecting this to be a well-made film, then you'll probably not like it. Maybe you'll like it if you're a Power Rangers fan, but for people who are expecting a film, you'll probably want to skip. In my opinion, it's okay...if you turn your brain off. For the first time, I'll have two scores in this review.

Score: C+ (with brain turned off)
Score: D+ (with brain turned on)