I grew up in the 90's. I witnessed the premiere of the original Power Rangers on Fox Kids on a Saturday morning. I instantly fell in love from that day. I grew up and grew out of watching that show, but not before the first 2 movies came out, which I did go see :). Fast forward to today - a new version of the original Power Rangers is coming out, and it has me worried. Not just because it may screw up my childhood memories, but because it may not be true to the Power Rangers.
If anyone can remember, a few years ago, there was a different video that went viral on YouTube that was about the Power Rangers' lives after the machine empire took over. It was cool for what it was, but I didn't like it because it wasn't something I identified the Power Rangers being if the machine empire took over. I know, it's a different universe and it's the story that the director chose to go with to fit his narrative, but sometimes being too different is a bad thing. It's like taking Blue's Clues and making a new story and turning it into a different version of Cujo and you have to find clues to survive. That would be horrifying and you'd probably never watch Blue's Clues again. I wasn't the only person to feel this way about the plot twist in the Power Rangers short film, even Jason David Frank himself said it wasn't true to the franchise. What about the new movie?
It may still be a group of teenagers trying to get through school and stumble upon these alien powers, but it's already changed too much with that one statement alone. When the Power Rangers first came out, the rangers were chosen to fight as a team and learned (very quickly) that they needed to work as a team to fight the forces of evil. This time, they just so happen to find the illustrious power coins that give them the power to fight evil. To me, that shouldn't be something that's just laying around. Zordon was the one to give them the powers, and it should have been him this time around also.
Next we'll look at another character, Alpha 5. When he was in the 90's show, he was a (Mexican?) robot who helped Billy with all his technological advancements and improvements to the way the Power Rangers communicated and battled the forces of evil. This time, he is just an alien (robot?) who's probably just there to give the rangers tutorials on how to be the Power Rangers.
I said this earlier, when the original 5 became the Power Rangers, they were given a short explanation and had to fight immediately after. Basically the whole episode was one giant crash course, and it was epic. This time, they seem to be dealing with the fact that they acquired these powers and then they have to fight for their lives. The original didn't hesitate, they just did it, this time, we see one of the rangers hesitating to even jump over a giant ledge.
I think one of the only things that's different that looks cool is Zordon. Don't get me wrong, I love the original, but it's very cool that he has this matrix-type feel to him.
With that being said, it leads me to my next problem with the movie - the fact that it looks too much like a Transformers movie. The zords look almost like a rejected Transformers character.
Goldar looks like he was added at the last minute and they didn't have enough ideas to change the character so they basically said, "Let's make him look like he's made of golden mud," and just ran with it.
Another twist that I actually thought was interesting was the new version of Rita. Back then I always wondered why Rita didn't do anything herself, and this time, it's obvious that she likes to get her hands dirty. That is an awesome twist that I agree with, but that's also one of the only other things I like about this.
I'm not too concerned with the movie ruining my childhood memories because they can never take away what the original was, but I'm more worried about what it may do to the future plans for the movie as a franchise. Look how they handled the new Ninja Turtles movies, they thought they had a winner and capitalized on a small win right after it beat Guardians of the Galaxy and made a 2nd movie that sucked just as bad as the first one (from what I'm told - I never saw the movies because of Megan Fox's big mouth to the fans). Yes she did do that; you can find it here.
All in all, I will go watch this to see how it plays out. Unless someone pulls a Megan Fox and says that everyone just needs to shut up and give them money because they're gonna see it no matter how much crap they talk, then I won't see it. Different perspective on origin stories are always interesting to watch, but that doesn't always mean that it's a good idea to do it.
Adam