It’s rare that a long time goes by without Hollywood relaunching a franchise, but not all attempts are successful. When the failure is of a movie or series that is not worth it, it is more reasonable, but there are times when it is They end up condemning some of the most worthy proposals. That is what happened in the case of ‘Power Rangers’, the film released in 2017 that stands out in the extensive Netflix catalog and can also be seen on Amazon Prime Video.
An undeserved blow
Directed by Dean Israelite (responsible for ‘Project Almanac’), ‘Power Rangers’ was a big bet to relaunch the saga that began with the legendary television series that began in 1993. For this, a strong investment of 100 million dollars was made and the plan was to produce sequels, but then the box office hit (it had worldwide revenues of just 142 million) meant the cancellation of the planned projects.
One of the things that probably worked against it is the lack of a better-known actor among its five protagonists, something that years later would not have been the case. The race of Becky G as a singer exploded not long after, the popularity of Dacre Montgomery skyrocketed after his signing for ‘Stranger Things’ and Naomi Scott She gave life to Jasmine just two years later in the live-action remake of ‘Aladdin’.
However, at that time the best known internationally was a RJ Cyler who had stood out in the notable ‘I, him and Raquel’. The curious thing is that this ends up working in its favor, since the film pays more attention than expected to its characters, allowing us to become familiar with them, achieve their own identity and we are left wanting to see how their adventures continue.
Along the way, he introduces an accomplished villain like Elizabeth Banks in the role of Rita Repulsa to prepare everything for the spectacular explosion of action in the final stretch of the film. The other most popular name in the cast is Bryan Cranston, but the ‘Malcolm’ and ‘Breaking Bad’ star has a reduced role as the face and voice of Zordon in the original version. In addition, Bill Hader has a stellar cameo as the voice of Alpha 5.
On the other hand, this reboot renews the story and the characters without ever destroying the hallmarks of the franchise, but updating them very effectively to maintain what worked at the time without being afraid to modernize it a little. Unfortunately, the public did not respond en masse, although I am very clear that deserves a second chance and that ‘Power Rangers’ is one of the most entertaining superhero movies that have not come out of the Marvel and DC labels.
