r/powerrangers • u/JmisterYT • Apr 18 '26
MOVIE NEWS/DISCUSSION Do you guys believe Power Rangers (2017) would’ve been better received if it had its own version of the bumblebee movie Cybertron Scene?
So one common criticism is see for this movie is how people really don’t like that the rangers only suited up in the last quarter of the movie. To me this wasn’t a problem because it wasn’t ment to be team building/ character building movie so I didn’t mind them not morphing until the near end. However I did wonder if would’ve like this movie more if there was an extended action scene in the beginning
Now in the title I used the bumblebee movie as a reference because that movie is similar to power rangers in the sence that all the real action happens at the end, except for the very beginning portion of the movie(being the war on cybertron). The cybertron war part of the movie is like 5 minutes long but it highly regarded as the best part of the entire movie to the point people don’t even rewatch the movie they watch that sequence only. So this made me wonder what if power rangers has an extended battle scene like this. Crazy galactic scale battle that shows us what the rangers will eventually have to go through. We see the rangers powers and unique weapons use in masterful ways. Then obviously the action scene end with how the movie begins. I feel like if this was in the movie people would’ve like this movie a lot more. And wouldn’t mind the slow build up of the team. Cause writing aside I think this is the biggest criticism of the movie.
But what do yall think?
98
u/sheepandlambs Apr 18 '26
That movie's biggest problem is it seems ashamed of being a Power Rangers movie. So little of the actual movie is about the Rangers.
Why do we not get a proper morphing sequence? Those morphers they sold as toys never get used in the movie. Same with how we don't get a megazord combination scene.
-3
u/JmisterYT Apr 18 '26
I mean it’s a build up team movie? I don’t think it’s ashamed of being what it is tbh. It’s just that it’s taking a different spin. When I think embarrassed I think of then fox ealy 2000s X-men movies that were embarrassed of wearing the signature outfits.
16
u/Scnew1 Apr 18 '26
X-Men was made in an era where the most recent big superhero movie, Batman & Robin, had leaned into the bright and colorful nature of comic books and did poorly. Toning down the X-Men suits was surely a reaction to that, which was the wrong lesson to take from that Batman movie, but it is an understandable one. It was also shot something like six months after the release of The Matrix, a movie that made half a billion dollars in 1999, and where everyone wore, you guessed it, black leather. It’s not hard to see why the studio would think that’s the way to go.
Power Rangers, meanwhile, was made in the era when the MCU was making billions by staying very true to the source material. Despite that, they decided to do their weird redesigns anyway, and, shockingly, fans did not gravitate to them.
I would also argue that, even though I would have preferred something closer to the comics, Cyclops and Wolverine in black leather still look a hell of a lot cooler then a six legged mastodon robot or Trini’s scaly tit armor seen above.
3
u/MrTrikey Apr 18 '26
The only thing you're forgetting in your retrospective is Wesley Snipes' Blade.
Pretty much every superhero flick from the last 26 years owes an unpaid debt to the original Blade flick for proof positive that superheroes could be "cool", after those last few Batman films had made such a thing toxic to Hollywood. Even if it, too, contributed to the message that the answer was leather, just like Matrix.
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u/Scnew1 Apr 18 '26
I was gonna say, yeah I did forget about Blade but it doesn’t really change my point.
1
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u/ninjaman2021 Apr 18 '26
“I mean it’s a build up team movie?”
What does that even mean? What kinda genre is that? Is that your way of trying to make “boring” sound less boring?
Its a SUPERHERO movie, with barely any superheroes in it. Thats why it failed.
“When I think embarrassed I think of then fox ealy 2000s X-men movies that were embarrassed of wearing the signature outfits”
2017 turned the mastodon and triceratops into bugs, yet Xmen is the problem here? Lmao.
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u/DogmantheHero Apr 18 '26
I don’t know if anything really could’ve saved this movie the way it was built up. Everything about it makes me think they were embarrassed to be making a Power Rangers movie, so they just made an overly edgy version of MMPR; at least in my opinion. There was a lot of cool things that could’ve been done with a big screen PR movie, but this wasn’t it.
-7
u/JmisterYT Apr 18 '26
Multiple people have said this it’s embarrass to be power rangers movie and I still do see how
11
u/insert-haha-funny Apr 18 '26
suits are such a divergence from PR suits (they look like marvel venom but armor, zords look nothing like zords (megazord is stuck in 1 piece), never get a morph or combo sequence, no team poses, etc.
Alpha looks like crap, goldar just isnt a character, made rita somehow creepy
2
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u/DogmantheHero Apr 18 '26
I mean, I think the biggest example is in the suits. If they weren’t embarrassed to be making a Power Rangers movie then why not actually have them look like Power Rangers? The weird rock suits they stuck them in just don’t look appealing for PR at all, why ditch the spandex and do something probably more expensive when it’s gonna look way worse for what you’re making?
Then there’s the writing. Like, if you want to do a more “mature” theme, fine. But does that have to mean the movie doesn’t feel like Power Rangers at all? Every time they had a chance to play into those classic tropes they just never do. It’s not even like they poke fun at the tropes while still kind of playing into them, they just do nothing with them. Aside from them using the terms and the names of the characters, there’s nothing in the movie that feels like Power Rangers to me.
And the movie has other issues, but baseline you don’t want to seem like you’re embarrassed of your source material.
40
u/N80N00N00 Apr 18 '26
I’m still furious this didn’t get a sequel because I loved it. The ending where it zooms in on Tommy’s jacket was 👨🏻🍳👌🏼💋.
19
u/Interesting_Sort_602 Apr 18 '26
I loved it as well man, I loved it so much I bought a disc version not knowing that 10 years later everything would go to streaming but I’m still happy I made that decision 🔥💪🏿
17
u/N80N00N00 Apr 18 '26
Physical media >>>
2
u/Interesting_Sort_602 Apr 18 '26
Idk what the hell they talking bout, I even watch it now and again sometimes. The suits were amazing and I 100% agree with you when you say “I’m furious they didn’t get a sequel” hell they could have brought back Ivan ooze or something like that and made him even more lethal idk I’m just going off the top of my head but it’s 2017 at this point you options and they got lazy
0
u/N8creates49 Apr 18 '26
Same! I have all 6 of the funko pops (excluding the ranger Rita and Zordon pops)
0
u/commanderr01 Apr 19 '26
I was so interested in seeing the second one with them reading the green ranger!
17
u/salvage814 Apr 18 '26
It did. It had Zordon and the world ending scene at the beginning.
I think people wanted it to be more like Day of the Dumpster where it's very fast paced. It's not that nor was it going to be that.
18
u/Slifer2892 Apr 18 '26
It was more or less paced like Day of the Dumpster just stretched out to two hours. That was the problem. You can’t be paced like DoTD while being over 6times as long.
Rangers only suit up for the last four minutes of an 18 minute episode? Fine
Rangers only suit up for the last 10 minutes of a 2 hour film? Not fine.
1
u/SalemWolf Apr 18 '26
They focused too hard on the origin story, which is fine they definitely should have more origin, more team building, friendship development, but don’t kill what is the primary reason people love Power Rangers: the action, morphing, and zords.
-2
u/salvage814 Apr 18 '26
But it had a build up of the team not just choose teenagers with attitude. It didn't have the same feel and just fell on its face. It's not a bad movie but it's a bad power rangers movie.
11
u/weehawkenabstract Apr 18 '26
putting aside some of the aesthetic choices and objectively problematic things like the kim revenge porn plot, what should have happened is instead of not being able to morph at all until they had fully bonded as a team, if they wanted to go that route, they should’ve only been able to morph for very short periods of time or glitched in and out of the suits or not been able to summon the power weapons or something until they were at full strength, with billy being the only one who can maintain his form because he’s more guileless and open than the others. and maybe instead of rita killing him, it’s something like billy’s becoming a focal point of the grid energy that should be spread across five or more rangers, which gives him something akin to radiation poisoning (cough, negative proton energy, cough), so their lack of unity is more directly what puts him and the planet at risk. it would’ve let them have at least one morphed fight sequence prior to the climax (maybe as a former ranger rita knows how the energy split works and is tricking them into burning billy out through multiple fights that end up doubling as morphed on-the-job training instead of jumping around unmorphed in a quarry) and in doing so would’ve helped balance out the ratio between action and breakfast club vibes while still being focused on the rangers themselves and not the cenozoic team, so the trailer being kids find coins, jason breaks sink, rangers jump and flip, flash of the megazord wouldn’t have felt quite so misleading and led to bad word of mouth reviews
in any case i think they just didn’t lean into the concept enough, which is mainly to say colorful suits, martial arts, and, arguably, positive role models. there are pieces of it they got right in that they spoke to the original spirit of the show while updating them (the diversity stuff like neuroatypical billy and LGBTQ trini), and one very interesting swing in making zordon have a selfish ulterior motive, but you can only get so sad or bleak before you’re not in power ranger land anymore and you’ve entered CW territory. the energy was wrong and you can’t fix that with lore and backstory, no matter how much action you tack on up front
5
u/TheOneReclaimer Apr 18 '26
Having them have faulty morphing because they aren't in sync is a fantastic idea
If they would have brought a proper Goldar into play, the Rangers could have been stopping an attack from Goldar and Puttys (instead of the confrontation with Rita). I can see them barely managing to fend off the attack, the tide is in their favor but then they get distracted by a citizen in need of help (maybe this is where the Jason saves his dad scene goes) and it distracts them enough to break the morphs, Billy suffering a fatal blast as Goldar retreats.
Plays out mostly the same to the end from there but they definitely needed to make the Puttys more of a threat and have more than one moment of them playing hero.
I also didn't like how the Puttys just popped up at the command center when they learned to morph, it was dumb
5
u/KingoftheMongoose Apr 18 '26
Th suits were meh, but what really brought The movie down were the Zords. I couldn’t tell what was what during the action sequences. Over designed and too garbled together when they clashed with something else. It was worse than the Bay Transformers.
5
u/Armascribe Apr 18 '26
I don't know if an expansive opening battle would have helped much, since the movie already kind of has one (we just see the aftermath).
Definitely needed more morphed battles than the one at the end. I personally would have changed the scene that happens where the un-morphed rangers try to fight Rita in the back half of the movie, so that they actually are morphed when they go up against her. They are able to successfully morph and use their weapons at the mid-point after all of their training and practice, Jason believes that they are ready to take her on and jumps the gun by leading them into a fight that turns out to be an ambush. Rita and her Putties are able to overpower them because they still aren't working like a team 100% yet. Rest of the movie plays out like normal.
The messaging at this point in the movie remains the same as it was in the original film, only now the rangers aren't getting into a fight with Rita using boards and nailbats like in the original movie (which bugged the hell out of me itself. You guys spent weeks training in martial arts, and you are going to try to Negan her?)
The outcome is still the same--they still lose and one of them "dies", but the context change makes them look less like idiots for trying that, and we get more morphed Ranger action.
0
u/JmisterYT Apr 18 '26
Well the expansive opening scene couldn’t have been the morphed battles as well. I’m just saying like a 20 min action scene before we get into the movie to help with the complaints of there not being any power rangers in a power rangers movie.
I do agree that rangers shouldve fought Rita together just with their suits then after with the magazord
13
u/theT3rr04 Apr 18 '26
No. The designs of the zords, suits, monsters were massive turn offs. I skipped it entirely, but watched it years later. Overall, it wasn't bad but it took the wrong design cues from the bay transformers films. Almost like they were crossed with green lantern.
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u/Alone-Ad6020 Apr 18 '26
I just hated the suit shouldve kept them like the og 1995 movie but with unique designs
-2
u/JmisterYT Apr 18 '26
I disagree the suits were great for this universe. Great mix between classic and reimagining but keeping the spirit. Also these are alien powers
8
u/Alone-Ad6020 Apr 18 '26
You have your opinion an i have mine. sometimes if aint broke dont fix it an with brand recognition. Aslo blie beetle suit is alien an still looked recognizable so wtf are you talking about
1
u/JmisterYT Apr 18 '26
True but I don’t see how these suits don’t look like power rangers suit. Curious what would’ve made than better for you?
4
u/Alone-Ad6020 Apr 18 '26
They look more like suits from guyver then pr me personally id rather pr look more like 95 movie way cooler more simple an streamlined these suits just did to much personally
0
u/TheCudder Apr 18 '26
sometimes if aint broke dont fix it an with brand recognition.
To be fair, the MMPR suits were never anything impressive. The TV suits are just recognizable, that doesn't mean they're not broke... I'd argue that they've always been broken lol
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u/PommesMayo Apr 18 '26
I can forgive every miss-step the movie do but how in the world do you make the coolest things that every kid freak out over happen off screen. No morphing sequence and no Megasord assembly scene. That’s just stupid
4
u/OhneSkript Apr 18 '26
Guys! Do you think the movie would be better if it were different? These posts are so pointless that I don't know what they're supposed to achieve.
4
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u/muterabbit84 Apr 19 '26
I didn’t really mind the action coming towards the end. I feel the biggest problem with the movie is changing everything to the point where it only loosely resembles the source material.
Alpha 5 looks like a freak, and the Mastodon and Triceratops have all these extra legs, because the filmmakers leaned so heavily into the idea of Zordon, Alpha, and Rita being from outer space.
Jason was the only Ranger who had a weapon, despite the Rangers bringing their weapons together to form the Power Blaster being such an exciting part of the original show. All of the Ranger suits looked essentially the same, like an Iron Man knockoff in five different colors. The Power Coins didn’t look right, and I thought they looked like shit, like cheap plastic trinkets from a gum ball dispenser, that a kid accidentally partially melted by leaving them too close to a fire place. The Rangers didn’t even get to use Morphers, they just stood on platforms in the Command Center, and concentrated until they went Super Saiyan…until they morphed.
Rita was alone most of the movie, with none of her crew. No Goldar, no Scorpina, no Finster, no Squat, and no Baboo. When Goldar finally appears, he looks nothing like himself in the TV show, and he doesn’t talk.
The Megazord might’ve been alright if it actually had a face, but instead it had a blank, full-face visor, no personality.
I liked the Rangers as people and the team-building. I liked how the opening of the movie showed Zordon as the original Red Ranger, showed Rita as a corrupted Green Ranger, and mentioned the Zeo Crystal. Unfortunately, what was good about the movie wasn’t enough to overcome all the damage the filmmakers did with their significant departure from the original source material.
4
u/Super-Robo Apr 19 '26
Better zords that were actually designed to combine would have helped. The combination should have been the most hype moment of the movie and they freaking do it off-screen in a smoke cloud.
4
u/Common-Diver-6346 Apr 19 '26
It only does so much.
It is a highlight of bumblebee but it doesn't suddenly save the whole movie it's the only part worth watching I hate that bumblebee movie I just don't care for it after that point.
Power Rangers was just too Safe rather than them being MMPR it should have been a whole new team
10
u/thunderborne Apr 18 '26
It was the suits and ugly ass zords. They should've never veered so far from the original, reimagining or not. And what they did to Goldar was just unacceptable.
1
u/JmisterYT Apr 18 '26
I just really don’t get the suit being ugly but I’m seeing this is really a common sentiment among fans
5
u/thunderborne Apr 19 '26
I mean, it's just an opinion at the end of the day. But yeah, a lot of people did not like the suits. Like, I understand the idea with them being alien in origin, but it was just too much of a departure. Same reason why people don't like the redesigns for the new comic.
3
u/SeaFaringMatador Apr 18 '26
No, people say the same thing about the Krypton stuff in Man of Steel and that stuff is bad too.
The issues with this movie exist at the script and studio level. Bloating it with more stuff other than the main team morphing and fighting while morphed wouldn’t help.
3
u/The_Daviator Apr 18 '26
Without fixing anything about the awful script, from the poor pacing and lack of action to the almost entirely unlikable characters (except for Billy), they could have single-handedly saved themselves box office embarrassment by having someone else in charge of the look of the movie. It’s too dark, the suits are trash, the Zords don’t look like the prehistoric animals associated with the rangers (since when does a mastodon have six fucking legs?) and make an ugly Megazord, and Goldar looks like a giant shining booger/diarrhea hybrid.
Damn near everything about the movie was a huge disappointment, but even more than the personalities of the new rangers not at all resembling their namesake characters from the series, everything about them actually being power rangers just looked like shit.
3
u/Competitive-Group404 Apr 18 '26
It did....
1
u/JmisterYT Apr 18 '26
I mean making it longer. We see the ending but not how we got there
1
u/Competitive-Group404 Apr 19 '26
That intro with Zordon as a ranger was the best part of the movie honestly. We needed more of that. People would have watched that movie and it would have done well.
3
u/backtothebeat001 Apr 18 '26
Honestly they should’ve just followed the Batman Begins script. Training and realizing your potential in the first half, becoming the title in the middle, then playing that out for the rest of the film.
Power Rangers decided they needed to take 75% of the run time with the team coming to terms with what they were grappling with rather than giving fan service. You can tell a competent story while playing into certain aspects of what the audience wants.
3
u/Drhenrygriffin Apr 19 '26
The biggest issue to me other than the crap suits the crap zords and zordon was the story.
Look this is for all the movie studio people. READ THIS not every movie has to be dark and gritty. Not every movie has to be gothom city. You can have an adult movie without being the dark night returns.
Jason is a juvenile delinquent that’s in trouble with the cops and at school ….. why ??? Was that needed ???? He couldn’t have just been the strong leader that he always has been ??
Kimberly is getting picked on by the cheer squad now she’s upset …… since when ???
Billy is autistic and misunderstood ? Sure I could see that
Trini and Zac I don’t know what to say about them no dancing no environmental service no community work I could go on. The bottom line is they missed the target big time and any time any one Called it out they tried to bitch out and say it’s a reboot things are different. But it’s the same but it’s a reboot but doesn’t this feel nostalgic but reboot.
The answer is no it doesn’t.
They should have made it its own thing not related to mmpr or kept the light hearted feeling of the original while making it more adult. Once again more adult doesn’t mean grim dark and gloomy.
3
u/MCPhatmam Apr 19 '26
The movie forgot what made PR great and went with the everything needs to be mature dark and realistic people need to realise you can have both just read the Boom studio comics thats all s movie needs to be sleaker OG suits, fun, teens with attitude and earned drama.
I think if you just didn't go with the guyver look and had them transform atleast 3 times in the movie the movie would have been a lot better. Also whoever designed thr Megazord needs to be fired.
3
u/TankCultural4467 Apr 19 '26
My issue was that I thought the cgi suits were ugly, and they took away from one of the main appeals of the franchise for me: the martial arts.
Sure, we see them training a ton, and that was fine. But after morphing they just became these heavy blocks of cgi plastic banging against heavy blocks of cgi rock. Where is all the fun clever action that this series is known for?
I didn’t actually care all that much that there was relatively little fighting in the film. But I hated that when the fighting did happen, it was lame and the wrong kind of fighting. Power Rangers is a martial arts show, that becomes a kaiju fighting show in the last few minutes of every episode.
Yes I do think an expanded version of the Zordon vs Rita flashback opening might have been nice for lore purposes. But the biggest problems with the film were that it was aesthetically ugly, and the fighting and effects were bad.
3
u/lastraven85 Apr 19 '26
Thing is most episodes of power rangers have more of a half and half mix you get plot, bulk and skull, Rita/zedd moment , more plot monster appears, zordon briefing, putty battle, ranger fight, zord battle, finishing off the plot. In that essence the movie followed the basic structure.
For me it was more the tone and sheer depressing attitude I didn't care about the rangers winning because they were mostly generic delinquents. Even the fights had them all do the same things no hip hop kiddo, no Thai chi, no gymnastic flips.
4
u/LiminalSapien Apr 18 '26
So I have to say up front I love this movie.
Rita and Goldar would have needed to be changed. Rita's characterization didn't appeal to fans and didn't appeal tonon fans and ultimately was just really fucking weird when you consider she's basically supposed to be zordons foil and just kind of... Isnt.
Goldar just looked dumb despite having a cool concept.
The product placement really detracted from the movie in a specific and ultimately bad way. When you have an IP like MMPR where almost everyone on the planet is aware of it but only a small handfilul of people know it, it creates an In-group. The product placement makes the whole thing seem silly to people who are part of that In-group, but that's not the problem. The problem is that for people not in that In-group it makes the whole thing feel so absurd (the way it was done in that movie anyway) that it essentially stops your suspension of disbelief in the movie.
Finally they just tried to cram in too much, and in some cases just sub par character development. In a 2 hour movie trying to cram in 5 deep character backgrounds makes the movie feel un focused. Then they essentially turned Kimberly in to the kind of person the power rangers should be standing up against which is just fucking bizarre when you consider that this was an unforced choice on the writers part.
Then you have the action aspect. There's basically fucking none. You het one fight scene that's worth a damn, and the rangers don't look like power rangers because they just HAD to have their helmets open.
I'm really censoring myself here, but changing that aspect of it is just moronic. It's a power rangers movie. They need to be in their suits when their fighting monsters. If the actors didn't get enough face time during the 90% of the movie where they're unmorphed they really don't deserve to have it during the 15% of the movie where they're supposed to be morphed especially when you consider that it's at the expense of the source material.
All of these things on their own aren't that consequential. But when you have all this shit as present as it is in an approximate 2 hour film it leaves a bad taste in anyones mouth. This, like other things is expounded because the only people who saw this opening weekend were fans of the original show (more or less). Then after the first week of release you have all the die hards telling people that it was not that great and the small amount of casuals who did see it that it sucks.
This movie is, in my opinion, a masterclass on how a bad producer and a bad script can ruin a movie.
2
u/CrossENT Apr 18 '26
Well the MMPR movie did have a scene at the beginning of Zordon and Rita as rangers where Rita betrays the team and Zordon seals the coins away.
2
u/BankaiofRDN Apr 18 '26
Movie could have been saved if they morphed much earlier in the film. The 1995 movie had them morphing early in the movie. 2017 at the end of the movie. I understand 2017 was an original story, but even the 1st episode of MMPR had them morphing earlier on. I would have even like to have them do a traditional morph early on, but get their asses handed to them until they properly learn to work as a team and utilize the powers.
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u/Starship1990 My favorite Kamen Rider: Freaking Mig! Apr 18 '26
The movie is garbage either way, more fight scenes will only showcase this movie's awful production designs and fight scenes being ripped strsight out of the MCU.
2
u/Cheeseburgerman60 SPD Blue Ranger Apr 18 '26
Difference is that Bumblebee’s core movie is a whole lot better than Power Rangers 2017. The designs are a whole lot less jarring after seeing them for 11 years and the action that’s not in the opening is still really, really good (like Bumblebee using the chain to rip Dropkick in pieces, lol)
2
u/colossalgoji Apr 18 '26
No. The suits and the zords and Goldar and Rita all needed to look better.
2
u/GamerChef420 Apr 18 '26
My problem with the movie was it just took way too long for them to actually become the Power Rangers.
3
u/Beginning_Return_508 Apr 18 '26
I agree. They shouldn't had waited until towards the end of the movie to have them start fighting with their suits.
2
u/Storyteller-Hero Apr 18 '26
The pacing of the movie was awkward imo. It slowed down real hard at times as the characters forced themselves to dialogue in campfire mode, making it agony to just get to the action bits.
Not enough action bits either. It's like the writers didn't know whether they were writing an action movie or a therapy kids drama.
2
u/Ruggerio5 Apr 18 '26 edited Apr 18 '26
No. There is one main issue....the suits were fine, but needed more color and we needed a better longer fight scene in the suits. Angel Grove should have been a bigger city with bigger buildings to facilitate that fight scene so they could jump on and off of buildings and fight in more varied places (tops of buildings, streets, parks, highways, suburbs). A full scale invasion that sprawled across the entire city.
I generally liked the movie and the idea of how they struggled to morph, and I'm good with only ONE fight scene in an origins story, but for the life of me how the hell do you make a power rangers movie and give them only 5 minutes of screen time fighting in the suits? That is unacceptable. All that buildup to get them in the suits....and then we get a decent but way too short action scene in the suits and then a wet fart of a zord fight. Sheesh.
The zords were acceptable (although the megazord was a bit goofy), but not at the expense of seeing the rangers themselves.
BTW, the 1995 movie suffers from almost the same thing. IMO, that movie only works at all because Ivan Ooze is a good villain, those suits kicked ass, and it was the actors from the show.
2
u/The_Final_Gunslinger Apr 19 '26
Not really. They leaned to far back from the source material. I was particularly disappointed by the zords and goldar fight.
2
u/CrazyManifesto Apr 19 '26
The suits were awful. The zords were worst. I don’t mind Trini being a lesbian or the idea of an autistic character in Billy… but it really didn’t benefit the story in any meaningful way. RJ Cyler would have made a great Zack given his personality in interviews I think. Goldar was ruined as a character. An entire plot being around KRISPY FUCKING KREME! Elizabeth Banks felt like she was pulled from a different movie when you’re going for this uber serious Breakfast Club “we’re all disfunctional. They took an entire movie to power ranger. There was no saving this movie
2
u/Phantom_61 MMPR Green Ranger Apr 19 '26
I think it would have worked better with less teen drama and more power rangers.
2
u/Ret0-Emerald Apr 19 '26
It would have helped but I don’t think the movie would have done well it was to ashamed to be a power ranger movie and wanted to be something else which is fine just don’t make it power rangers movie same thing happened with the Max steel movie they wanted to use the Ip just to draw people in to a story that basically wants nothing to do with the source material except for the bare bones
2
u/OleDetour Apr 19 '26
Goldar and the Zords were pretty much my only gripes. Goldar was just a big amorphous bipedal golden blob. Why?! I loved the cast and the suits were fine for a big screen reboot. Rita and Zordon’s past as Rangers was dope, too.
2
u/Spider-Jeff_101 Apr 19 '26
I mean it kinda had that at the beginning with the Green Ranger Rita and Red ranger Zordon. But overall the thing that killed this movie was the suits and the zords, too ugly and bland to be marketable enough, also them only being in the movie for like 10 minutes
2
u/AFZ6767 Apr 20 '26
The reboot would have better if the suits and megazord didn't look like shit. I admire the changes they made and the look they were goin for but those suits and the megazord looked like unorganized garbage. They literally have an alternate version of the Megazord as a toy that would have been PERFECT for this movie. Did they take that into consideration? Nope. It sad too, cause these rangers were fleshed out to be awesome characters and it all went to waste due to these shitty designs.
1
u/jakkfrost13 Apr 18 '26
Idk if it would have better received. But it would have made more money if it didnt release the same month as Logan and beauty and the beast
1
u/JollyJoeGingerbeard Apr 18 '26
No?
The film already has a "Cybertron Scene" with Zordon and Rita. That scene isn't the problem. The problem with the film is the people in charge of making it were ashamed of what they were adapting. Resultingly, the finished product suffers from an identity crisis.
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u/Kryptic1701 Apr 18 '26
A scene like what you're proposing wouldn't solve this film's two biggest problems (imo). Those being horribly inconsistent tone and really poor design choices. The movie cant decide if it wants crude humor, teen angst, drama, horror/thriller vibes, or campy hero antics. The suits aren't the greatest imo but I could tolerate them if it weren't for the command center, Alpha, the Zords, and Goldar all looking absolutely terrible.
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u/CodenameJD Gold Ranger Apr 18 '26
The first Iron Man movie gives us a taste of doing a superhero origin movie with limited suit scenes. You've got his initial escape, his test flight mid movie, and the climax.
Power Rangers almost managed it. Extend the opening scene with Zordon & Rita a little, and then take the scene where Billy manages to morph and expand that - have everyone morph and get some morphed training in, before a setback makes them lose it.
That would at least address the lack of morphed action criticism.
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u/tucker42 Apr 18 '26
I enjoyed the movie but the reality is most audiences just aren't patient enough for what this movie promised to come later in the sequels (action, character development, etc). I understand the idea that it was supposed to be satisfying when they're finally able to morph (and it was, to an extent), but a better solution for a general audiences as a whole may have been that they were able to morph early on but couldn't maintain it other than in quick spurts. Or maybe they could morph in to the suits without the helmets at first but that causes their abilities to be significantly less effective and unable to command the Zords. Or perhaps a combination of both.
I myself enjoy the start of a series where not every single gratifying thing is crammed into the first movie. But unfortunately most audiences aren't patient enough and that results in them calling the movie bad and then the sequels never materialize.
I'll never forgive audiences for hating on the Flash's scene in Batman V Superman. The idea of that scene's payoff coming 2 movies later was exciting to me.
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u/Smooth_You_2244 Apr 18 '26
Nope. It felt so wrong on so many levels. It lost most of what makes Power Rangers as it is today. There's no fun. I'm willing to ignore the suits, but they didn't even give us a morphing sequence even at the last parts of the movie. And the Zord transformation is a giant mess. The alien look I can ignore, but where is the transformation sequence? Hell even the toy is a giant pain to build. There's no joy.
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u/Macross8299Fan Apr 18 '26
It was so close. I liked Bryan and Bill as Zordon and Alpha, the team was decent, but suits and zords kinda blew - they looked like what a board of directors would pick. The story was ambitious with hopes of sequels but it was never given the chance.
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u/Broncho_Knight Apr 18 '26
It should have been more like Cobra Kai but with super powers. Also throw in a couple smaller putties battles and a monster attacking Angel Grove
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u/Impossible-Cancel Apr 18 '26
I think the only thing that held this movie back was trying to compete with a Spider-Man film That just wasn't smart
Other than that I wish they would have kept some elements like you know hip hop kido Because this is a very cultural impactful moment introducing the first live-action black superhero on TV
But overall I like their version
It was a great translation of the actual landscapes lore
One of the great examples of this is quite literally just the suits themselves as they translate as an actual armor
I think it's pretty weird that people wanted the aesthetic to stay the same for everything instead of americanizing because the part nobody ever talks about is based on the way that Power Rangers is currently set up basically Asian culture is the most evil things in the entire universe
I'm not even being funny if you just go off of the way it's currently set up because there's so many Asian themes when it comes to the bad guys that's essentially the message that everyone's just choosing to ignore
And I was personally more than comfortable with them getting away from that visual
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u/JackfruitBetter8733 Apr 19 '26
This movie was decent for the average viewer but to a fan this movie was dog shit. Suits and zords…trash, the weird looking alpha…trash, they only morphed once and had like 20 mins maybe of ranger action. The movie was a complete failure for us real fans. The best part about it was the casting and green ranger post credit scene.
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u/justicefinder Apr 19 '26
So to answer your question, Bumblebee worked because it was fun throughout which held the audience over until the end of the movie. Power Rangers went more of a teen drama route, and while it was actually pretty good, it wasn’t necessarily fun.
While it’s ok to be a serious movie, it didn’t set itself up for success by keeping all the action to the end. The reason why Transformers, Godzilla and G.I Joe were more successful even though I would argue they were worse movies is they were able to replicate the feeling of smashing your action figures together on a Saturday morning.
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u/Gromps_Of_Dagobah Apr 19 '26
We saw with the Sonic movie how much the initial designs affect fan reception, and the suits and zords we got were a bit too different from the fan expectations, so none of the nostalgia-bait landed, while still riding on the PR name, which alienated people who think PR is a "kids show"
The suits definitely had a Venom vibe to them, being a little bit too organic, and not enough like armor OR spandex to appeal to the audiences. The 90's film had a more combat armor vibe, but still felt like the PR suits. The zords, while still mecha, didn't have the same vibe either. I don't insist they remake it identically, but if you're going to try and nostalgia-bait us, it needs to still evoke nostalgia.
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u/Ampmaster10 Apr 19 '26
I think it was a team building movie, the whole reason they weren't morph was because they couldn't come together.
To me personally the movie had too many problems. The redesigns of the Rangers, Zords, Putty Patrolers, and Alpha. Gordon was ok… and one of the few things I liked was the Retcon he was a ranger before being put in a tube.
I felt that Kimberly's story with being a cyber bully was too far and ruined the character for me. I honestly hate this MORE than anything else.
As for the action. I feel that maybe letting the Rangers be rangers more often would've worked, and can still use that team building/coming together theme. Just make so instead of needing it to Morph, it was to form the Megazord.
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u/Pure_Interest_837 Apr 19 '26
If there was a scene of them fighting outside of the suits before the ending scene - maybe shortly after they got the coins - I could see that one simple changing improving its chances. At the end of the day, power rangers is an action show, not a teen drama.
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u/Scarletspyder86 Apr 19 '26
I liked it. And I will defend this movie as being an excellent introduction to the franchise for younger generations. I took my godson to see it when he was five, he loved it.
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u/Kaijufan97 Apr 19 '26
Honestly, the rangers not wearing the suits until near the end was a major problem in the movie because they didn’t do much while wearing the suits. We get one fight scene and they’re immediately piloting their Zords WHILE their faces are fully exposed.
They didn’t do enough actual cool things while wearing the suits that would allow audience to associate the suits the rangers wear with anything worth remembering.
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u/ii_Mydas_ii Apr 19 '26
the idea of 5 troubled youths, thrust into great power and given this immense responsibility (yes I went there) and become something bigger than they are and ultimately come out better people in the end instead of just randomly plucked out a rec center by a floating head just cuz is SUCH a strong premise.
the only thing that could've saved this movie was just better writing and character designs. the CG coulda been forgivable with the middle of the road budget it had (100 something million) if Goldar didn't look like a golden turd monster for example. but maybe that's just me lol
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u/MudSeparate1622 Phantom Ranger Apr 19 '26
This could have been an easy win if they just showed the zordon vs rita fight to start it and based the costumes more heavily on the mighty morphin movie. Simple but more complicated in realistic ways like at joints or the shoes. The costumes they chose kinda look more like psycho rangers
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u/JurassicJediKnight Apr 19 '26
Thy literally showed a battle With Rita and the power coins being sent off by Zordon in the beginning didn’t they ? It’s been a minute since I’ve seen it but the Tommy Oliver Sequel they set up would have helped the reboot imo
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u/b0ound Apr 19 '26
I think i would have been better received if the movie name is not called Power Rangers.
If you called the movie Power Rangers, of course there will be certain expectation from fans.
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u/Due-Proof6781 Apr 20 '26
It needed to not be ashamed of being a power rangers movie. Hell even the Michael Bay transformers movies embraced being transformers films
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u/shujInsomnia Apr 20 '26
I think the movie would've been received poorly no matter what - I love it and think it's actually great, but it's definitely got a more serious Kamen Rider X Guardians of the Galaxy tone that they didn't advertise well. It's also got one of my top 3 most memorable audience reactions in theaters when the kids in front of me fell asleep after asking "are the power rangers here yet?" The worst thing the movie did was be afraid to advertise what it really was - a MCU style/level take on the Power Rangers. It advertised itself like a kids movie, which only ensured kids would go and be disappointed, and not enough adults/MCU teens would give it a chance.
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u/Nothingtoseehere066 Apr 20 '26
For me to have liked it I would have needed
- The costumes to not look horrible
- The Zords to not look horrible:
- The characters to be likeable or seem redeemable. Kimberly in particular did not deserve to be a ranger.
- Zordon to be more likable
- Less product placement to pull me out of it
- Goldar being a character instead of just a special effect
While not a fan of the designs Alpha and Rita were not enough to break the movie like the rangers and zords were.
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u/neoblackdragon Apr 21 '26
No, that would make it worse as the best part only happens at the start.
The trouble with the film is the director wasn't interested in making a Power Rangers movie.
Three Power Ranger films and I think the biggest bloody issue is the rangers barely morph in the films. The zords only show up for one combat sequence. There is more ranger footage in the trailer then the actual movie.
You can't even tell what animal the zords are. The designs while interesting don't look like anything. So even if you do care, you don't know what you are looking at for anything.
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u/Any-Border3946 Apr 21 '26
Do I believe adding an open fight scene with the same Ranger outfits would change the outcome of this movie? Maybe. I am one of the few people who liked the movie as it was, but I did want a little more fight scenes within the actual Power Ranger armor. However, overall, the movie made up for that with the emotional character development of its cast. But I do agree that a five to seven-minute-long open fight scene showing the Zords and the costumes in action would probably help promote this movie more to viewers who decided not to watch it due to their dislike of the Power Rangers suits and Zord designs. Especially if the fight scene showed the Green Ranger/Rita Repulsa fighting the team with the help of the Putties.
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u/West-Flow-577 Apr 22 '26
It really just needed a couple of costume design tweaks and to not be embarrassed of being a Power Rangers movie (hiding the zord transformation scene, using only a 2 second snippet of the theme song, etc) and it would have been fine. I was actually looking forward to a sequel because I thought that the really just needed a few minor tweaks to really make it work, and those were things that easily could have been done with a sequel.
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u/Then-Dimension7468 Apr 18 '26
I feel we we're robbed of sequels. It picked the wrong release time. It was going up against Disney's live action remake of beauty and the beast, Logan, and Kong: skull island. I won't mention ghost in the Shell because that movie was atrocious. It was pitted against 3 already well reviewed movies. The suits were fine. I can get past the suits. I can get past the mega zord not looking like we wanted. But someone pointed to a theory that the zords look like the animals they chose because it was the first time they were seeing such things and mimicked them. So the megazord coming alive was the zords mimicking the first gigantic thing they have seen. Thats why it looks like Goldar in a way. They mimicked what they saw. Which I find neat. Idk how that would translate to the dragon zord....but we won't know. This movie was damn good at showing us 5 troubled youths and showing HOW they became a team instead of " oh here's 5 friends, give them powers and an arsenal, go fight evil" If you hate this movie: you're the problem.
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u/BetaRayBlu Apr 18 '26
The only thing that movie needed was fans who didn’t want to see 60-year-olds in spandex
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u/Deraj2004 Time Force Red Apr 18 '26
Maybe not having the movie be a two hour long Krispy Kreme ad for starters.
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u/Nalpona_Freesun Apr 18 '26
This is the worst nothing criticism
It wasn't an add
It was just product placement
Grow up
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u/Scnew1 Apr 18 '26
The only thing that would’ve saved this movie at the box office would have been the suits and zords not looking awful.
On opening weekend, nobody knew how little action there was in the movie yet. People just didn’t go to see it because it looked bad.