Power Rangers (2017 film)

''Power Rangers'' (or ''Saban's Power Rangers'') is a 2017 American superhero film based on the franchise of the same name (itself based on the ''Super Sentai'' franchise), and directed by Dean Israelite from a screenplay by John Gatins. It is the third installment in the ''Power Rangers'' film series, and is a reboot that loosely adapts "Day of the Dumpster", the pilot episode of ''Mighty Morphin Power Rangers''. The film features the main characters of the television series with a new cast, starring Dacre Montgomery, Naomi Scott, RJ Cyler, Becky G, Ludi Lin, Bill Hader, Bryan Cranston, and Elizabeth Banks. The film follows a group of teenagers who gain newfound powers, and must use them to protect Earth from an ancient reawakened threat. Franchise creator Haim Saban returned to produce the film under his investment firm.

''Power Rangers'' premiered at the Regency Village Theater in Los Angeles on March 22, 2017, and was released in the United States on March 24, 2017, by Lionsgate. It was met with mixed reviews upon release, with praise for the visual effects, cinematography, musical score and performances (particularly Montgomery and Cyler), but criticism for its uneven tone, product placement, divergences from its source material, lack of action and especially the lack of ambition. It was also a box-office bomb, grossing $142 million worldwide against a budget of $105 million. The film was intended to launch a film series with multiple sequels, but all plans were cancelled due to its commercial failure, leading Saban to sell the franchise rights to Hasbro. Another reboot is in development.

Plot

In the Cenozoic era, a team of warriors known as the Power Rangers are tasked with protecting life on Earth and the Zeo Crystal. The Green Ranger, Rita Repulsa, betrays them and plans to dominate the universe. The Red Ranger, Zordon, survives Rita's attack and hides five of the Power Coins. He orders Alpha 5, his robotic assistant, to perform a meteor strike that kills him, the dinosaurs, and sends Rita to the bottom of the sea, foiling her scheme.

Sixty-five million years later in the town of Angel Grove, high school football star Jason Scott is dismissed from the team and placed under house arrest after an unsuccessful prank led to a car crash while escaping the police. In detention, he encounters autistic class nerd Billy Cranston and former cheerleader Kimberly Hart. Billy offers to deactivate Jason's ankle monitor if he will drive him to an old gold mine that evening. Once there, Jason leaves to explore and runs into Kimberly swimming in a lake. Billy detonates explosives to break some rock, attracting the attention of Jason, Kimberly, and nearby students Trini Kwan and Zack Taylor. The five discover the Power Coins and each takes one. While escaping mine security, their car is hit by a train. The five find themselves at home the next morning and discover that the coins have granted them superhuman abilities. Elsewhere, Rita's body is found. Waking, she goes on a rampage, hunting pieces of gold to raise her minion Goldar to find the Zeo Crystal.

The five teenagers return to the mine and discover an ancient spaceship where they meet Alpha 5 and Zordon's consciousness. They inform the teenagers about the Rangers' history and Rita, warning that they have two weeks until Rita has her full power, finds the Zeo Crystal, and uses it to destroy life on Earth. Zordon pleads with Jason to convince the team to help.

The five spend the next week training against simulated Putties and trying to morph. To inspire the Rangers, Alpha reveals the Zords. Zack takes his Zord out for a joyride and almost kills the other Rangers when he crashes it. This angers Jason, and they fight. While trying to separate the two, Billy spontaneously morphs. However, when he becomes conscious of it, the armor disappears. Angered at their lack of progress, Zordon dismisses the group. Jason returns to the ship to confront Zordon and discovers that once the Rangers morph, it will open the Morphing Grid and allow Zordon to restore himself to a physical body. Feeling betrayed, Jason accuses Zordon of bringing the team together for the sole purpose of escaping the Grid. That night, the team camped at the mine and bonded with each other.

Later that night, Rita attacks Trini and orders her to bring the Rangers to the docks. Trini informs them about Rita and they arrive to fight but are quickly defeated. Rita forces Billy to reveal the location of the Zeo Crystal, which he figured out is under a Krispy Kreme, kills him, and releases the others. The Rangers take Billy's body to the ship and ask Zordon to resurrect him. The Rangers agree they would give their lives for each other and resolve to defeat Rita. In doing so, they unlock the Morphing Grid. Zordon revives Billy, sacrificing being able to restore his physical self. With the team restored and confident, the Rangers morph into their armor.

Rita creates Goldar, raises an army of Putties, and attacks Angel Grove to find the Zeo Crystal. The Rangers battle the Putties and head to Angel Grove in their Zords. After the Rangers destroy the Putties, Goldar pushes the Rangers and their Zords into a fiery pit. In the pit, the Zords combine and form the Megazord. Rita merges with Goldar. The Rangers battle and destroy Goldar. After refusing Jason's offer to surrender, a defiant Rita tells the Rangers that more will come for the Zeo Crystal and leaps at the Megazord only to be slapped into space. The Rangers are praised as local heroes, and with Rita defeated, they return to their normal lives while keeping their new powers.

Back at school, the teacher announces that Tommy Oliver will be joining them, but the desk is empty save for a green jacket.

Cast

Power Rangers

* Dacre Montgomery as Jason Scott, the Red Ranger and leader of the team. Jason was Angel Grove High's star quarterback, until a failed prank led to a run-in with the law...followed by his removal from the AGHS football team.
* Naomi Scott as Kimberly Hart, the Pink Ranger. A cheerleader at Angel Grove High, until being dropped from the squad for cyberbullying (she spread a private image of her friend around school).
* RJ Cyler as Billy Cranston, the Blue Ranger. A loner with high-functioning autism, and a target of frequent harassment by fellow student Colt Wallace.
* Becky G as Trini Kwan, the Yellow Ranger. A new girl in town, struggling to make friends, she has difficulty relating to her family. She also questions her own sexual orientation.
* Ludi Lin as Zack Taylor, the Black Ranger and second-in-command of the team. Zack's mother has been ill for some time, and his greatest fear is returning home one day to find her dead.

Allies

* Bill Hader as the voice of Alpha 5, the robot assistant to Zordon.
* Bryan Cranston as Zordon, the Power Rangers' mentor and the former Red Ranger. Zordon lived millions of years ago before his consciousness became a part of the Morphing Grid at the time of his death.

Villains

* Elizabeth Banks as Rita Repulsa, the former Green Ranger who went rogue and killed her old team before being subdued by Zordon for millions of years. She works to form the monster Goldar while attempting to steal the Zeo Crystal, an artifact that channels the Morphing Grid, a dimension that gives the Power Rangers their powers.
* Fred Tatasciore as the voice of Goldar, a gigantic winged monster made of gold.
* Tatasciore also provides the vocal effects of the Putties who are depicted as stone golems that can be made from any Earth element.

Supporting

* David Denman as Sam Scott, Jason's father.
* Caroline Cave as Beverly Scott, Jason's mother.
* Anjali Jay as Maddy Hart, Kimberly's mother.
* Robert Moloney as Ted Hart, Kimberly's father.
* Patrick Sabongui as Mr. Kwan, Trini's father.
* Erica Cerra as June Kwan, Trini's obsessive mother.
* Kayden Magnuson as Pearl Scott, Jason's sister.
* Fiona Fu as Mrs. Taylor, Zack's mother.
* Morgan Taylor Campbell as Harper
* Sarah Grey as Amanda Clark
* Emily Maddison as Rebecca
* Wesley MacInnes as Colt Wallace, the school bully at Angel Grove High. His favorite victim is Billy.
* Jaime Callica as Officer Bebe
* Matt Shively as Damo
* Garry Chalk as Captain Bowen.
* Fiona Vroom as Fenix Saleswoman
* Drew Ray Tanner as Young Lover
* Sophie Lui as Television Anchor
* Lisa Berry as Candace Cranston, Billy's mother.
Jason David Frank and Amy Jo Johnson, two of the cast members of the original TV series, make cameo appearances as Angel Grove citizens.

Production

Development

Saban Capital Group and Lionsgate announced the film in May 2014, with Roberto Orci originally attached to produce. Ashley Miller and Zack Stentz were hired to write the film's script. When theirs was rejected, another script was proposed by Max Landis, which was also turned down as the studio wanted a grittier tone. Orci eventually left the project to work on ''Star Trek Beyond'' (2016). On April 2015, ''TheWrap'' reported that Dean Israelite was in negotiations to direct the film. Israelite told IGN in an interview that the film would be "completely playful, and it needs to be really fun and funny. But like ''Project Almanac'', it's going to feel very grounded at the same time, and very contemporary and have a real edge to it, and a real gut to it, it's going to be a fun, joyful oviebut one that feels completely grounded in a real world, with real characters going through real things". Brian Tyler was brought on to compose the film's music. Israelite has said that the film updates itself from the original series, being more character-driven and incorporating naturalism and a grounded nature.

Casting

Actors began testing for the roles of the five Power Rangers on October 2015. On October 7, 2015, Naomi Scott was cast as Kimberly. Newcomers Dacre Montgomery, Ludi Lin and RJ Cyler were then cast as Jason, Zack, and Billy, respectively. At the month's end, Becky G was chosen to play Trini. When it came to casting the Rangers, director Dean Israelite said, "From the very beginning, diversity was a very important part of the whole process," and that while the characters' races were switched around, he added that, "We made sure that the essence of each of those characters are who they were in the original show, and this really will be an origin story of those characters." On February 2, 2016, it was announced that Elizabeth Banks would portray Rita Repulsa. Four months later, Bryan Cranston, who voiced Twin Man and Snizzard in the original series, announced he was cast as Zordon. Cranston revealed that he would perform motion-capture and CGI. In September 2016, Walter Emanuel Jones, the actor who played Zack in the original series, stated none of the original cast would cameo in the film. Towards the end of the month, comedian Bill Hader was cast as Alpha 5. In March 2017, it was reported that Amy Jo Johnson and Jason David Frank, who played Kimberly and Tommy in the original series, would cameo in the film, despite Jones' earlier comments.

Filming

Filming was originally set to begin in January 2016 but was rescheduled and began on February 29 in Vancouver. On May 28, 2016, filming was complete. Additional filming occurred in October 2016. A cast member claims that the film has broken the record for the longest wire jump, but this has not been independently confirmed.

The film was released in Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos sound.

Music

The official soundtrack, with music by Brian Tyler, was released digitally on March 24, 2017, and on CD on April 4, distributed by Varèse Sarabande. "Give It All", a song by With You. featuring Santigold and Vince Staples was also featured on the soundtrack and played during the film's credits.

;Track listing

Release

Theatrical

Originally scheduled for release on July 22, 2016, Lionsgate delayed it to March 24, 2017.
The film received its world premiere in Berlin, Germany on March 17, 2017. The then-five of the surviving actors who originally portrayed the Rangers in the series (Thuy Trang had passed away in 2001 and Jason David Frank passed away in 2022) attended the film's Los Angeles premiere on March 22, 2017. It was the first time they had been together publicly since 1995.

Marketing

On March 3, 2016, Lionsgate released the first official photo of the five Rangers, and the following month, the company released the first official photo of Banks as Rita Repulsa. On May 5, the company unveiled the first official images of the Rangers' suits. Speaking of the suits, director Dean Israelite said that "The show was about kids coming of age, about metamorphosis, these suits needed to feel like they were catalyzed by these kids and their energy, their spirit", while production designer Andrew Menzies commented that the new suits are "an alien costume that grows on them, that’s not man-made. You can’t win everyone over, but we are trying to appeal to a more mature audience and gain new fans." A teaser poster was released in June, with additional character posters released in July, September, and October. On October 8, 2016, a ''Discover The Power'' teaser trailer for the film was released.

A fictional Angel Grove High School Newspaper website was created, alongside the official Power Rangers website, which features a GIF creator that allows users to make a GIF out of scenes from the teaser trailer. There is also an official toyline, produced by Bandai, and an extensive merchandising range was produced to promote the film.

Landis, whose draft was rejected, criticized the trailer, saying that it looked too similar to '' Chronicle'' (2012), a film that he had written. The trailer garnered mixed reactions, with some praising it for its darker, contemporary reimagining of the classic characters, while still looking action-packed and fun at the same time,IDEO