Power Rangers (2017)

Director: Dean Israelite

Cast: Dacre Montgomery, Naomi Scott, Bryan Cranston, Elizabeth Banks

Have I Seen It Before: Oddly, yes. One of those moments where I had to get an oil change, the oil change was going to take longer than two hours, and my lube place was within walking distance of a theater, all at the same time.

Did I Like It: I apparently liked it well enough to watch it again which I’ll admit surprised me a little bit. The movie is, at it’s core an incredibly average and occasionally cheap superhero affair. I’m sure that Bryan Cranston and Elizabeth Banks managed to quite effectively remodel something in their houses but accomplished little else. The actual rangers are fine enough, understanding the assignment of bringing a pinch of modern* The Breakfast Club (1985) to the convoluted mythology that launched a thousand action figures.

It would be damning praise, one would assume, to say this is probably the best one could hope from for a big screen adaptation of Power Rangers, but as I watch this for what I imagine would be the final time, I’m struck by—despite all of its profound pandering; indeed, because of that pandering—just how effective an adaptation of the old TV show this is. This is filled with warmed over material from other—if not better—more successful films, but have you ever actually watched an episode of Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers? If you haven’t, I wouldn’t say I blame you, but the show is actually built around footage from another (it sort of shames me to admit) Japanese TV show, Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger. It wouldn’t be Power Rangers if it wasn’t sort of disappointing and essentially the cinematic or televisual equivalent of leftover casserole.

*Would a modern audience have genuinely been unable to handle a genuine 90s (or even 80s?) energy to the proceedings? If you’re going to go for homage, follow through does count for something.

Aladdin (2019)

Director: Guy Ritchie

Cast: Will Smith, Mena Massourd, Naomi Scott, Marwan Kenzari

Have I Seen it Before: I mean, the typical joke about the lack of originality in Hollywood would be sort of low-hanging fruit in this particular case.

Did I Like It: I mean, sure?

From a pure study of screenwriting, it is interesting to see how the screenplay for the original Aladdin (1992) was disassembled and then put back together into… this. Large portions of the beginning of the original film are truncated to start the main meat of the story much faster, and presumably to allow space for the injected subplot. It actually works for the most part, and allows the film to reach (and perhaps intermittently succeed) to be a product of its time far more than the original did.

But then, if the goal of a Disney movie is to be truly timeless, why try to make a film a reflection of its time? Empowering Jasmine (Scott) is welcome and overdue but dwelling on the politically precarious times in Agrabah feels less magical, to put it mildly. I’ve got no problem with those moments, really, but in twenty years is it going to age very well? Let’s assume we’ll all be here in twenty years, naturally… On that front, the awkwardly injected elements of the film are sort of hopeful, because it allows me to imagine a world in which they wouldn’t work as well.

New music written for this version of the film is fine, but it does seem akin to the point in the concert where you let the rock star play through stuff on the new album. The new music isn’t bad, and you might even grow to like it as time goes on, but it isn’t what you came for.

And then there’s Will Smith. I’m tempted to give the studio and filmmakers a pass on his casting. There really isn’t a current equivalent to the frenetic energy Robin Williams brought to the role. If they absolutely insisted on remaking the movie—and it appears that they did—they were stuck on the central piece of casting for the movie. Picking Smith offers the viewer a fundamentally different energy. Williams was a pinball, jumping back and forth improbably so much that they were able to create a new character out of some of his improvisations. Will Smith is occasionally funny, but his strength lies much more in the pure charisma. Had they not fed Smith a lot of the same off-the-wall lines that Williams had in the original, it might have worked a lot better. Also, despite coming from music originally, I never escaped the sense that Smith didn’t have the vocal range to overpower the orchestrations. On second thought, I’m not giving them a pass on Smith. I don’t think I can give the entire film a pass.