The 2017 Power Rangers movie did a lot of things right, but it also made one big mistake that I hope the new live-action series will avoid. While we don’t know much about the Power Rangers show reportedly in the works at Disney+, we can ᴀssume that it will be a reboot instead of season 31. In hindsight, Cosmic Fury was a good ending for the original Power Rangers universe, and I’m ready to see the franchise move in a different direction, even if it means no longer having Super Sentai adaptations.
It is quite remarkable that Power Rangers went on for 30 years without ever rebooting the TV show. While we’ve had non-canonical Power Rangers stories since the 1995 movie, most of the TV shows have taken place in the same universe. Even the ones that were technically in alternate universes, such as R.P.M. and Dino Charge, were still part of that same continuity. The last time Power Rangers tried to reboot things was on the big screen with the 2017 movie, which struggled at the box office due to, among other reasons, not having enough action for a superhero movie.
Power Rangers’ New Show Can Find A Better Balance Between Action And Character Moments
The Power Rangers Barely Fought In The 2017 Movie
Power Rangers (2017) had a considerable budget of around $100 million and was able to create a new, fun take on Mighty Morphin Power Rangers with a lot of interesting designs, cool-looking Zords, and boldly different costumes. Still, when it came to delivering the action sequences one would expect from a late 2010s superhero movie, Power Rangers was a big disappointment. The Rangers only properly morphed and fought as a team once, with the rest of the film being a slow-paced origin story. While I enjoyed the character moments, Power Rangers needs action.
Power Rangers (2017) felt like it was building up toward something that never really happened. This was especially frustrating considering how cool the opening sequence, which showed Zordon and his original team of Rangers crashing on Earth after being betrayed by Rita Repulsa, had been. The new Power Rangers show must find a better balance between action and character moments, which should be easier to achieve in a serialized format compared to a 90-minute movie. This new series could, for example, establish the characters in the first couple of episodes and then ramp up the action in the latter half.
The Power Rangers Movie Had Great Characters (But Not Enough Action)
The Power Rangers Were Interesting Even Before They Morphed
One thing I loved about the 2017 reboot is how it treated each of the Power Rangers as three-dimensional characters, which was not very common in the TV show, especially not during the original series. Jason, Zack, Kimberly, Billy, and Trini were never given a great deal of character development in Mighty Morphin, even though they were all interesting and compelling in their own way. It is fair to say it was only with Andros in Power Rangers in Space that the show began to have main characters with meaningful backstories and who had to face moral dilemmas.
The final battle was a lot of fun, but not enough to justify an entire movie where the costumes and the Zords barely appeared.
The 2017 film tried to make us care about the characters long before they turned into Power Rangers, and it worked. By the time Jason finally said “It’s morphing time,” I was deeply invested in that world and could not wait to see them in action. The problem is that it happened too late in the movie. The final battle was a lot of fun, but not enough to justify an entire movie where the costumes and the Zords barely appeared. This is a mistake that the new Power Rangers show, regardless of what it is, must avoid.
Why A TV Show Is A Better Way To Reboot Power Rangers Than A Movie
Power Rangers Has Always Worked Better On Television
While I’ve always wanted to see some sort of Power Rangers cinematic universe exploring all the different corners of the franchise with sequels and spinoffs, that may not be the best way to reboot the franchise. Power Rangers never proved itself on the big screen, with not even the 1995 movie, released at the height of the MMPR mania, being that big of a box office success. Several movie franchises ended before they were even born, especially the ones that required a big budget to kick things off.
A well-made, carefully thought-out Power Rangers reboot for streaming is perhaps the best way to reinvent the franchise after three decades. Fewer but longer episodes and a more substantial budget compared to the classic show are some of the elements that could make Disney’s Power Rangers series bigger and better than anything we’ve gotten from the franchise on the small screen up until this point. Power Rangers has always been a TV franchise first and foremost, and with the Disney+ reboot, we can have something very unique that still feels familiar.
