It’s morphin’ time!
Well, almost. The debut trailer for 2017’s ‘Power Rangers’ was released to a very eager public during New York Comic Con this weekend. Aside from an assortment of posters and promotional stills, this represents our first real look at the film, and as such gives us by far our best sense of the form it will take so far.
And just what form does the film seem to be taking? In the trailer we meet the Rangers, find that the “teenagers with attitude” might not be a squeeky clean as we’ve come to expect, see them gain their powers, and get a fleeting glimpse of Rita Repulsa. We’ve been hearing for months that we should expect a darker approach than that of the original series, and that description certainly applies here.
But saying something is dark can mean a lot of things. It should be said up front that fans who go in hoping for something in the vein of the over the top darkness and grit of Joseph Kahn’s 2015 fan film are setting themselves up for disappointment. Based on what we’ve seen here, it might be more accurate to describe the film as “grounded”. It’s very clearly going for a real world feel in the style of ‘Chronicle‘.
It also appears to take itself seriously in a way the original show never quite did. And as much as we all love the show, we have to remember that at the end of the day it was a cartoony, cheaply produced martial arts superhero show aimed at children. None of that is bad, but it does mean there are a lot of concepts that may have (out of necessity) only been addressed in passing. A more serious approach, aimed at older audiences (even if “older” simply means “teenaged”) means there is more room to deal with things like the fallout of mind control spells or even the effect of superheroics on the team’s daily lives. Time will tell. Until then, you can find the trailer here:
What did you think of the trailer? Let us know in the comments, and be sure to check back with ScienceFiction.com for more on ‘Power Rangers’ as the film’s release approaches.
‘Power Rangers’ is set to hit theaters on March 24, 2017. The film stars Ludi Lin, Naomi Scott, RJ Cyler, Becky G, Dacre Montgomery, Elizabeth Banks, Bill Hader, and Bryan Cranston.
