Power Rangers

Childhood gives you rose-tinted glasses about a lot of things, not least of which is the role toys played on your purchase decisions growing up. I can remember having a large collection of action figures from movies like Aliens and Batman and using them to recreate some of my favorite moments from the movie; if you had asked me then, I would have said that toys were only for playing, never imagining that the toy commercials on TV were probably what spiked my interest in the movies to begin with

We’ve seen them in all their gear, but we haven’t seen the new Power Rangers with their cool visors down — until now. Yesterday, the official Power Rangers movie Twitter account unveiled a new motion poster that shows off the Power Rangers’ cool helmets and what they look like when they’re in full Ranger mode.

Last week, NYCC gave us our first official look at the new Power Rangers movie: five teens happen upon alien artifacts that give them super ninja powers, which they must use to fight off evil. It all looks pretty Power Rangers-y, but also very serious. It’s the dark and gritty Power Rangers reboot nobody was asking for, but we’re getting one anyway. Luckily, we have YouTube, and an evil genius with enough time on their hands to recut the new trailer with footage from the original show.

As I watched the Power Rangers teaser yesterday in line at a Dunkin’ Donuts in a highway reststop (VIVA LE CINEMA!), I thought to myself “Man, this really doesn’t look like Power Rangers, but it really looks like Chronicle,” the 2012 film about a trio of high school kids who discover a strange object underground and gain superpowers. Although this Power Rangers still has costumes and big transforming robots and stuff, none of that is in this first teaser. Instead it’s about ... a group of school kids who discover a strange object underground and gain superpowers. Weird.

This weekend, New York City Comic-Con has come bearing gifts for Power Rangers fans. As if the brand new character posters released on Friday weren’t enough, LionsGate has also given us our first theatrical trailer for the movie, giving us some background on the assembly of the current Power Rangers team  —  and one quick look at Elizabeth Banks’ Rita Repulsa as well.

Ahead of their panel planned for this weekend at New York Comic Con, Lionsgate has released a few more official images from the Power Rangers movie. We get a better look at the redesigned costumes, plus what might possibly be a clue as to what their Zords might look like.

Aye-yi-yi-yi-yi! The new Power Rangers has Zords, Bryan Cranston, Elizabeth Banks, and now Bill Hader as the robot Alpha 5.

I really wish the new posters for Lionsgate’s Power Rangers came with a behind the scenes video from the photoshoot. What, exactly, did the photographer tell the cast of young actors as they laid across green screens showing off their Ranger costumes atop their Zords like dystopic models brooding in a fall fashion editorial? There were probably lots of adjectives thrown around like, “moody,” “wistful,” “sexy,” “stern,” or to the women: “stick your chests out more because those costumes definitely don’t emphasize female body parts enough.”

These days, if you reboot a franchise, you give the original cast members a couple of seconds of screen time. It’s pretty much a win-win scenario as far as producers are concerned. Fans who believe that sequels and remakes are heresy will be somewhat satiated by the involvement of original cast members, while newcomers won’t have any idea why the crowd around them is cheering for that background character. Sure, it’s fan service, but let’s be honest: some properties need a little bit of fan service more than others.

Casting Elizabeth Banks as Rita Repulsa in the Power Rangers movie reboot is definitely one of the more interesting choices in recent memory, and if nothing else, it’ll be fun watching the actress chew some scenery as the famously outrageous villain. While we wait to see her in action, Lionsgate has debuted another new photo of Banks as Rita Repulsa, and she looks like she’s trapped in a glass case of emotion.