Power Rangers

Over the weekend, Lionsgate released some Power Rangers photos — of which the highlight was clearly Elizabeth Banks in the gloriously ridiculous role of the film’s villain, Rita Repulsa. If anyone can pull off an absurdly elaborate costume, it’s Banks, who basically proved herself to be the Lady Gaga of the acting world in The Hunger Games. But as this new photo from the upcoming reboot proves, sometimes it’s best to leave such insane wardrobe choices to the professionals. Or Joel Schumacher’s Batman movies.

If you take a look at the official Power Rangers photos released by Lionsgate to this point, it’s easy to see the pattern they have in mind. First came a group shot of the cast out of costume, then came a group shot of the cast in costume. This past week, Lionsgate released individual character posters on its Instagram channel for each of the new cast members, as well as a new photo of Elizabeth Banks in her Rita Repulsa get-up. I’m not a betting man, but if this pattern holds, I’d keep an eye out for some individualized photos of the Power Rangers costumes before too long

In news to be filed under “Sure, okay,” Bryan Cranston has some interesting things to say about what we can expect from that new Power Rangers movie reboot — mostly that it’s “unrecognizable,” except not, and that it’s comparable to Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy, except also kind of not. But really, who’s to say?

Bryan Cranston has a pretty iconic noggin and booming deep voice. So it kind of makes sense that the ‘Breaking Bad’ star will play Zordon, the big floating holographic head in the new ‘Power Rangers’ movie.

“It’s morphin’ time!” (Repeats ad nauseum until the heat death of the universe.)

The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers was a campy kids TV show from the 90s with not much in the way of budget, so the costumes were cheap lycra bodysuits. The new Power Rangers movie is a big-budget reboot from Lionsgate with a big-budget, so naturally the costumes have gotten a major upgrade, and man you have got to see these things...

Just in case you weren’t sure, this is just your regular reminder that the live-action Power Rangers movie is not a prolonged April Fools joke and is actually something that is happening. For real. While we’ve heard a lot of talk about the movie, today we have our first photo from the film with Elizabeth Banks as the villainous Rita Repulsa...

Is this the first cast photo from the upcoming Power Rangers movie, or is this promoting the new juniors line in the latest Macy’s catalogue? The only proof we have of the former (aside from its debut in Entertainment Weekly) is the absence of a caption telling us how to get Trini’s cool grunge look.

Whether you were a true blue fan or had even the most casual understanding of the Power Rangers series, then the official synopsis for the new movie will sound incredibly familiar to you. Not only will the upcoming reboot maintain the classic character names and designations from original series, but the basic plot is also mostly the same. Oh, but there’s one more thing: Apparently this film isn’t simply titled Power Rangers; it’s Saban’s Power Rangers. Check yourself accordingly.

Like Ben Affleck, Elizabeth Banks is proving that just because you’re a successful director, doesn’t mean you can’t take on the occasional silly role in a superhero movie. Affleck went from winning an Oscar to Batman vs. Superman and now Banks is going from Pitch Perfect 2 to the live-action Power Rangers movie, where she’ll star as the villainous Rita Repulsa.