One year after downtown was transformed into Angel Grove, Kamloopsians are going to see what the River City looks like on the big screen. The big-budget reboot of the 1990s TV show Mighty Morhpin Power Rangers hits theatres tonight, but early reviews aren't very kind.
Production crews took over the downtown core in April 2016 and about 200 locals landed a spot in the film as an extra.
The film stars Elizabeth Banks as villain Rita Repulsa and Dacre Montgomery, RJ Cyler, Naomi Scott, Becky G. and Ludi Lin as the teenaged Rangers.
Rotten Tomatoes gives Power Rangers an average rating of 5/10, saying it has “neither the campy fun of its TV predecessor nor the blockbuster action of its cinematic superhero competitors and sadly never quite manages to shift into turbo for some good old-fashioned morphin' time.”
The Telegraph’s film critic called it “sadistic ugly and incompetent” and “even worse than the Fantastic Four.”
"Quite who thought a graphic joke about "milking" a bull would be a promising start to a Power Rangers film is anyone’s guess (the screenplay is credited to five different people). But there’s no doubt it sets the tone for what must be the most flabbergastingly misconceived reboot of recent years."
— Robbie Collin, The Telegraph
The Globe and Mail dubbed it “a work of soulless indifference.”
“It’s not so much a movie as an exercise in how to wring the life out of even the most lifeless of properties — grave robbing writ large, except the ostensible corpse was never more than a worthless bag of bones in the first place.”
— Barry Hertz, The Globe and Mail
The LA Times recommended bringing Advil along:
"I feel more qualified than usual to announce that “Saban’s Power Rangers” (Saban clearly never learned to share) is a witless and cobbled-together pile of junk, and I mean that not as an insult so much as an assurance of brand integrity."
— Justin Chang, The LA Times
Meanwhile, The Atlantic said the big-budget reboot is "exactly as silly as it’s supposed to be:”
"....Power Rangers—a bizarre mish-mash of teen drama, kitschy sci-fi action, and a heap of winking throwbacks for children of the ’90s. It sounds like a holy mess, but incredibly, it succeeds, on the back of some extremely self-aware charm."
— David Sims, The Atlantic
Despite some less than favourable reviews, the nostalgia of childhood memories is bound to bring flocks of Power Rangers fans to theatres and the chance to see Kamloops in a Hollywood blockbuster was an anticipated draw locally.
Will you check it out? The show is playing at Cineplex tonight at 7:20 p.m. and 10:25 p.m.
