Mighty Morphin CGI Rangers.
Finally, we have our first look at the suited-up Rangers for the upcoming Power Rangers reboot film.
Obviously, the Rangers look quite different from their original Mighty Morphin incarnations, because now the suits are “translucent extraterrestrial armor” that “crystallizes” around the Rangers.
Dean Israelite, the director of the film, explained to Entertainment Weekly that the suits are an attempt to pay homage to the original series, while also bringing something new.
“The show was about kids coming of age, about metamorphosis,” he said. “These suits needed to feel like they were catalyzed by these kids and their energy, their spirit.”
The film’s production designer, Andrew Menzies, also chimed in, explaining that, “Ours is an alien costume that grows on them, that’s not man-made. You can’t win everyone over, but we are trying to appeal to a more mature audience and gain new fans.”
Indeed, you can’t win everyone over. The Internet is fairly divided, as well as notably indifferent, to the suits. Reddit in particular has been having fun with the designs, as many users have pointed out how similar the Rangers look to the generic robots you’d find on a graphics card box.
Anyway, we’re not particularly big fans of the suits. We definitely miss the spandex aesthetic of the originals, and the high heels and breast armor for the female Rangers is problematic to say the least, especially considering Israelite’s “coming of age” comment. We’ll have to wait and see how they look in action.
The film stars Elizabeth Banks as Rita Repulsa, Becky G as the Yellow Ranger, R.J. Cyler as the Blue Ranger, Ludi Lin as the Black Ranger, Dacre Montgomery as the Red Ranger, and Naomi Scott as the Pink Ranger.
Saban’s Power Rangers mighty morphs into theaters on March 24, 2017.
