A scene from Power Rangers. Kimberly French / Lionsgate via AP
A scene from Power Rangers. Kimberly French / Lionsgate via AP
A scene from Power Rangers. Kimberly French / Lionsgate via AP
A scene from Power Rangers. Kimberly French / Lionsgate via AP

Film review: Power Rangers reboot lacks power and range?

Unfortunately, in his drive to move away from the original material, Israelite instead offers a lesson in teen moralising, and clunkily emphasises the importance of team work.

Chris Newbould

March 22, 2017

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Power Rangers

Director: Dean Israelite

Starring: Dacre Montgomery, Naomi Scott, RJ Cyler, Becky G, Ludi Lin, Bryan Cranston, Elizabeth Banks

Two stars

When I first heard that Mighty Morphin Power Rangers was getting a big-screen reboot, I was surprised to say the least.

In its early days, the franchise, which was based on a 1993 United States reboot of the long-­running Japanese Super Sentai Series, rewrote the scripts and dubbed them into English, with some extra scenes featuring American actors. It enjoyed a brief period of cult fandom, critical bewilderment, and plenty of criticism for aiming fairly violent action scenes at a ­pre-teen audience.

The show made it to two big screen spin-offs in the 90s, the last being 1997's critically panned box office flop Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie.

For the reboot, director Dean Israelite has attempted to do away with some of the campness of the original. The costumes take their cues from more modern ­superhero franchises over the cheap motorcycle leathers and helmets of yore. The effects are in places quite impressive – the closing battle offers a visually impressive nod to classic Japanese monster movies, and he even pulls in a couple of genuine Hollywood big names in the form of Bryan Cranston (as the Rangers’ mentor Zordon) and Elizabeth Banks (as the ridiculously-named villain Rita Repulsa) alongside the inexperienced young actors portraying our heroes.

Unfortunately, in his drive to move away from the original material, Israelite instead offers a lesson in teen ­moralising, and clunkily emphasises the importance of team work as the means by which our troubled teen heroes will ­finally be able to “morph” into their superhero personalities. Unfortunately, the characters are so poorly developed we don’t really pay too much attention, wishing instead they’d just sort out their teamwork issues, morph, and get down to the action sequences.

Banks is the standout. Seemingly the only member of the cast to realise the silliness of this whole endeavour, she turns a great pantomime villain, but by the final act, neither her hammed-up performance, nor the arrival of the Power Rangers’ mechadinosaur companions The Zords, can save the film, never mind the world.

cnewbould@thenational.ae

F1 The Movie

Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem

Director: Joseph Kosinski

Rating: 4/5

Will the pound fall to parity with the dollar?

The idea of pound parity now seems less far-fetched as the risk grows that Britain may split away from the European Union without a deal.

Rupert Harrison, a fund manager at BlackRock, sees the risk of it falling to trade level with the dollar on a no-deal Brexit. The view echoes Morgan Stanley’s recent forecast that the currency can plunge toward $1 (Dh3.67) on such an outcome. That isn’t the majority view yet – a Bloomberg survey this month estimated the pound will slide to $1.10 should the UK exit the bloc without an agreement.

New Prime Minister Boris Johnson has repeatedly said that Britain will leave the EU on the October 31 deadline with or without an agreement, fuelling concern the nation is headed for a disorderly departure and fanning pessimism toward the pound. Sterling has fallen more than 7 per cent in the past three months, the worst performance among major developed-market currencies.

“The pound is at a much lower level now but I still think a no-deal exit would lead to significant volatility and we could be testing parity on a really bad outcome,” said Mr Harrison, who manages more than $10 billion in assets at BlackRock. “We will see this game of chicken continue through August and that’s likely negative for sterling,” he said about the deadlocked Brexit talks.

The pound fell 0.8 per cent to $1.2033 on Friday, its weakest closing level since the 1980s, after a report on the second quarter showed the UK economy shrank for the first time in six years. The data means it is likely the Bank of England will cut interest rates, according to Mizuho Bank.

The BOE said in November that the currency could fall even below $1 in an analysis on possible worst-case Brexit scenarios. Options-based calculations showed around a 6.4 per cent chance of pound-dollar parity in the next one year, markedly higher than 0.2 per cent in early March when prospects of a no-deal outcome were seemingly off the table.

Bloomberg

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