Movie Review: Fate of the Furious (PG13 – 136 minutes)

Hard to believe, but we are on the eighth film in this franchise!  It’s far and away Universal’s biggest franchise, and amongst all other ‘summer tentpole’ movies – features the most diverse cast, and the most global appeal.

In 2001, we were introduced to undercover cop Brian O’Conner who tried to break into a street-racing crew led by Dominic Toretto.  Brian fell in love with Dom’s sister Mia, and over the course of the next seven movies, the crew developed into a tight-knit family, and we learned that there is nothing more important than family, because it’s mentioned over and over again.

This movie picks up where the previous movie left off – Brian and Mia have retired from ‘the life’ to raise their children in peace.  Dom and Letty are on their honeymoon (even though they got married back at the beginning of movie 4 – in the meantime they had a whole movie of her amnesia and recovery to deal with) in Cuba.  While there, Dom’s cousin (how have we never met this kid before if he is family!?!) accidentally gets Dom involved in a street-race with a local hoodlum.  Dom wins, but lets the guy keep his car, because – respect, and it will come into play later.

Meanwhile, DSS agent Luke Hobbs is coaching his daughter’s soccer team when he’s approached by a government agent to take on another job that has to be ‘off the books’.  He recruits the crew to come help remove an EMP from a Russian base.  They successfully grab the EMP, but what they don’t realize is a mysterious woman approached Dom in Havana, and shown him something that forced him to work with her, and he promptly steals the EMP from the crew and delivers it to ‘Cipher’, who we learn is the world’s greatest cyber-terrorist.

Well, that doesn’t sit well with the family, but they don’t really believe that Dom turned against them, and they scramble to figure out Cipher and Dom’s next move under the guidance of Mr. Nobody, who has a new recruit, referred to only as Little Nobody.  Dom and Cipher break into their base and steal the ‘God’s Eye’, the item they spent all of the last movie chasing.   The gang then tracks Dom to New York, where he is going to steal a nuclear football (suitcase of codes) from a Russian ambassador with the assistance of Cipher hacking all the computers of local cars, causing hundreds of ‘zombie cars’ to chase the ambassador’s limo around town.  The crew almost catches up to Dom, but he manages to get away from them.

Finally, Cipher and her evil crew plus Dom head to Russia to steal a submarine that has nuclear weapons on board, and our family is forced to use their cars (because they have to use their cars) to attempt to stop Cipher from stealing a submarine while Dom finally figures out a way to get out from under Cipher’s control to get back with his family and put an end to her plot.

If that sounds over the top – you’re absolutely right. It has to be, each of these movies has been bringing bigger and bigger stunts into play, and this one is no exception.  The street-race in Havana at the beginning is a great action sequence.  The escape in the very beginning when Dom first turns against them is fantastic.  The scene in New York with the zombie cars is really cool – and something I had not seen before.  But really – the climax chase with the submarine is absolutely fantastic.  Yes, over-the-top, but that is just perfection where this movie series is concerned. 

This one is directed by F. Gary Gray, who knows how to direct car-heist movies thanks to his experience on the Italian Job.  The action is great, and honestly, I felt that some of the performances were better than I expected this time around.

• Vin Diesel plays Dom, and while at no point does his family believe he has truly turned against them, he does a pretty convincing job of being torn when forced to work with Cypher.

• Jason Statham returns as Deckard, one of the villains from movie 7 – there were a few of them.  Honestly, he stole most of the movie for me. This is back to early Transporter Statham as he Stathams his way through this movie.  The prison break sequence at the beginning with he and the Rock trash-talking each other, and then hand-to-hand combating through a bunch of prisoners is just fantastic.  And, without spoiling it, his action sequence at the end was probably my favorite bit of the movie.  Yes, it makes no sense that the crew would be willing to work with this guy, since it is all about Family, and he did kill Han three movies ago, but hey – sometimes the enemy of your enemy is your friend. 

• Dwayne Johnson – let’s be real, we’ll just continue to call him the Rock – plays Hobbs, who started out chasing the team in movie 5, and by the end of this one is officially part of the family. I enjoyed his bit with the girls’ soccer team at the beginning, charming and fun. His interactions with Statham were fantastic, and if they don’t get to do a spin-off together, then I really want an action buddy-cop movie with the two of them. Their on-screen chemistry is outstanding!

•  Michelle Rodriguez is back as Letty, despite being dead for movie 4 and 5, amnesia-victim for 6, and amnesia-recoverer for 7.  I have to say, I thought her performance in this movie was better than I have seen her in any of the others. Her pain at Dom’s betrayal felt real, even when she wanted to believe he would never turn against them.  Which he wouldn’t.

• Tyrese Gibson plays Roman Pierce who started out as Brian’s buddy in movie 2. Yes, he’s still charming and hilarious. He charms his way through the movie, but I have to say, seemed to be snacking a lot less. And I missed his snacking. But – I did love his action sequence in his bright orange Lamborghini.

• Chris “Ludacris” Bridges plays Tej Parker – who continues to be a world-class tech guy and hacker, despite being introduced in movie 2 as a garage owner.  He and Roman still have a fun back and forth with Ramsey.

• Nathalie Emmanuel plays Ramsey, who was introduced as a world-class hacker in movie 7.  Because Tej is a world-class hacker, there seems to be very little for her to do.  Also – she doesn’t seem to drive. Ever, at all.  Which is odd, because the majority of this movie is how our family drives for all their adventures. I’m hoping for the next movie, she gets her own car. And, does not end up with either Roman or Tej.  Because, while their back and forth is somewhat entertaining, it’s also demeaning and I would be happier if she chose to not be with either of them.

• Elsa Pataky is back briefly as Elena – who was a Brazilian cop that Hobbs used as a partner in movie 5, then hooked up with Dom at the beginning of 6, then let him go find and be with Letty.
• Kurt Russell is back as Mr. Nobody, who was first introduced as a shady government operative in movie 7. He’s just fantastic in this and really looks like he is having the best time.

• Scott Eastwood joins in this movie as Little Nobody, a new recruit that Mr. Nobody is training. He’s really bland, boring, doesn’t fit in and seems unnecessary.

• Luke Evans returns briefly as Owen Shaw who was the main villain of movie 6.
• Kristofer Hiyju plays Connor Rhodes, Cypher’s henchman number one, who is basically around to glare at Dom and make some smart-ass comments.  You can guess how that goes for him at the end.

• Charlize Theron plays Cipher – and chews all the scenery she can find. It is fantastic for this movie, and perfectly fits the tone. Plus, there are several scenes where she just doesn’t blink while saying her lines. It makes her look like a complete psycho. I was a little disappointed that she didn’t get to drive, but hey – she commands her airplane in a very terrifying way.

Overall, it was absolutely fantastic. There is the hole missing that was the late Paul Walker, but there are lots of little tributes to him throughout the movie.  Early on, someone says, “Brian would know what to do” which I interpreted as both the characters and the actors being a little bit lost without him.  There are little bits here and there that were questionable:  Would they really work with Deckard after he killed Han? Would they really forgive Dom that quickly? Why not simply get out of the cars in New York and punch somebody? Would the cars really outrun that sub? Can the Rock really manhandle Scott Eastwood that easily? Yes.  And honestly, I could do without another scene of two hackers staring at screens attempting to out-hack each other while saying things like “oh, she’s good”, “this is impossible”, and “I’m in!”  That has happened in far too many movies and shows lately.  Let’s get away from it now.  But, really – none of that matters.  This is a big, giant, popcorn movie.  Sit back, turn off the brain, and enjoy yourself.

9 out of 10- bonus points for Helen Mirren.  Spoiler alert – there’s some Helen Mirren in this…but not nearly enough! And yes, I’m taking off a point for the booty scene.  There’s always a scene in these movies of some chick starting a street race in booty shorts. I’m over that.

Cast Interviews:

Extra Special Bonus - the LAMBcast podcast discussion of the entire franchise, which I was lucky enough to guest on.  https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/lambcast/episodes/2017-04-27T15_32_16-07_00

Retro Movie Review: Inferno (2016 – PG13 – 121minutes)

The great thing about long plane flights is catching up on movies you missed.  Flying back from Slovakia last week, I was able to catch up on a couple of things, one of them being Ron Howard’s Inferno – something I meant to see in the theater, but somehow missed. 

Inferno is the third film based on the Dan Brown novels of the adventures of symbologist Robert Langdon. The first movie was the second book – The Da Vinci Code. The Second movie was the first book (and my personal favorite) Angels and Demons.  This one is the third movie and based on the fourth book, Inferno.  Incidentally – the third book, The Lost Symbol, is just not as good as the others.  The fifth book, Origin, should be out later this year.  I love Dan Brown’s books, mainly because they are heavily based in Italian Renaissance Art History, which is what I minored in college.  I still dream of writing an exhaustive study of the Announciation in Italian Renaissance Art. 

One of the preeminent artists of the renaissance was Sandro Botticelli.  He very famously painted a vision of Hell as described in Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy. If you are unfamiliar with the Divine Comedy, essentially, Dante dreamed he was guided through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven.  His journey through hell was guided by the poet Virgil, and is the most vivid description of hell put to paper.

Dante describes hell in nine circles growing ever smaller as they head down to the center.  Each contains souls guilty of various sins.  The first circle was Limbo, meant for those who were not necessarily sinful, but did not accept Christ.  Limbo is not that bad, but it’s not heaven either.  The second circle holds those guilty of lust – whose poetic justice punishment is to be constantly pushed around by terrible winds. The third circle holds the glutton sinners, who have to lie in a slush of garbage while Cerberus flays them from time to time.  The fourth circle holds the greedy, who constantly have to push around really heavy money bags.  The fifth circle holds the wrathful, who constantly fight each other over the river Styx.  Passing over the Styx, the sixth circle is for those guilty of heresy, who are trapped in flaming tombs. 

Once you get over the Styx, the circles get a little more complicated and the layers have sub-circles.  The seventh circle holds those guilty of violence, and has three sub-circles – violence against others first (submerged in boiling blood), violence against self second (fed upon by harpies), and against God, Art, and Nature third (the Plains of Burning Sand).  The eighth circle holds those guilty of fraud and again has 10 sub-circles – 1, panderers and seducers (whipped by horned demons); 2, flatterers (buried in excrement); 3, simoniacs, or those who sell religious favors (placed head down in holes with flames at their feet); 4, sorcerers and fortune tellers (heads twisted around on their bodies and so have to walk backwards for eternity); 5, barrators or corrupt politicians (immersed in a lake of boiling pitch); 6, hypocrites (walking with heavy lead robes); 7, thieves (pursed and bitten by snakes and lizards); 8, fraudulent advisers (inside individual flames); 9, sowers of discord (hacked and mutilated by a large demon); 10, falsifiers (horrible diseases).

The final circle, the ninth, is all ice and contains those guilty of treachery and is divided into 4 sub-circles: 1, traitors to their kindred (trapped in ice); 2, traitors to their country (also trapped in ice); 3, traitors to their guests (lying down in ice, crying tears of ice); 4, traitors to their lords (fully trapped in ice with their bodies contorted).  At the very center of the bottom of the circles is the Well of Malebolge – containing Satan himself, who has three faces, and in each of his mouths is constantly chewing a great betrayer: Brutus, Cassius, and in the center face with the worst of all punishments - Judas Iscariot.

Now, what does this have to do with the movie?  Nothing, really.  But now that’s information you have and can use to impress folks at dinner parties.  At one point in the movie, Langdon uses Botticelli’s illustration as a clue.

This movie begins with Langdon waking up in a hospital in Florence with a head injury. He can’t quite remember how he got there or what he was doing.  He’s talking with doctor Sienna Brooks, and she helps break him out of the hospital as someone is about to shoot him.  At her place, he finds a projection device that shows Botticelli’s map of hell, but with extra letters hidden in it hat then lead them to the Uffizi Gallery.  There, he slowly pieces together where he was and what he was doing. Encountering a staff member who is surprised to see him back so soon, she leads them to Dante’s death mask, which she says he and his friend were looking at the other night.  However, the mask Is gone, but in looking at security video, they realize that he and his friend stole the mask. 

They learn they are also being pursued by the World Health Organization.  Once all the pieces come together, Robert finally learns he was helping the WHO solve a riddle started by a billionaire named Zobrist, who had become obsessed with the idea that that world is critically overpopulated.  Zobrist created a virus that would wipe out a huge chunk of the earth’s population.  Zobrist was working with a collection of people called the Consortium, but once they realize the madness of his plan, they assist Robert in finding the hidden location of the virus and attempting to stop it before it is released.

Inferno, like the other two movies in the series, is directed by Ron Howard. Ron Howard is the perfect director for these stories.  Usually, the format is that someone approaches Langdon for assistance with solving a riddle or clue that is based in art history symbology in one way or another.  In this one, the twist of Langdon not knowing what that situation is at the beginning adds a sense of desperation to the story. The action is well done, and the puzzle is entertaining.  I do not think it is as good as Angels and Demons, but I do think it is as good as The DaVinci code.  At this point, Howard and Hanks have worked together so often that they are a clearly reliable combination for a quality movie. The rest of the cast is also pretty good.

• Tom Hanks plays Robert Langdon for the third time, and while Langdon should still be David Duchovny, Hanks is just fine, and you can easily believe him as the smart riddle-solver, I’m just not sure on the action bits.

• Felicity Jones plays Sienna Brooks, the doctor who assists Langdon in the front half of this adventure. She’s capable and interesting, and provides a great partner to Hanks.

• French actor Omar Sy plays Christoph Bouchard, who works for the WHO and is trying to assist Langdon – or is he?

• Irrfan Khan plays Harry Sims, the leader of the Consortium who, once he learns what Zobrist’s plans were, does his best to make sure they do not happen.

• Sidse Babett Knudsen plays Elizabeth Sinskey – another WHO agent who is really trying to assist Langdon - or is she?  The WHO agents are a little confusing in this.

• Ben Foster plays Bertrand Zobrist – a crazed billionaire convinced that killing millions is the only way to save billions.  I found him eerily believable in this role, and it may be the first role I’ve seen him in that his slightly crazed demeanor really fits perfectly, and doesn’t work against the character.

• Ana Ularu plays Vayentha, who is essentially an assassin after Sienna and Robert.  

Overall, the story is pretty good – and yes, there are some major differences from the book, but honestly, in this case, I liked the differences and thought they made the story move a little quicker.

7 out of 10 – it’s fine, not spectacular, but entertaining enough.  Gained points for Omar Sy and Irrfan Kahn reuniting after Jurassic World.

Bonus – Cast Interviews!

Movie Review: Life (R – 104 minutes)

Movies that take place on a spaceship while an alien lifeform wipes through the cast one at a time all owe a debt to Alien. It might not be the first that did it, but it sure did it the best.  And that’s both the blessing and curse, nothing else can really come close to that movie, despite how hard they try.

In Life, the crew (Sho Murakami, Rory Adams, Miranda North, David Jordan, Ekaterina Golovkina, and Hugh Derry) of the International Space Station is ready to receive an unmanned vessel is returning from a trip to Mars with some important samples when it is hit by some random meteorites. With the vessel damaged, the crew sends out Rory to use the arm of the station to catch it. 

They immediately start to work on the samples.  Imagine their surprise when scientist Hugh finds a single-cell organism in some of the rock/dust samples. It bears some resemblance to earth-based protozoa and he feeds it some glucose.  Sure enough, the organism starts getting bigger and since every cell of it does everything, essentially, it’s all eye, all brain, and all muscle.  The crew is entranced because as it gets bigger it grows little wing-like appendages and starts creepily caressing Hugh’s finger.  The ISS is in constant communication with earth, so some elementary school kids who won a contest get to name the alien, and name it after their school, Calvin.

Well, since no one in the crew has ever seen a movie, Hugh continues to feed and experiment with Calvin.  After he goes non-responsive when his tank accidentally loses air, Hugh decides to poke him with an electrical rod. Calvin doesn’t like that, promptly grabs Hugh, crushes his hand to a bloody pulp, then figures out how to grab a sharp thing to cut the glove and squish himself through a tiny hole.  

Since he’s trapped in the lab with an unconscious Hugh, he goes after the resident lab rat, and crushes/consumes it – getting even bigger. Rory decides to go in after Hugh – he gets Hugh out, but gets stuck in there with Calvin.  He attempts to burn Calvin, who dodges him by whipping around the lab like one of those sticky octopus toys you used to throw at the wall.  Sure enough, Calvin flips the script and goes inside Rory, to consume more and get bigger. 

Calvin, now looking mostly like a squishy malevolent space butterfly, starts looking for an exit.  He tries getting out the air vents of the room, which the crew can only shut one at a time, because, drama. Calvin is just too fast for drama, and gets out of the last one prior to it being shut. The crew figures out that he seems to be looking for water/oxygen/coolant to consume.  They try to send a distress signal, but communications are down, so Ekaterina decides to go outside to correct the issue.  When she gets outside to fix the communications, for some reason she has to open a tube, and sure enough – Calvin explodes out of it, sticky-grapping her suit to get at her coolant.  Rupturing her coolant causes her suit to flood from the inside. She makes it back to the hatch, but refuses to let Calvin in, so David gets to watch her die.   

Calvin still has four crew members to kill and starts trying to get in through the thrusters. Sho figures out how to prevent this, but then Miranda reminds everyone that they are the last line of defense, and they absolutely cannot let Calvin get to earth, so they agree to let him back in the station.  They come up with a plan to get him trapped in a room, suck the air out, and suffocate him.  A solid plan, but he evades them by hiding on Hugh’s leg (Hugh’s paralyzed, so he can’t feel his legs) to sneak into a room with them.  Sho gets separated from Miranda and Dave, who try to convince Calvin to get off Hugh’s now dead body – but he’s even bigger now and more flappy and less sticky. 

Sho (who of course just had a baby (this movie uses all the stereotypical character tropes it can find) is hiding in sleeping quarters and Miranda and Dave are in with the computers.  They can see Sho on the computer layout of the station – as well as Calvin – who seems to have sucked Hugh’s locator out of his leg. Gross and convenient.  In any case, suddenly a rescue pod shows up from the surface. However, Miranda tells Dave they are not rescue. They received part of the distress signal, and since they are the final line of defense (this is mentioned several times), the pod is just going to push the station out of orbit into deep space. Sho doesn’t know that, and heads towards the pod to get rescued, right through the room that Calvin is hanging out in with Hugh’s body.  Calvin goes with Sho to the pod and makes quick work of the two in the pod and Sho. 

With only Dave and Miranda left, and oxygen running out through the station, everyone is starting to need some air. Dave and Miranda come up with a plan to use the two lifeboats. Dave will lure Calvin with him using Oxygen torches, which are these neat little tube deals that give off oxygen, and Miranda will take the other one to earth.  This all goes pretty well, since Calvin is all about hugging the torches.  

He even looks pretty cute while doing that with his sticky, flappy wings and artichoke-like face/head.  Dave gets him in the pod and they head off into deep space, while Miranda makes it to the other lifeboat/pod, swiftly recording a message to let everyone know what they found is dangerous, in case she doesn’t survive reentry.  The station is breaking up as they are pushing off, and the two pods cross back and forth several times. 

Spoiler alert here – but of course, you can tell what’s going to happen.

The next shot is a pod landing on earth in water near a fishing boat, and two fishermen motor up to it, looking into the window, they see Dave wrapped up in Calvin’s loving embrace Dave screams for them to not open the door – they sure do open the door – and we see Miranda in her pod screaming as she realizes she is heading into deep space.

It’s a twist you see coming, but is still well done.  Director Daniel Espinosa also did Safe House, and has a gift for tense claustrophobic action pieces.  The tension builds as the movie progresses, and the scenes of them attempting to find Calvin on the station as he hides from them are pretty great.  The design of the station was also wonderful, and really added to the tight enclosed nature of the movie.  The opening single shot following the crew members from room to room is really interesting.  They have to be weightless for the whole movie, and is believable for the most part.  The look of Calvin is interesting as well. I will say that we did not need the Calvin POV shots - he seems to see as if he is underwater, and that was distracting rather than engaging. Overall, the movie is serviceable, the story standard, and the cast decent.

• Hiroyuki Sanada plays Sho Murakami, and yes, if you count Sunshine, this is the second time he’s played an Astronaut.  He seems to be the chief engineer of the station, and since his wife just had a baby, he’s really motivated to get back to earth.  He’s great, very stoic, and does get to die being sucked out into space as Calvin uses him as a ladder to get back inside. Pretty epic as death scenes go.

• Ryan Reynolds plays Rory Adams, but was supposed to play Dave. He had a scheduling conflict so took a smaller role in the movie. Reynolds seems to be the most practical person on the station: “Don’t call it Calvin”, “Don’t poke it with that electrical rod”, etc. So of course, because he’s the most practical, he’s the first one to die.  I will admit that I closed my eyes as Calvin sneaks down his throat and seems to devour him from the inside out.

• Rebecca Ferguson plays Miranda North, and is the last line of defense for the station (enough already, we get it!).  She is all business, and is willing to do whatever it takes to make sure Calvin does not get down to earth.

• Jake Gyllenhaal plays David Jordan and as the movie begins he’s being lectured on how he’s been up there too long, and so he has some complicated backstory issues about not really liking humanity and not really wanting to go back to earth. As such, he’s the perfect one to sacrifice himself to get Calvin away from earth. 

• Olga Dihovichnaya plays Ekaterina Golovkina, and she seems to be the commander of the station, but also after Rory gets killed, the one most qualified to go out in a spacesuit to repair the communications system.  She tough and smart, and sheesh, drowning in your space suit is a horrific way to go out.

• Ariyon Bakare plays Hugh Derry and he does a good job of being happy to be in space, since his not-functioning legs are not nearly the detriment in zero gravity. But, every step he makes with Calvin was just suspicious. At some point you have to realize that feeding and cuddling your potentially deadly space butterfly is a mistake.

Overall, the movie is just fine. It’s not great, but it’s not terrible. It’s an interesting story that you’ve seen a couple of times before.  I did read somewhere online that the showrunners were not denying that it could be seen as a prequel to a Venom-style symbiote movie.  Very interesting, and in that case, wouldn’t Gyllenhaal be playing John Jonah Jameson Jr.?  Well, maybe not, but I certainly enjoyed that angle.

6 out of 10 - Gained points for the possible Venom connection, and for Calvin cuddling the oxygen torches – adorable.

Cast Interviews:

Movie Review: Saban's Power Rangers (PG13 – 124 minutes)

Way back in 1993, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers debuted on Fox Kids weekday afternoon block of kids shows. The show used the brilliant (or cheap) idea of taking stock footage of monsters and fight scenes from the Japanese TV series Super Sentai franchise intercut around new shots of American actors. Story-wise, astronauts accidentally release Rita Repulsa on the moon, “After ten thousand years I’m free!  It's time to conquer earth!”  Rita then sets out to send various monsters down to earth to take it over, so Zordon, an ancient being, assisted by his robot Alpha 5 recruit five teenagers “with attitude” to become the Power Rangers to fight against Rita and her monsters.

The show was cheesy fun, and in 1995, they got a movie, in which the Power Rangers gained some ninja powers to stop Ivan Ooze (played by Paul Freeman, yes, that Paul Freeman).

Over the years, the Power Rangers saw multiple iterations, and I faithfully watched every episode of the first three seasons, but then they shifted the cast, and I lost interest.  Because I was such a fan of the cheesy predictable-ness of the original (and the gorgeous Jason David Frank as Tommy), I wasn’t sure how I would react to a new rebooted movie.

The movie opens on prehistoric earth, as a team of alien power rangers are losing a battle against Rita Replusa, the groups former Green Ranger.  In a last ditch effort to defeat her, Zordon, the red ranger, has Alpha launch a meteor strike at the planet, destroying both the rangers, the power coins, and Rita. 

Fast forwarding to present day, we meet Jason Scott, who is the star quarterback of the Angel Grove football team, and gets busted during a prank to capture an opposing team’s mascot.  In the ensuing car chase, he flips his truck and ends up injured, disappointing his father, on house arrest, and in detention.  Once in detention, he is joined by Kimberly hart, former cheerleader, and Billy Cranston.  Billy is getting bullied by the detention bully when Jason promptly puts a stop to it with a open-handed slap – which is really fantastic.  Yes, it’s a very Breakfast Club meeting, and yes, this movie opened exactly 33 years after the Breakfast Club.  Happy to have a friend, Billy invites Jason to join him on his planned outing for the evening, with the promise of being able to deactivate his ankle bracelet. 

They head to the local mine, where Billy used to go treasure-hunting with his dad, who has since passed away. Kimberly heads to the mine to go swimming in a pond, new girl Trini is there to hike and do yoga, and wild-kid Zack is there camping out.  Billy blows up the side of a cliff, and the five are together to discover the long-buried power coins.   The five swiftly realize the coins have given them some strength and resolve to head back to the mine for further research.

Meanwhile, Jason’s father happens to be a fisherman who accidentally pulls up Rita’s mummified corpse.  Sure enough, she recovers and sets out in town to collect as much gold as possible and find the buried Zeo crystal that she had been searching for all those years ago.

Back at the mine, the new rangers discover a buried spaceship containing Alpha 5 and Zordon’s head.  The rangers start training to be able to defeat Rita.  Sure enough, since they don’t really know one another all that well, they are unable to Morph (get their armor and control of their zords – giant robots shaped like prehistoric beasts).  This disappoints Zordon, because they won’t come together, but also because he is hoping to use the ‘morphin grid’ to come back to life and escape the wall he seems to be stuck in.  Rita attacks, so they head out to face her, and swiftly lose – and spoiler alert - Billy gets straight up killed.  Killed!

Returning to the ship, they each realize how much they mean to each other too late, which of course activates the morphin grid – and Zordon is about to step through, but instead uses it to revive Billy – telling Jason that there can only be one red ranger at a time, and this is Jason’s time and Jason’s team, and he needs to lead them.  Reinvigorated – the rangers are able to morph, defeat the putties (yes, there are putties, but not dudes in silver spandex, they are rock monsters) and call the zords to battle Rita’s raised Goldar monster.  They defeat Rita after bringing all the zords together to form the mega-zord and slapping Rita into outer space as the citizens of Angel Grove look on in appreciation. 

The movie is directed by Dean Israelite, a South Africian director.  This is his first big-time Hollywood movie.  It looks great, and the action is fun.  I will say, the show focused a little more on the martial arts, and there’s very little of that in this movie. There is some in the training sequence, but I could have done with a little more of that - just a few more action/fight sequences.  I think because this is an origin movie, so there's no time for that.  I do miss the Goldar from the show, new Goldar is a little melty, and less comedic. So - the new one fits the new movie, I guess I just miss the old one! 

The movie also solves the issue of what I used to call ‘power-ranger acting’ – where your entire head is covered in a giant helmet, so in order to clarify who is speaking, every gesture is over-articulated.  In this movie, the face screens can be removed from the helmets, so you can actually see the person talking. The movie is incredibly long for a Power Rangers movie, but it’s long because of the character development at the front end. Some have argued that it was unnecessary, but honestly, I didn’t mind it.  The cast was all pretty capable for what was asked of them:

• Australian Dacre Montgomery plays Jason, and does a decent job of playing a kid a little overburdened by all the expectations of others placed on him. It’s not an original character, but it’s a proven trope, and he does well with it here, especially when he finally steps up and helps to unify his team of his four new friends.

• British actress Naomi Scott plays Kimberly, the pink ranger.  She is dealing with her own levels of self-doubt, shocked by how terrible a person should was capable of being in seeking popularity.  Recently booted off the cheerleading squad and now searching for a new identity, she’s grateful to stumble into four new friends that she can start over with.

• RJ Cycler (Earle from Me and Earle and the Dying Girl) plays Billy – and if you haven’t heard by now, the character is Autistic.  Telling Jason he’s on the spectrum, Jason responds by joking if that is like P90X, which Billy clarifies that he doesn’t understand that joke because his brain doesn’t work that way, and Jason states that he understands.  At no point does it make Billy any less of a character – he’s not the butt of any jokes, and he’s not portrayed as weak or needing protection from the others. He’s an equally valued member of the team, and that is absolutely brilliant for kids to see today. He is never treated as less than as he bonds with his four new friends. Cycler's performance is fantastic, and he definitely is the heart and soul of the movie. 

• Ludi Lin plays Zack, the wild-kid in school.  He’s basically blowing off high school, half because he’s taking care of his sick and dying mom, and half because he’s unsure how to handle his emotions about his mom being sick and dying, but is grateful to have four new friends that he can talk to about it.  He gets lets development than the others, but still does a good job. And man, those arms in that tank top are great. 

• Singer/songwriter Becky G. plays Trini, and she’s attempting to fit in to her family, who are perfectly traditional.  She’s a bit worried that if she is honest with them about who she is (it’s strongly implied that she’s gay, but not outrightly stated), that they will be unable to handle it.  She’s not really looking to fit in, but is happy to have four new friends who will have her back regardless.

• Elizabeth Banks plays Rita Repulsa, and I really enjoyed the storyline of her once being the green ranger to Zordon’s red ranger. It makes her attack a little more personal.  She vamps her way through the movie, equal parts cheesy, disturbing, and in some parts – truly frightening.

• Bryan Cranston plays Zordon.  Yes – he did voice a couple of the monsters in the original 90s series and is the reason Billy’s character’s last name was and is Cranston.  He does a good job of making you believe he really just wants out of the wall, despite the fact that he did sacrifice himself to save the world.  Once he realizes he can trust this new ranger team, he feels comfortable stepping back into mentor role.

• Bill Hader voices Alpha 5, and yes, does say Aye-yi-yi a couple of times.

Overall, I have to say I was really pleasantly surprised. I genuinely loved the movie.  The kids are great, and really come together to be a great team.  I will say, I miss the practical effects of the old show, with cheesy robots for the zords, because these CGI zords – I really could not tell which beasts they were supposed to be. Kimberly is still a pterodactyl, Jason still seems to have a T-Rex, and Trini seems to be a sabre-tooth cat, but both Billy’s and Zack’s were a little tough to tell.  And yes, the old putties were ridiculous, but these rock monsters were no fun.  

And yes, the characters do start wearing only their color – a bit from the show that always used to crack me up.  No one in Angel Grove could ever figure out who the power rangers were, but these five (and then six) kids were always hanging out together and only ever wearing the same colors that the power rangers were, and still no one ever thought they were the power rangers!

8 out of 10 – really entertaining, and super fun.  A little too long, but that didn’t bother me too much. I can’t wait for the sequel!  Mainly because of the mid-credits sequence where the team is back in detention, and the teacher announces there is a new student in detention, Tommy Oliver – and the camera shifts to an empty chair with a green jacket thrown over it….

Bonus – interviews!