The reinvention of Power Rangers is almost upon us, and to whet our appetites, Lionsgate have released a new clip showing the scene in which the five teenagers first venture aboard Zordon’s alien spaceship and encounter comedy robot sidekick Alpha (voiced by Bill Hader). The robot, memorable to all 90s kids with his not at all annoying catchphrase “ai ai ai ai ai,” will assist the teenagers as they get to grips with their new roles as protectors of Earth.
Alpha doesn’t turn up until the very last second of this two-minute clip, though. The rest is given over to what looks like a child-friendly take on Ridley Scott’s Prometheus, showing the freaked out teenagers exploring the shifting alien ship. Things get a little hairy as the stairs seal up behind them and they’re attacked by a tentacle that drags one of them away, but given this is Power Rangers, I guess it’s unlikely anybody is going to end up in a nightmare body horror impregnation scenario.
Still, these untested actors look nervous, and judging by this clip, they’ve got every right to be. They’re surrounded by iffy CGI that’s compounded by shoddy green screen work and have pretty stale dialogue to chew through. On top of that, the performances sound flat and a tiny bit bored. I get that Power Rangers probably isn’t going to be bothering the Academy in 2018, but based on this clip, previous promos and the trailers, the prognosis looks pretty negative.
I’m willing to be proved wrong, though. Director Dean Israelite must be hungry to make an impression on audiences, having disappointed with Project Almanac and subsequently turned down by Marvel for Doctor Strange in favor of Scott Derrickson. And hey, teenagers in jumpsuits fighting monsters in giant dinosaur-shaped robots can only go so wrong, right? Right?
We’ll find out on March 24. Fingers crossed.
