When I woke up this morning and checked out the world of tomorrow internet, I saw what seemed to be a very intricate and well-done fan art of Power Rangers re-imagined.
Then I saw the Entertainment Weekly watermark.
Then I realized it was real.
Then I went full Stark.
Source: Plastic Ronins
We have already seen Elizabeth Banks as Rita Repulsa and you know how I feel about it. This rendition of Power Rangers however, left me with mixed feelings.
Certainty to general audience who never grew up with Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers, the radical design makes sense. It looks cooler, it’s flashy, and it follows suit to the current trend of practicality-over-fantasy aspect. After all, it would be tough to convince that 5 teenagers wearing nothing but helmet and spandex have any business beating down monsters of destructive force. Few kids may even ask ‘Daddy, why are these lucha wrestlers fighting that monster with laser rifles and piranha-tentacles?’. So in terms of realistic integration, it makes sense.
On the other hand, I don’t feel the love from this design. Everything about this look screams ‘Iron Man’, It’s as if someone took Mark 45’s design and decided to copy and paste, then add Power Ranger helmet on top of it. It feels like the designers were banking on the popularity of Iron Man and The Avengers to make their movie trend, and it worked. Hours after the initial Stark meme, 10 more were born. Aside from meme generations, the intricacy of the suit means that most of the fights will be CG rendered. For hardcore Power Rangers fans and even tokusatsu fans, this will not work. Power Rangers is one of those shows that actually lets you feel the fight: every jump flip, every hits, every takedowns, they were done by stunt people in suits. To reduce those senses into CG would diminish what makes tokusatsu fascinating genre.
In the end, I don’t mind it, but I wish there was more thought put into the design. As of right now, this feels too cookie-cutter and the popularity of Stark Industries’ hi-tech armors certainly don’t help my hesitation to fully embrace these looks. I will wait until the trailer comes out and then we’ll see whether these armors work or not.