YMMV / Power Rangers (2017)

• Actor Shipping: A lot of fans have take to shipping Naomi Scott (Kimberly) and Becky G (Trini) together due to the pair's on-screen chemistry and real life friendship. There is a surprisingly dedicated fanbase for the pairing on Tumblr, which even gave them their own Portmanteau Couple Name Beaomi, and a good number of fan vids for them online. Even the facts that both are in real life relationships (Naomi is married to Jordan Spence and Becky G is dating Sebastian Lletget) and by most accounts appear to be straight, does not deter their shippers in the slightest.
• Adorkable: Billy with his sheer enthusiasm for being a Power Ranger, habit of overexplaining everything and occasional moments of being Moe make him utterly adorable.
• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • On Kimberly's situation concerning her former cheerleader friends:
    • As much as the movie wants to paint Kimberly in a sympathetic light, one could easily make the case of her being an Alpha Bitch Asshole Victim: She's the one who started the whole thing with Amanda (sharing what is strongly implied to be a nude - or at least very intimate and private - picture of her) and doesn't seem to have tried actually apologizing to her, nor does she seem genuinely sorry for anything beyond having to face consequences for her actions. Confessing the whole ordeal to Jason arguably seems more about making herself feel better than anything else. What's more is that her former friends claim she once punched a guy so hard his tooth fell out, and Kim's only response is, "They put it back."
    • A different interpretation of Kim's former friends could point to them being just as bad as her - considering even after they say they're cutting her out of their lives, they still mock her haircut and in a deleted scene sprayed graffiti on her locker. Not to mention that rather than simply telling Kimberly they don't want to see her anymore, they go to a more elaborate cutting her out of a picture ritual seemingly designed just to hurt her. This could point to their original feud being a mild version of Evil Versus Evil, with Kimberly being the one who took it too far and at least had a Heel Realization.
    • A third interpretation is that Kim's friend Amanda slept with Kim's boyfriend (the boy whose tooth Kim knocked out), which is why Kim spread the nude around. While this would in no way justify what Kim did, it does make it far more understandable than her suddenly doing such a thing to a friend of hers. Especially since they are just teens, and as such are prone to doing things rash when emotional.
  • The original cut of the film had Jason and Kimberly forming a romantic connection, as a kiss scene was filmed (and appeared in the trailer) - but doesn't appear in the finished product. So while you could interpret their scenes as romantic in nature, you could just as easily interpret them being Just Friends who connect over their similar status as now-disgraced former popular kids at school - as the other three are outcasts because of their situations rather than actions. And given that Kimberly previously had a racy picture of one of her former friends on her phone, and her intense chemistry with Trini (who is implied to be attracted to girls), one could interpret Kim as Ambiguously Bi.
  • Zack regularly skips school, which is supposedly another symptom of him acting out over his mother's illness. But what if the reason he's not going to school is that he wants to be nearby in case she needs help? And as for her illness, is she terminal, as suggested when Zack corrects himself and says "when she goes"? Or is she simply not able to get better healthcare due to their poverty?
• Awesome Music:
  • At the end of the first trailer. First six notes of the Power Rangers theme + synths = pure nostalgia.
  • The second trailer incorporates Kanye West's "Power" to excellent effect, especially near the end when it gets backed up by the orchestral score, and then finally shifts into the Power Rangers theme on electric guitar.
  • The slow, stripped-down version of "Stand By Me" that plays as the Rangers carry Billy's body back to the Command Center. Heartbreakingly awesome.
  • The Power Rangers theme makes a triumphant return in this movie, when the Rangers ride off in their Zords for the Final Battle. Bonus points for it being the version used in the 1995 movie, with a longer snippet as part of the end credits.
  • "Unstoppable" by The Score, the perfect way to end the film, as the lyrics describe the Rangers to a T.
• Broken Base: The Power Rangers fanbase is divided on:
  • The redesigns of the characters and Zords.
    • Many have taken the new suits to task for having a more high-tech armored look (which the film itself seems to anticipate, as the Rangers compare themselves to Iron Man), while others think they are appropriate for a higher-budget film, unlike with TV shows known for somewhat limited budgets.
    • The Zords are criticized by many for being too stylized, sometimes to the point of obscuring the animal basis, like the "Mastodon" having more than four legs. Others, however, see this as emphasizing their alien origins, supported by the director's own statements.
    • As for Rita and Goldar, many think they're too different, especially Goldar. But others are intrigued about Rita being a former Green Ranger.
  • The Rangers don't transform into their suits and use their Zords till the final fourth of the movie. Understandably, this might piss off old fans of the show. Though some have argued this allows for more Character Development, and more or less matches the pacing of "Day of the Dumpster" (which the film is more or less a remake of), others believe there's too much of it. There's also the fact that once they finally morph, there's a good half hour of them doing nothing but fighting putties and Rita, which is basically the length of an average episode anyway.
• Complete Monster: Rita Repulsa, the former Green Ranger, was once a noble hero before her ambition drives her to slaughter her comrades and mortally wound her former friend Zordon. Resurfacing countless years later, Rita descends on the fishing town of Angel Grove and starts brutally murdering innocent people for their gold to regain her powers—in one instance tearing a homeless man apart to get at his gold teeth—burning down an entire populated building to demonstrate the power of her Putties. Capturing and then killing a man to draw in the Rangers, Rita tortures the location out of Earth's Zeo Crystal out of the Rangers and then callously kills Billy (temporarily) in front of the others once he wears out his use to her. Finally rising up a monstrous Zord of her own making that she calls Goldar, Rita starts decimating Angel Grove to find and take the powers of the Zeo Crystal. Rita's ultimate goal is nothing short of absolute godhood by harnessing the power of the Zeo Crystal—consequentially killing off all life on the planet, something Rita is only too gleeful to do. Barely resembling her original incarnation, Rita brings a level of incredible seriousness to this otherwise lighthearted and fun film and is ultimately nothing less than a psychotic, murderous monster.
• Creepy Awesome: Rita is a Cold Ham in this, and has a significantly more alien appearance; even making her appearance as an emaciated husk that only grows mildly more human. But she's also an Adaptational Badass, and a One Woman Army against the Rangers unmorphed, and has several awesome powers involving creating putties out of the ground itself.
• Critical Backlash: Despite some negative reception (even from the cast of the original show), the film's official Reddit discussion thread was made up of people expressing surprise that it was so badly reviewed. There are just as many who come to this movie's defence, and lament that it's unlikely there will be a sequel with this cast and continuity.
• Critical Dissonance: It landed in the mid 40% range on Rotten Tomatoes (though its final score was a barely above average 51%) but was in the 80% range for audience rating. Note that this is nothing new with Power Rangers, and those that liked the movie enjoyed it for many of the same reasons that critics didn't.
• Cult Classic: Despite the movie's disappointing box office returns, it still is looked upon very positively by most who have seen it and praised by them for both the cast's performances and their chemistry as well as the surprisingly deep storytelling too—so much to the point that many agonize the movie not being successful enough to get a sequel and see what happens next (and that both merchandise and home video sales went up a lot by fans attempting to convince Lionsgate to still make the sequel).
• Epileptic Trees: Following the unveiling of Rita's redesign and the new suits themselves, along with statements that Rita will have an Adaptation Origin Connection, a popular theory that Rita will be a fallen version of the Green Ranger in this setting (or, alternately, that she will become the Green Ranger). Elizabeth Banks herself nodding at a fan theory only fuels the flames. Furthering this theory is the reveal of the "Power Coins" being colored gems instead, which look identical to the one in Rita's staff. When the movie came out, it was indeed confirmed that Rita is a rogue Green Ranger.
• Estrogen Brigade: With a very shirtless Dacre Montgomery in one scene, Zack being played by the Pretty Boy Ludi Lin and Billy being The Cutie of the team, it's unsurprising that The Mary Sue's casting announcements were met with fangirls Squeeing over the actors' attractiveness.
• Fandom Rivalry: Between this and Ghost in the Shell (2017), which were both released in late March 2017. The former has a racially diverse cast while the latter has faced criticism for casting a white woman in a role for an Asian woman ^note Power Rangers also cast a white woman in a role originally held by an Asian woman (Rita) but has faced less criticism, probably due to an otherwise diverse main cast that includes Asians.
• Fandom-Specific Plot:
  • A sizable number of fanfics center around Trini suffering PTSD from Rita attacking her in her bedroom and getting comfort from one of the other Rangers (almost always Kimberly).
  • The Sequel Hook teasing a Tommy Oliver appearance, and Rita being a former Green Ranger naturally resulted in a few fan fictions that led to her giving him her Power Coin. It helps that the original Rita technically gave the original Tommy his Power Coin as well.
• Fanon:
  • Some like to interpret Kimberly as bisexual, since she has a lot of Les Yay with Trini who has a confirmed attraction to girls and also had a nude picture of her friend saved on her phone.
  • It's also assumed that said photo on Kimberly's phone is a nude one, although the movie never shows it and Jason just instinctively looks away when she shows him.
  • It's often assumed that Trini's last name is Kwan in this version, since everyone else keeps the same last name as the original - even though Trini is Latina here, and Kwan is a Chinese surname. Although it's not mentioned in the film itself, her father's actor Patrick Sabongui said on Twitter that he played "Mr Kwan". Trini was originally going to have 'Crystal' as a surname in the draft when the series was 'Galaxy Rangers', making that a possible alternate name for those who don't want to head canon how her family could be Kwan.
• Fan-Preferred Couple: A borderline case. Within the film itself, Jason and Kimberly are just friends, though Jason does show some interest in Kimberly early on. The tie-in comic has Ship Tease between them, a holdover from when they were planned to be love interests in the film. Within the fandom, Jason's most popular ship is with Billy and Kimberly's with Trini, due to the film giving quite a bit of focus and bonding moments to these relationships.
• Fan-Preferred Cut Content: Several of the deleted scenes fans wish had been part of the final film.
  • Jason and his father discuss the former's future, also revealing that Jason was left in jail for three days for "your own good", and that the father is trying to pressure him to still continue football against a doctor's advice. This would give more power to Jason saving his father in the final battle.
  • An extended version of the conversation between Trini and Kimberly right before they go off the cliff together. It gives a little more insight into why Trini is there (she brings the power coin back because she outright hopes it would make everything stop). She also announces her name, which makes the Running Gag of everyone calling her 'Dee Dee' funnier.
  • A short montage where the teens see the destruction Rita is slowly causing in Angel Grove. Jason in particular sees how scared his little sister is, and texts the others to suggest resuming training. This explains why they continue to do it, even if it's hard. It also adds more desperation to Zack taking the zord out on a joyride.
  • Zack's planned backstory would have him trying to do various stunts on YouTube in the hopes of becoming an online star and being able to support his mother.
  • Kimberly's locker being vandalized by her former friends, which would confirm that they continue to bully her even after they say they've cut her out of their group - which is only lightly touched on in the final cut.
  • There was a version of the "doughnut fight" scene where Kim and Trini started to partially morph their suits that didn't make it into the film, but could have been used to better highlight both the team's progression and their developing bond with each other.
• Friendly Fandoms:
  • Fans of this film seem to overlap and get on well with fans of the DC Extended Universe for a few reasons such as Critical Dissonance, making an effort to have diverse casts and getting criticism from some fans and critics for being more serious takes than previous versions of their source material. Ludi Lin also joined the cast of Aquaman shortly after playing Zack here.
  • There's also a bit of overlap with fans of Stranger Things due to Dacre Montgomery being in both.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: The toy line for the film was very successful in the United Kingdom, especially it became the number one best-selling toy line upon the release of the film.
• Genius Bonus: Billy the Blue Ranger is on the autism spectrum in this version. Blue is one of the colors associated with autism awareness.
• Ham and Cheese: Elizabeth Banks brings the ham that is sorely needed in this movie and delivers it covered with gold as Rita Repulsa.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • Kimberly's friends "cutting" her out of their group and generally acting utterly bitchy towards her throughout the movie (especially the text messages she receives from them), and her shocked and hurt reactions to it all, can be harder to stomach after social media users began hurling all types of abusive messages — up to, and including, death threats — at Naomi Scott following the announcement of her being cast as Jasmine in Disney's live-action remake of Aladdin in July 2017.^note The users in question, mostly on Twitter, were upset that an actress without any Arab/Persian ancestry (who's actually half-Indian) had been cast as Jasmine. Whether or not you think that's a casting mistake on Disney's part, that's still no reason to scream at Scott to kill herself.
  • Billy is temporarily killed by Rita in this movie. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always kicks off with a Ranger dying by Rita's hand, except this time it's Trini who dies trying to save Billy from Rita (and unlike Billy in this movie, her death actually sticks). Even worse, the reason Rita was able to come back to do this was because Billy tried to resurrect Zordon.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight: Considering that David Yost left Zeo due to being harassed over his sexuality, the fact that Trini received Adaptational Sexuality definitely comes across as this.
• He's Just Hiding: Given that being hit by a meteor didn't kill her nor did being at the bottom of the ocean for 65 million years, its pretty safe to say space probably ain't gonna hold Rita back for long. And indeed, the last we see of her, she's heading right towards the moon...
• He Really Can Act: This is a character driven film first and foremost. So despite the generic acting usually associated with Power Rangers, this cast delivers on their performances; in particular, their best moment was arguably when Billy drowned and the remaining Rangers brought him back to the Command Center as an honor guard.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • In 2015, a professional-level Fan Film named Power/Rangers was released as part of the "Bootleg Universe" that specifically parodied the idea of a Darker and Edgier reboot of a cheesy '90s property aimed at kids, which gained enough traction for several former cast members of the show to comment on it. Not only is the "gritty reboot" played somewhat, straight here, but some of those same people even made cameo appearances. The film however is considerably more light-hearted.
  • Well before the movie's release, the Imaginext MMPR toy line for younger kids, based on the original series, released a massive Goldar figure with a regular-sized Rita figure meant to ride atop him. Guess what Rita does in the movie.
  • The original 1995 movie originally planned to have visorless helmets for the Rangers, but the idea was scrapped and the Rangers' helmets were left unaltered. In this movie, however, the visors for the helmet can be retracted at will by the Rangers, such that during the final battle with Goldar in the Megazord, the Rangers left their faces exposed.
  • All the Product Placement for Krispy Kreme becomes more amusing when one remembers the original 1995 movie was promoted by its bitter competition, Dunkin' Donuts.
  • Billy being black becomes this when you learn that Walter Jones, who played Zack in the original series, was originally going to wear the blue suit before switching with David Yost.
  • While piloting his T-Rex Zord, Jason steps on a yellow-and-black Camaro and throws it at some Putties, saying "Sorry, Bumblebee!" while doing so. Just under a year after this movie's release, the company that owns Transformers, Hasbro, acquired the global Power Rangers toy license — and, a couple months later, bought the franchise itself from Saban Brands.
  • Dacre Montgomery plays a Nice Guy who defends a boy called Billy from bullies. Right after, he'd join the cast of Stranger Things now playing a bully called Billy. There's even a moment where a piece of music plays that sounds like the Stranger Things theme over a shot of Jason. And Stranger Things would even have similar shameless Product Placement in there like Power Rangers's use of Krispy Kreme as a plot point - in this case, Lucas talking about New Coke in the middle of a tense scene in the third season.
  • Elizabeth Banks plays Rita in this version and therefore terrorises Naomi Scott, who plays Kimberly. She would later direct her in Charlie's Angels (2019), and this time play Bosley while Naomi plays one of the Angels.
  • Ludi Lin in a superhero movie playing The Friend Nobody Likes but ultimately proving himself a valuable member of the team. Then in Aquaman (2018), he's the villainous Captain Murk, The Dragon to another antagonist who comes from underwater. Not to mention the scene where Zack tries to revive Billy from drowning, which contrasts with his character in Aquaman requiring a Mobile Fishbowl to breathe and having to dunk his head in a toilet when it's destroyed.
• I Knew It!:
  • The fan theory that Rita was once the green ranger and betrayed Zordon.
  • This happens with Jason David Frank's cameo. He left in Power Rangers Turbo, his fifth season, made several cameos before coming back for Power Rangers: Dino Thunder, then made a major cameo in Power Rangers Megaforce. He was also in both previous movies, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie and Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie, and has even played Tommy for Super Power Beat Down. The man was extremely loyal to the Power Rangers brand long after he ceased to make appearances on the show itself, so when he claimed he wasn't in this one, the fans didn't believe it one bit.
  • Many fans figured out what The Stinger was going to be: a tease for Tommy Oliver to appear in the sequel.
• Just Here for Godzilla:
  • A lot of people who weren't interested in the film before want to see it because Bryan Cranston is playing Zordon.
  • The rest just want to see the Zords in action.
  • Many Death Metal fans wanted to see the film after Revocation announced a song of theirs was featured.
  • Other people are only interested in the training scenes with the Rangers bonding and becoming friends. Given that the original Rangers in the series had clearly been a close-knit group for years by the start of the series, it's great for longtime fans to finally see how they all got to know each other.
• LGBT Fanbase: The franchise itself has a substantial queer fan base, and the movie is no different; with plenty of Ho Yay between all the cast members (Billy and Jason hugging twice) and one Ranger all but stated to be attracted to the same sex, and the movie actually deleting the original heteronormative romance subplot (and therefore allowing shippers to abound).
• Les Yay: Quite a bit of it, primarily between Trini and Kim, most of which doesn't even get into Trini possibly liking girls in this version...
  • The two of them spend a lot of their time together in this version, getting very close and enjoying each other's company. And Trini is very cold to the other rangers at first, except for Kim, who's the only one who can get her to open up and smile.
  • A lot of their scenes can be viewed in a romantic light, like a deleted scene where Kim discovers that her locker has been vandalized. Trini's response? Rip the door off and offer to carry her stuff for her. Looking at the infamous "donut scene" out of context, it's very easy to assume that the two of them are actually on a date, rather than just close friends.
  • At one point, two of Kimberly's ex-friends exit a bathroom stall together for no apparent reason. Uh, okay...
  • Rita really enjoys caressing Trini's face when she attacks her and pins her to a wall. Bonus points for it being in Trini's bedroom. This obviously doubles as No Yay. Another example of this is when Rita literally searches the jewellery store desk clerk's mouth with her fingers. The clerk is clearly surprised by this but notably doesn't ask her to stop.
• Like You Would Really Do It: Billy's death before even the entire team manages to morph is unsurprisingly the impetus for them to stand together. Of course Zordon sacrifices his only chance to return to the living to Billy.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • With the revelation that Bryan Cranston was chosen to play Zordon, the Breaking Bad references went flying.
  • With the knowledge that the Rangers started out as a 'three boys, two girls' group of misfits who met in detention, The Breakfast Club comparisons were inevitable. The teaser trailer showing the five meeting at Saturday detention (in a manner extremely similar to The Breakfast Club) only heightened the comparisons, with many an article describing the tease as "The Breakfast Club with superpowers."
  • #TeenagersWithAngst, a popular twist on the original show's "teenagers with attitude" premise due to the film's Darker and Edgier feel.
  • The Product Placement helped revive the "Back at it again at Krispy Kreme" meme for the film.
    • As well as jokes of ''GO GO PRODUCT PLACEMENT!"
  • The Mastodon Zord having eight legs drew quite a lot of flak from fans, with some joking about the optical illusion about "how many legs does the elephant have?"
  • Jokes about time traveling back to The '90s, since Beauty and the Beast, Ghost in the Shell, and Power Rangers are all back in theaters.
  • Bryan Cranston was in the US version of Thank God You're Here, where the guests are put in costume and thrust into scenes they have to improv the rest of the way through. Not only do they predict The Avengers by turning all the guests into costumed superheroes for the final scene, but Bryan is the red one.
• Mis-blamed: Many viewers thought the Krispy Kreme Product Placement was forced into the script by executives. However, Dean Israelite explained in an interview that the opposite was true—the writers thought it'd be funny if the Zeo Crystal was beneath a fast food franchise (originally suggesting McDonald's) and wrote the relevant scenes with that in mind, only going with Krispy Kreme once they determined it was "the right kind of absurd".
• Moral Event Horizon: Rita crosses the line by drowning Billy. She wasn't kidding when she said she'd "killed Rangers before."
• Narm:
  • Goldar's new look is downright hilarious. Granted it's a toy, and he looks more impressive in the real trailers, but still he looks too different for many.
  • Zordon used to be a floating head in a tube, which was silly enough. Now he looks ridiculous in a different way: he looks like a man whose face has been slammed into a pin art toy.
  • Rita declaring her famous "Make my monster grow!" line as she creates Goldar. While the "It's morphin' time" line worked because the team were morphing for the first time, Rita saying this line doesn't make nearly as much sense because A) she was already halfway through making her monster 'grow' when she said it, B) she just says the line completely unprompted and randomly, and C) Goldar is a permanently giant monster who doesn't need growing.
  • A minor case of this when the teens arm up with pipes and chains when they go up against Rita the first time. Especially when you realize that with the recent serial murders, this would surely get them stopped by the police.
• Narm Charm:
  • For some, the Cliché Storm and most of what's listed under Narm works because it's Power Rangers, which is known for having a cheese factor and unashamed silliness to it. Besides, the actors' performance put such sincerity into their performances that it's hard not to like the main cast, spotty storytelling aside.
  • Goofy names such as Rita Repulsa and Goldar are still used in complete earnest.
  • The completely out-of-nowhere use of Go Go Power Rangers during the climax. It shouldn't fit, but it was already playing in your head anyway. Just before the music hits, Alpha says "Go go Power Rangers".
  • Jason saying "It's morphin' time" before the Final Battle against Rita. Is the line cheesy and a little out of place in the new continuity? Yeah, but it still works as an affectionate Call-Back to the original series and as an indicator that it's finally time to see the Rangers in their suits kicking ass.
  • Rita casually hanging around Krispy Kreme, eating a donut while the Rangers fight her Putties and Goldar. Yep, quite a few people think it's everything silly, yet awesome about Power Rangers summed up in a few seconds. On that note, how unapologetically blatant the Krispy Kreme product placement is. It's obviously done completely tongue-in-cheek, and probably wouldn't have worked as well if this weren't Power Rangers.
• Never Live It Down:
  • The film practically opening with Jason's friend 'milking' a male cow.
  • Kimberly really can't live down the "That's what you get!" when her former friend's car gets hit by debris.
• Older Than They Think:
  • While the movie's plot elements like a Ranger dying or a former Ranger turned-traitor expanded the core Power Rangers' lore further, these twists were quite shocking for audiences who had seen the Darker and Edgier subplots of pre-MMPR Super Sentai series. Indeed Power Rangers itself had featured Rangers dying and then being revived, and former Rangers turned evil.
  • Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie, which was made up of entirely original footage, had the Rangers in more armoured versions of their show costumes.
  • Any Sentai team with two females has the Tomboy and Girly Girl trope in full force. The movie turns it up a notch with its iteration of Trini.
  • Several other Power Rangers seasons had gone Darker and Edgier compared to Mighty Morphin, most memorably Power Rangers Timeforce and Power Rangers RPM. As mentioned above, Power Rangers Lost Galaxy had tackled mature themes and killed characters off too.
• One-Scene Wonder:
  • Trini's obsessive mother only has one scene but naturally her hilarious reaction to Trini's Sarcastic Confession ensures she's remembered.
  • Tommy Oliver in The Stinger. While he doesn't directly appear, his role as the Green Ranger is set up.
  • The original actors for Tommy and Kimberly show up together during the denouement.
• Questionable Casting: More of a case of who they didn't get. While there are cameos from Amy Jo Johnson and Jason David Frank, none of the other original cast members were featured. Especially egregious since Tommy didn't even appear until the seventeenth episode of the first season, and the character doesn't even get used onscreen here.
• Retroactive Recognition: Dacre Montgomery would become instantly more famous for playing Billy Hargrove in Stranger Things shortly after this movie came out.
• Ron the Death Eater: Some paint Kimberly as a remorseless Designated Hero who never learns anything, and in turn her friends as complete innocents. Yes she tries to downplay her bad behavior beforehand, and she did punch a guy's tooth out. But that's exactly the point. She realises that not owning up to what she did is actively preventing them from morphing, and she outright says that she can't erase what she did; stating that she hates how mean she used to be, and actually taking most of the bullying her former friends do because she views it as penance. She shows kindness to Zack, Billy and Trini from the beginning and tries to be there for her friends.
• She Really Can Act: Becky G was actually one of the most known in the main cast...as a singer on YouTube and in the Latin pop music world where she is extremely popular. She received lots of praise for her subtle, layered performance as Trini - especially in the campfire scene.
• Ship-to-Ship Combat:
  • Jason and Kimberly's kiss in the trailer has ignited a lot of vitriol from the still-strong Tommy/Kimberly shippers in the fandom. Note that, as of this writing, Tommy isn't even in the movie (he's mentioned in The Stinger after the credits but doesn't appear in person), and the final cut removed the kissing scene entirely.
  • Jason/Kimberly fans have been equally vitriolic towards Tommy/Kimberly fans.
• So Okay, It's Average: This seems to pretty much be the general consensus among non-fans. It fares significantly better with audiences than critics, but most people will agree that it's not anything spectacular and is mostly bolstered by a fairly strong cast.
• Spiritual Adaptation:
  • Downplayed, since it's one for another Power Rangers series, but a number of fans, due to it starring a Ragtag Bunch of Misfits who become Fire-Forged Friends while fighting evil with dinosaur-themed powers (with the Red Ranger being a jock, and the Blue Ranger being Black and Nerdy), compare it to Power Rangers: Dino Thunder. The Rangers in this movie are also mentored by a former Ranger just like the Dino Thunder team.
  • Many fans of the Animorphs books have also noted that the film works surprisingly well as an Animorphs film adaptation, matching the series' relatively dark and grim tone. Notably, many of its changes from the source material bring it closer in line with Animorphs: the characters get their powers following a fateful encounter in a construction site, their alien mentor suffers Death by Origin Story (like Elfangor), the Big Bad has the same powers as the heroes (like Visser Three), and the climax features an important location being hidden under a Real Life fast food restaurant (Krispy Kreme instead of McDonald's).
• Squick:
  • At the start of the movie Jason and his friends are stealing a rival school's mascot, a cow. One of Jason's friends talked about how it should be easier to deal with because he milked it first. Turns out it's not a cow but a bull and the thing he was milking was not an udder...
  • The original cut of Rita attacking Trini in her bedroom has Rita licking Trini's chin at one point.
• Stoic Woobie: Billy has been bullied for most of his life due to his autism, and his Only Friend was his father, who has been dead for some time. Despite this, he's the most cheerful of the Rangers.
• Tainted by the Preview:
  • The dark and edgy atmosphere for the first trailer was off-putting to a lot of viewers, with comparisons to Fan4stic and Chronicle (incidentally both directed by the same person, and the writers of both movies having involvement in this one). This also has worked in reverse to some extent, as some of those who are dismissive of the Power Rangers property as a whole commented that they were pleasantly surprised by the trailer.
  • The new looks for the Zords and Goldar had the misfortune of first being seen and judged through toys, despite the looming issue of screen accuracy vs. toy accuracy. The second trailer had more solid glimpses of their actual appearances in the movie. Similarly, Alpha 5's new design was first shown through concept art, but he also appears in the second trailer.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
  • The inevitable reaction to the reveal of Rita and the new suits.
  • A lot of fans of the original were put off by how different Goldar is, not just for his all golden look, but especially after the toy revealed that here Goldar is essentially an evil Zord that Rita pilots in the film and not a monster and The Dragon like in the show, with many feeling that after that much alteration Goldar is In Name Only.
  • The Megazord's sleek alien/Jaeger-ish hybrid design also scorned a few fans who grew up with the blockier looks of the Megazords.
  • There were quite a few fans upset that Kimberly's sport was changed from her being a gymnast to being a cheerleader, since gymnastics was such an iconic part of her character from the original series, and many felt that her being a cheerleader is a high-school movie cliche that's been utterly done to death.
  • Jason undergoes a similar change, going from a proud martial artist to someone who just doesn't want to play football, Dad. Keeping Jason a martial artist would have also added more reason for him being the leader - as the only one of the Rangers already trained in a form of combat.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • A lot of fans would have preferred the generic bully to have been replaced by the beloved duo of Bulk and Skull from the original series.
  • A lot of Zack's backstory was cut out of the film - including a plot point that he was trying to become a YouTube star in the hopes of making money to support his mother. While he still has a prominent role, he notably gets less than some of the others.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • The film wants to sell us on a dark, tragic backstory between Zordon and Rita, to the point of changing them from enemy wizards/witches to Power Rangers on the same team, but beyond the prologue set in the Cenozoic Era... Zordon and Rita never share a single scene together. There's no scene where Rita breaks into the Command Center and she and Zordon have bitter words with each other. There's no moment where Zordon or Rita hesitate in their actions, reluctant to stand against their former team mate once again. We're never told the names of the other four Rangers from Zordon's team, nor are we told why Rita turned against them in the first place - Was it somehow Zordon's fault, as Rita hinted at with Trini? Was she seduced to the side of evil by another villain like Lord Zedd or Master Vile? Or was she just evil from the start and turned against the team once it was the most convenient? We're never told and thus the whole "Zordon and Rita used to be friends" thing is so woefully unexplored it's bizarre that it was even included in the first place. Word of God is that there were as many as seven films envisioned, so presumably this was ground that was going to be covered in future installments.
  • On a similar note, Rita being the Green Ranger. It's odd that they make such a huge, specific change to the character and then do nothing with it. Despite being the Green Ranger, Rita never morphs; uses her status as a Power Ranger to access the Command Center or the Zeo Crystal; and uses Goldar as her ultimate weapon instead of the Dragonzord. As it is in the movie, all she does is generic magic stuff, which she could have done as normal space witch Rita and didn't require her being a Power Ranger. Given the tease of a Tommy cameo in The Stinger, it's possible this was going to set up for how Rita would recruit him to be the Green Ranger in a future film, but sadly...
• Trailer Joke Decay: Zack's line of "That's a lot of gold" has been used in nearly every trailer and teaser after appearing in the 2nd released trailer.
• Uncertain Audience: The film touts itself as a reimagining of the original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, but trailers made it look very similar to other Darker and Edgier superhero movies at the time, which either alienated established fans or made them approach the film very cautiously. Though the first three-quarters of the film were as Darker and Edgier as the promotional material indicated, the film rather suddenly shifted to a significantly cheesier tone, more akin to the original series, by the time the characters actually suited up and went into battle — giving the impression that it didn't quite know what kind of film it wanted to be, and alienating viewers even further. This division is largely believed to have played a part in the movie's underperformance.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Kimberly can come off as this when the reasoning behind her being ostracized from her former friends comes out. She shared a naked picture of one of her friends with a boy without said friend's permission, then punched out said boy when he called her out on it. While she does show remorse over it, there's another instance later on when some debris hits her ex-friend's car. She gives a snide "That's what you get," as though property damage and near-injury are just desserts for being kicked out of a social group (for understandable reasons) and receiving a few mean texts. Not to mention she had either the nerve or the idiocy to keep the picture and show it to Jason as she's telling him about it. Deleted scenes show the friends still vandalising her locker (and they do mock her haircut in the finished film), clarifying that the "that's what you get" was responding to weeks of revenge-motivated-bullying.
• Visual Effects of Awesome:
  • The first glimpse of Jason morphing was generally met with praise.
  • The second trailer gave us our first look at the movie Zords in action going up against Goldar and it's pretty spectacular.
• The Woobie: While all the Rangers have age-appropriate angst, a couple stick out especially.
  • Zack lives in a trailer park with his mother, whom he loves. But she's extremely ill and implied to be permanently bedridden, and he has to take care of her. He confesses to the others that sometimes he sleeps outside because he's terrified of waking up to find his mother dead. It's clear he has no friends at all due to frequently skipping school.
  • Trini has such overbearing parents that she cuts herself off from them, and her mother acts like it's her fault for not "communicating more". And because of her father's job, she's eternally moving around and has never had much of a chance to make any friends. By the time the movie starts, she's been at Angel Grove for over a year and is such a complete loner that Kimberly doesn't know her name and thinks she's only been there for a month. On top of all that, she's struggling with her sexuality and has never been able to talk about it with everyone.

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