The new Power Rangers movie debuted on March 24, and it’s on track to mark the beginning of a successful franchise, if not critically then at least commercially. Regardless of critical reception, fans are flocking to the theaters to relive a little slice of childhood.
Power Rangers did well on its first weekend, bringing in $15 million on Friday for a projected $40 million in total weekend ticket sales. And despite a Rotten Tomatoes score of 46 percent, 82 percent of fans — constituting over 30,000 reviews — disagree.
The film tells the origin story of five teenage residents of Angel Grove who find themselves imbued with strange new powers and tossed into a world of mind-bending weirdness. It’s a classic reboot: Take a franchise that people loved when they were kids, bulk up the characters with contemporary themes, and throw them into a CGI monster battle. What’s not to love?
Fueling the film’s success is a hefty dose of nostalgia, but fans are also expressing a lot of enthusiasm over the film’s diverse representation. The cast is ethnically diverse, one of the characters is queer, and one of the characters is on the autism spectrum.
And despite criticisms of how the film treats the matter of sexuality — the yellow ranger’s queer identity gets barely a passing mention — fans have expressed their delight over this broad release that represents a broader portion of the population than the typical blockbuster.
While many fans celebrate the film’s move towards inclusivity and representation, others are in it for the cheesy action and feel-good nostalgia. Whichever the case, the fans have spoken: Power Rangers is a crowd-pleaser.
