Power Rangers .. No power

POWER Rangers is a Breakfast Club (1985) copycat mixed with science-fiction daring-do, and the latter

 is certainly an invigorating classic compared with this film. You throw five screw-ups together in a small town's high school detention class and viewers are supposed to be uplifted by their sorry tales of woe.
  The five of them discovering their superpowers is nothing new. It resembles Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire and Andew Garfield) going wild with his newfound Spidey senses. In fact, there's a scene showing them jumping over a mountain gap, which is similar to Peter Parker leaping from one building to another.

    The battle between good and evil is not worth mentioning. The evil baddie is the campy Rita Repulsa (Elizabeth Banks), who has a predilection for gold. The final and usual big battle is plain ludicrous and hilarious. I won't even bore you with how she ended up on Earth in the first place.
   The famous five are led by white quarterback Jason (Dacre Montgomery, looking like a young Rob Lowe), brunette Kimberley (Naomi Scott), black geeky IT whizkid Billy  (R.J. Cyler), ethnic Chinese mother's boy Zack (Ludi Lin) and petite Latina lesbian Trini (Becky G).
  They find a glowing object that gives them superpowers and they train under the watchful eye of

Can we all get along?

Zordon (Bryan Cranston) and robot Alpha 5 (voiced by Bill Hader).
  I wish I could say that the film was entertaining, but I quickly got bored with the teenagers' high jinks.
   So what if they must learn to work together to transform into colourful Power Rangers? Isn't that the purpose of superhero films? And do people care if Jason's relationship with his dad is tenuous?

2 out of 5 stars