I Should Have Stopped At The Trailer..."Power Rangers"

Power Rangers (2017)

Rated PG-13

Starring Dacre Montgomery, Naomi Scott, RJ Cyler, Ludi Lin, Becky G., Elizabeth Banks, Bryan Cranston, Bill Hader,

Directed by Dean Israelite

The Story:

5 Teenagers stumble upon an ancient alien craft and receive powers from an ancient alien race. Under the tutelage of a robot (Hader), they must learn to morph into Power Rangers if they hope to stop an ancient evil (Banks) from finishing her plan to destroy the earth that she had attempted centuries earlier.

Well, let me first say that I never planned to see this movie.

However, seeing the trailer last year, it was very well done and seemed very interesting. I was actually hooked, and then they revealed it was for Power Rangers.

Well played studio marketing, I'm intrigued.

I never bothered with the show during the 90s for my kids, so I had no nostalgia or anything else driving me to see it or to compare it to.

That said, the execution left a lot to be desired.

I believe boredom sat in rather quickly, as all the charm and intrigue of the trailer quickly faded away as 2 minute fun from the trailer expanded to a bloated 2 hour run time that was far from fun.

Too long, too cliched, too bad.

Final Grade: C-

Gotta Get Back In Time..."Project Almanac"

Project Almanac (2015)

Rated PG-13

Starring Jonny Weston, Sofia Black-D'Elia, Sam Lerner, Allen Evangelista

Directed by Dean Israelite

The Story:

David (Weston) stumbles across a home movie of his 7th birthday party. Much to his surprise he swears he sees himself in a reflection of a mirror.  The reflection is of himself, now, a decade later. How can this be? That's when he discovers that his dad was working on something to do with time travel.  As David and his friends work to perfect the experiment, they set up some rules so that nothing can go wrong. But alas, when love enters the picture, their travels through time may just jeopardize the entire planet!

This is a smart little science fiction thriller that has a lot of fun with the conventions of time travel.

The amazing part, it is shot like a found footage documentary, yet doesn't feel like it, or like it is contrived to shoehorn that aspect of the plot into the movie.

As with all time travel movies, don't think about the plot holes, or it just ruins the whole thing.

Instead, just sit back and enjoy the ride.

That's all.

The less you say about time travel films, the more chance you have to enjoy them without being spoiled.

Final Grade: B