It’s a known fact to just about everyone here at GWW that I’m “the Power Ranger guy.” Anytime news breaks concerning the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, if I haven’t said something about it, everyone is letting me know what’s going on. I love it!
So when the new broke about the new Power Rangers movie being worked on, I was beyond excited, and have tried my hardest to follow every bit of news that comes out concerning the filming and casting. I may not have written about everything that’s hit the web, but I’ve at least spoken about it on podcasts or through the social medias.
That being said, earlier this week we got our first look at Elizabeth Banks as Rita Repulsa, and the social media world went into ablaze immediately following the release of the image. Some fans were excited about the new modern look, some were unsure what they thought, and the majority just flat out hated it because it didn’t look like the original! Once all this all happened, I was asked to share my thoughts on this and that’s exactly what I’m going to do!
I personally have mixed feelings on the new look given to Rita. On one hand I’m glad they stepped away from the original look, because I don’t feel it would work for a feature film in this day and age. Back in 1995 it was fine. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers still had that campy feel to it and the look of Rita worked well with that, but now… not so much.
Scorpina
With that being said, I wish they would’ve taken a different route with the design of the character than they did. The way it looks now doesn’t look anything like Rita. If they would’ve taken some noticeable hints with the new look that paid homage to the original I would feel much better about the design. This new character design honestly looks a lot more like an updated version of the Power Ranger villain Scorpina rather than Rita Repulsa. Although I can’t fully judge the character based on looks alone. I’ll wait until I see the movie and see how the character acts to give my full thoughts on the new Rita.
This also has me wondering if they’re going to change the look of all the villains in this movie, making them look almost nothing like their 90s counterparts as well? Like I said before, I’m all for updating their appearances and everything to make them fit into this modern era, but I’d still like for them to have some similarities to the characters they’re based on. Take Goldar for example; a big menacing, yet buffoonish gargoyle-esque character. They can easily revamp his appearance without entirely ignoring the 90’s style. I don’t want him to hit the big screen looking like he belongs on the Las Vegas strip instead of fighting the Power Rangers in Angel Grove.
As more news and images start getting released to the public, I’ll do my best to talk about them here and share my thoughts with those who care about the Rangers as well.
Until then… Stay Morphenomenal, my friends!
Let me know what you think of the new Rita Repusla designs in the comments below or @ItsSimplyTee on Twitter!