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There is hardly a superhero franchise more retarded than the Power Rangers. And yet, it clicks with a worldwide audience in a way few others can. The past few months saw much of young India (including this blogger) wallowing in Power Ranger stupidity with a glee that made marketers and advertisers cry with joy.

So I got to wondering… what is it that makes Power Rangers work? To what insanely dense part of my psyche do five masked, garishly-costumed, kung-fu-fighting teenagers and their equally dimwitted antagonists appeal?

Before we get to that, perhaps I should quickly explain what the whole deal is. It goes thus: There are Power Ranger toys, coffee mugs, classroom stationery, and even raincoats. But we are talking mostly about the stories — TV and movies. Since 1993, the franchise has spawned a whopping total of 13 TV series and 2 movies.

Each of the series follow the adventures of a band of heroes protecting the earth (or universe, or galaxy). All of these series follow a… shall we say… template. Elements like costume colours, helmets that the heroes wear, vehicles and giant robots (called Zords) that they ride into battle, and even the general looks of the villains that they fight, are common to all stories regardless of the setting (contemporary, futuristic, or fantasy). The plots are simplistic moral fables that sing of virtue, truth and honour.

Now back to the question. Why is it that this trainload of repetitive gimmicks appeals to the Power Rangers fan base (which, I repeat, includes this blogger)?

I personally like the utter simplicity of the whole fare. The stories seem to be in contempt of standard dramatic complications. There are no sub-plots and no character growth to speak of. They seem to pay no respect whatsoever to the viewer’s intelligence, but not in a bad way. There is no attempt to convince you that what you are being shown is authentic. The looks, the choreography and even the dialogue delivery is so theatrical that you can’t take the story seriously even if you want to. It is as if they don’t give two hoots about looking credible.

The heroes are named according to the colour of their costumes (Red Ranger, Yellow Ranger, Pink Ranger, Green Ranger and so on). Their alter egos are stereotypical geeky or jockish teenagers. The older ones are stereotypical scientists, military officers etc.

Evil gets an even more simplistic representation in the Power Rangers universe. The bad guys look like people wearing monster suits. That’s right, they don’t look like monsters. They look like people wearing monster suits. Not scary, not remotely evil, just people wearing badly designed, ill-fitting monster suits. They change size and shape at will and rampage across cities destroying buildings.

Which reminds me… buildings are just about the only casualties in Power Rangers stories. At best, heroes and villains are mortally wounded and even that amounts to little more than heaving and panting and sparks flying out of one’s suit or armour. No one ever dies. Even defeated monsters only get sent back to the worlds that they came from.

What I love most about Power Rangers is the choreography. It is the one thing that makes watching the stories worth it. Its not just the stunts and the fights; the choreography stretches deep into every single nod or motion a character makes. Because the characters are masked and helmet-clad for the most part, facial expressions are replaced with body language. I for one am quite blown away by how many diverse emotions the Rangers can manage by simply shaking their heads and shoulders.

Lastly, there is the posing. Everyone poses for the camera. I suspect if the heroes had to fill in their personal priority lists, ‘looking good’ would find a higher spot on it than ’saving the world’. All characters strike poses unabashedly in the middle of fights. There is absolutely no attempt to disguise it as anything else.

I figure the reason I enjoy Power Rangers so much is that I never feel like a passive spectator. Everything about the stories makes me feel I am part of it. Every character knows I am watching.

Posted on Tuesday, May 29th, 2007 at 2:27 pm and filed under movies, characters.

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