The New Rita Repulsa: Secretly Brilliant, or Headache-Worthy?
Well, our first glimpse of a character in the Power Rangers movie is none other than Rita Repulsa. A likely strategy here is to keep the Rangers themselves under wraps for a big, awesome news reveal later on after they’ve shown other stuff to keep fans chomping at the bit. So, EW has released a shot of Elizabeth Banks as Rita Repulsa in costume. What do I think of it? Well…
It doesn’t look anything like a traditional Rita Repulsa. That much is obvious to anyone with operational eyes; the first thing one notices is the green color scheme, which is completely unlike any version of Rita that has been associated with the show. In place of a bizarre cone-bra, she’s been given a more streamlined, martial--not to mention oddly herbal--look. Gone is the enormous headdress as well; instead she has a strange golden series of lines running parallel to her hair. Really, the only similarity to the original outfit is the fact that she has claws (and for anyone who’s watched MMPR recently...for whatever reason, it would be a nice Easter egg to have her claw directly toward the screen while shrieking “GET THEM!”). While discussing this with Victor, he mentioned that it really resembles a weird combo of practically all the female Ranger villains EXCEPT Rita, which I can’t disagree with. Given the usual reaction that fans have to the changes made to their beloved character designs, one has to wonder what the reasoning behind changing around Rita’s iconic look (honestly, iconic on a level similar to that of the Power Rangers themselves) so profoundly actually is.
Of course, if you’re looking for similarities to Rita, you won’t find many here. But given Hollywood’s penchant for making composite characters in adaptations, it makes sense to consider other sources for her outfit. The one that immediately comes to mind is the Green Ranger. The usual pattern for these types of movies, especially since the model has been shown to work, is an origin story followed by what I like to call “the movie the writers actually wanted to write.” In the original series, the Green Ranger wasn’t part of the Rangers’ origin story, but from a Watsonian perspective the means to create one was already part of the world. Certainly, the plant-like theme seems reminiscent of the three-pronged leaf on the Green Ranger’s Power Coin. The points of her shoulder and back armor look similar. Also, the armor plating of her gauntlets, corset and whip (?) looks scaly to me. I think this might actually be a hint at the direction they plan to go in regarding the Green Ranger’s power in a later movie. It’s not that I think that Rita herself will be the Green Ranger--I don’t--but I do think that she’ll empower him using her own power or by exerting influence over his Power Coin somehow. Elizabeth Banks' recent Twitter statements may support this.
I also think that some of the reason for the change was a change in character. I find it unlikely that Rita will merely sit back and allow her minions to act without getting in on the action herself. In the show, most of what Rita did was make monsters grow. Finster created the monsters and Putties, Goldar and Scorpina engaged with the Rangers, and occasionally Squatt and Baboo did minor tasks that didn’t require much in the way of brain power. Rita sometimes worked magic occult-ish spells, but mostly she screamed about a headache and threw her wand. This outfit change could be a way to incorporate Rita into some of the more physical aspects of the movie, perhaps merging Scorpina into her character as well.
Finally, one reason could just be a practical reason: the costume wasn’t a great one. Yes, I know, it’s a cultural fixture, cones and cones and cones and cones, how dare you, etc. I don’t want to downplay the importance of visual similarity, but it’s just...not great. It isn't particularly marketable in this day and age; frankly, it looks like a thing that was limited by its time and context. Would I have made the same choice to alter it completely? Definitely not. I at least would prefer a color scheme closer to that of Rita; even just giving her bronze armor and silvery hair would be a huge improvement. But leaving it exactly the same was probably never even on the table, and with good reason. Changing the look of a character in a reboot is practically a given most of the time, though there should be some visual cue that it’s the same character. That's the issue that brings me onto the "nay" side of things. I don’t see Rita in this, but I’m cautiously optimistic that by the time the movie itself hits next year, it’ll be clear as to why they made the decision.
