Collider– Up until today, Lionsgate’s feature film take on the Power Rangers franchise was doing a remarkably (and surprisingly) good job of selling me on their vision. The director and the young cast of the title heroes may be relative unknowns to the wider moviegoing audience, but recruiting Elizabeth Banks as the villainous Rita Repulsa, Bryan Cranston as the heroic leader Zordon, and Bill Hader as the voice of robotic assistant Alpha 5 were smart, strategic moves. The biggest surprise for me so far was the fact that I actually like the redesigns for the Rangers’ battle suits and the metallic-yet-sexy design of Banks’ villainess. So far, we’ve only glimpsed the fighting machines known as Zords in character posters (for my money, the toy images don’t count). Everything we’ve seen looks pretty good.
And then, today, the concept art for Alpha 5 was released. It’s … disconcerting. Alpha 5 has always had a bit of a strange design what with his flying-saucer-shaped head, lightning bolt chest icon, and his built-in CD drive, but man did they go for broke with this new look. And not in a good way. Now it’s worth mentioning that what you’re about to see is just concept art; there’s a good chance the final character won’t look quite this bizarre. There’s also a chance that the main design will stick and the finished product will look better once it’s in motion. Hader’s voice work can certainly save this train wreck, but I for one am hoping that some design changes and tweaks are coming in advance of the film’s March 24, 2017 release date.