Power/Rangers is a gritty short film which takes the 1990’s hit property, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and reimagines the story in a mature and contemporary style. Plus it’s a lot of fun. So much so, that the property’s owners, SCG Power Rangers LLC, have demanded that the film be taken down. There is a big screen adaptation of the Power Rangers on the way and they probably are scared that this short film’s awesomeness has dwarfed what ever they had envisioned for their own movie. Producer Adi Shankar (The Grey, Lone Survivor) has refused to take down the film until he is served a cease and desist! Whoa. The point is…you better watch it while you can.
Joseph Kahn (Torque, Detention) is a dynamic visual director and not the type that typically makes fan films, even by his own admission. However he was coaxed into giving Power/Rangers a shot by Shankar, who happens to produce fan films in his spare time. Despite not being a fan of the property, Kahn was convinced. This is what he had to say.
“The irony here is that I wouldn’t even want to make “Power Rangers: The Movie’ for real. Like if I had to make a ‘Power Rangers’ movie, this is it. It’s 14 minutes long and it’s violent and this is what I have in me. If they offered me the 200 million version, the PG-13 version, I literally wouldn’t do it. It’s just not interesting to me…I think the trick that I really wanted to do with this was to make that dark and gritty version that everybody keeps talking about, but really do it. Really see if I could totally accomplish it with essentially a really incredible incredibly silly property.”
It looks as if Kahn has accomplished his goal. The short is hard-hitting and surprisingly intricate. James Van Der Beek (Dawson’s Creek) and Katee Sackhoff (Battlestar Galactica) star and they feel right at home in the world. Kahn manages to strike a gritty vibe, while not shying away from satire and taking a critical look at the franchise. Enjoy the movie.
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Source: HitFix, IGN
(This is the Unrated version)