If you were a kid in the early ’90s, you probably had a case of Morphin Mania (a term I’ve just made up and copyrighted), which manifested in an obsession with the American Super Sentai series, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. The show has been on for over 20 years now in various formats, with different casts and themes, but Morphin Mania proper, at least for yours truly, lasted from about 1993-1995, from the inception of the series until the crappy first film. (It waned for me through Zeo, and I completely gave up after Turbo.) But, because those of us who watched the series are now in our 30s (Zordon help us), some fans now have the wherewithal and resources to show how much they love it.
One such fan is film producer Adi Shankar, who is the EP behind the frigging amazing Dredd film in 2012, as well as an executive producer of other well-regarded flicks like The Grey and Lone Survivor. He’s no stranger to producing impressive fan-films, which he calls “bootlegs,” that feature name actors and directors. He did the Thomas Jane-starring The Punisher: Dirty Laundry, for example.
Anyway, so Shankar has the chops and the nerd cred, and he’s turned his attention to a revisionist future version of the Rangers from Angel Grove, all growed up and not adjusting well after the war against Rita Repulsa ended. Katee Sackhoff stars as Kimberly, the Pink Ranger, who has been apprehended by the machine overlords’ turncoat Rocky, the former Red Ranger replacement, played by James Van Der Beek. He recounts how all the members of the Power Rangers seem to have been taken out by Tommy Oliver, the Green (and later White) Ranger. But maybe that’s not what happened…
Get a load of this very violent, very sweary, quite NSFWÂ film, entitled Power/Rangers, directed by Joseph Kahn.
And for a bit of context, here’s Shankar himself talking about the reason for this project. (Sidebar: who is he talking to over there?)
Would you like to see more such bootlegs? Would you subscribe to this newsletter? Let us know below. Poor Rangers.
Pleas make thiiis a fullll movie
Pleas make a full movie of thiiis power ranger wow
Holy….WOW!!! I want in on this concept!!!
As a re-imagining of a franchise that while entertaining doesn’t age well (insofar as the further we get from the original series, which this based more around then later series), I really enjoyed this. Was it the PR that I knew? Not even. Was it a PR I’d watch now? Definitely.
Sheesh…all the previous comments are really polarized. The only big complained I have is the sound mixing being a little funky. I had trouble understanding what people were saying. Other than that it was pretty good.
Also, the “transformation” at the end was a bit difficult to buy. I think a holographic camouflage would have been a bit more convincing than…whatever that was.
That …. was … terrible…. Halo, the dark knight and kill bill called. They want you to get an original EVERYTHING.
halo = aliens , the dark night = the dark knight returns , kill bill = 70’s kung fu movies ever….what was that bout og ideas
FUCKIN AWESOME
If it was like this originally I might have gotten into it. Love this!
More please
Yes yes yes, taking this childhood love of mine and giving it this dark gritty hyper violent makeover is amazing
BRING THIS SHIT OUT!!!
NOW!!!!
Concept = GoodVisuals = GoodExecution = Yawn
I think that them calling it “satire” is just back peddling for an interesting project that didn’t turn out to be interesting.
I’d be on board with this sign me up.
more of this please