Power Rangers

"Power/Rangers" was a genuine curiosity, more than anything. This franchise was never my thing as a kid (although I did try), but you hear enough mention of a wildly popular YouTube video, inquisitiveness is a tough thing to beat. But this is for fans, which sort of crippled my enjoyment of this as a short film.

That said, the production values were up there, and they did nab established names for this (Van Der Beek, Sackhoff), not to mention an original cast member or two. The very non-kid-friendly material was amusing. And I do appreciate that the filmmakers are taking jabs at hard-edged reboots of kids' TV shows. The joke itself is funny. This would probably be awesome were I an MMPR fan.

6/10

Power/Rangers Starring: Katee Sackhoff, James Van Der Beek, Russ Bain, Will Yun Lee, Gichi Gamba, Yves Bright, Stevin Knight, Tony "Madness" Gomez, Matt D'Elia, Bree Olsen, Amia Miley, Carla Perez, Camilla Lim, Tony Ketcham, Adrian Ramon, Joshua Lou Friedman, and Steffanie Melanga Directed By: Joseph Kahn Review This is the best short film I have ever seen! I was never a big fan of power rangers, I never watched it as a kid and know it just looks corny. But I'm going to try out that corn after seeing this amazing short. I was hooked by the opening were you see the rangers fighting in some intergalactic war with two giant robots and guns. It was fracking awesome and the effects looked amazing. Its apparently about some villain who is interrogating Kimberly who is the pink Ranger and his organization has killed all the rangers one by one and he wants to know where Tommy is. But their is this twist. that's pretty cool. I give this short Power Rangers film a four out of five.

Yeah, I grew up watching the Power Rangers franchise and I enjoyed it, for the record my favorites are "Power Rangers in Space, "Time Force", and "Lost Galaxy". I personally never expecting anything like this to come or ever happen at all, but I'm glad someone finally had the guts to do it. Fan films are usually hit or miss with me but I'm proud to say this film is a hit.

I love the fact that it has this dark gritty vibe to it, it's like if someone decided to do a revival of the franchise and go this mature route. The film in a way is sort of a superhero mystery story almost like Alen Moore's "Watchman", just like in that graphic novel/movie we realize something has happened and we're just trying to put all the pieces together figuring out why.

The cinematography and effects are great, I really liked seeing some of that footage at the beginning as we see rough footage that keeps coming off and on a few of the Rangers are shooting guns at something, further note their firing bullets not lasers. And were just struggling to see what the hell their shooting at, sort of like in the film "Aliens" with the space marines and their point of view cameras recordings. We then see briefly a Zord and some monster their fighting and just seeing both those things move and fight was awesome.

There are some great if short action sequences that I felt were well choreographed. From a battle with Zack/Black Rainger whom we see has became sort of Billy Blanks like celeb. Liked seeing the morph effect which I thought was beautifully done. But the battle was really cool we even got to see some blood effects and kills which is surreal. It's true the Rangers have killed but they were mainly monsters, aliens, robots, and mutants here these are human beings and we're seeing the violence go up the notch of an R rated film.

And I really liked the one on one between both Tommy and Rocky which is awesome and also surreal since both use to be red rangers so you can say a fan's prayer has been answered if you ever wanted to see different versions of the red ranger go one on one.

Really liked the characterization and acting, their all playing it serious and straight. Russ Bain is solid as Tommy, I really liked seeing a really dark gritty version of Tommy whom has now became a shell of a man. But the two that stand out the most are seeing James Van Der Beek as Rocky and Katee Sackhoff as Kimberly/Pink Rainger. It's interesting seeing the more adult versions of these two characters, from Rocky unfortunately selling out which I never thought would happen I personally like the character despite not a favorite, but the way it was handled in the film it felt plausible, let alone I like the concept of a Rainger turning traitor which hasn't really been done before in the franchise.

Kimberly here we see her not as her cheerful energetic self but more mature and tough as she is constantly determined to find a way out of her predicament and make the machine empire pay. I really liked the back and forth dialog between both characters which is great, I really liked that Rocky actually has a point or two in his dislike for the former organization he worked for, that they were all kids that we're pulled into the job without a choice of saying yes or no. When you think about it, it's true, in a way it's sort of a statement about most of those super team stories where most heroes/superheroes are just in not by choice or even the choice to quit if they want to.

After this film, I'd love to see a sequel or see a dark take on some of the other Power Rainger series and characters, like the three series I just mentioned, it could be on one or even all somehow mixed as one movie. Or better yet, for the upcoming silver screen Power Raingers film, take the direction of this short and go with it. Just some thought.

Overall, if your a long time fan of the franchise like I am and you remember the old series then I recommend watching. Thought if your a recent fan, I would recommend seeing the old Power Raingers series before seeing this short. This short shows that the Power Rangers still have the power.

Rating: 4 stars

The battle ended. For them. They moved on, got jobs, tried to deal with having been child soldiers in a war that had nothing to do with them. But then they started dying off. Kimberly(Sackhoff, capturing the now hardened, sweet Pink) is being interrogated by Rocky(Van Der Beek, tough). Fingers are being pointed. They think it's Tommy(Bain, doing a lot with little screen-time), and they need her help to find him. To stop him.

This is a compelling, not to mention badass, gritty take on the franchise so many of us grew up with. It manages to fit in a ton of the aspects, characters and conflicts, without it feeling rushed or overstocked. Heck, each of our well-cast main rangers get credible follow-ups and at least some closure. Well, poor Trini is merely a still as we see her funeral, so, all except for her. We even get a few *awesome* fight scenes. Twists, solid dialog, great acting and incredible production values. Quality CG, well-integrated and not flashy.

There is a lot of brutal, bloody violence and disturbing content in this. I recommend this to every fan of the series who wants this kind of reimagining. Heck, check out all of the bootleg universe. Adi Shankar is the man. 8/10

"When two empires declare war, neither side is innocent"

Thanks to the popularity this short film was receiving over the internet I decided to check it out despite never being a fan of the Power Rangers or knowing anything about the characters. I remember glancing at it a couple of times during my childhood, but it all seemed a bit too silly for my taste. My appreciation for this film is affected by my lack of knowledge about these characters because the short does require you have some background information about who these people are in order to understand what is going on. It is a fan film so the more you know about the series the better off you are. I still have to admit that I was entertained with the action sequences and some of the performances. I found the visuals pretty solid and its short running time does go by very quickly.

There has been a fascination in mainstream audiences for grittier and darker films and comics. We've seen it in several comic books that have turned away from the childish elements and focused on adult themes. In movies we've experienced it most recently with the Batman franchise and in the James Bonds films to name a few. We've shifted gears from the innocent and fun playfulness of those screenplays to much more serious and grittier ones. Joseph Kahn knows this all to well and so he decided to have fun with the beloved childhood characters by directing this dark version of the Power Rangers. It is a parody that is aimed to shock audiences who grew up loving these characters. The lead characters in this film are played by Katee Sackhoff and James Van Der Beek who have an interesting verbal face off. She is playing Kimberly (Pink Ranger) and he is Rocky. We get some flashbacks as well of what has happened with the rest of the Rangers. Gichi Gamba gets a decent amount of screen time playing Zack (Black Ranger) and he gets the most interesting action sequences as he faces off some Japanese gangsters. There is also an interesting twist at the end of the film. Overall I found this an enjoyable short film with solid visuals and good performances, but I wasn't in to it as much because I really didn't know much about the characters.

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