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

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

Since the internet is full of chatter over this fan film being taken down due to a claim by Saban, the creator of the series, I will not take up too much time on this topic, suffice to say that when your fan film contains fantastic effects, high production values, and actors like James vander Beek and Katee Sackhoff, then perhaps the idea of "fair use" of IP doesn't have quite enough goodwill in it to totally cover you. Anyway, outside of the fuss, the short film is not only a fan film, but also a sci-fi actioner with good effects and action to cover up for it being a snippet rather than a whole narrative. In both cases such things are common on the internet, since shorts often turn to this genre to try to deliver fancy effects packages.

So, in terms of the reason for the huge numbers of views this got in a very short period of time, it is pretty clear it was the brand and the name that made it such a hot property – and thus easy to see why the actual owners of these got upset that someone else would profit off their work. Anyway, that is not to say that the film itself doesn't deserve credit for what it does – because although inherently the genre/concept is common, it is very well done. The narrative is very simple but I was engaged by the idea of these comical, tacky characters (in my opinion) suddenly placed into a much darker world. This also allows the atmosphere to work and the short feels wonderfully violent, impacting and impressive.

The special effects are part of that, since they are generally impressive, but it is the total delivery that makes more of them. The performances also help add strength to this – with Gamba, Lee, Sackhoff, and vander Beek all doing very good work it must be said. The film adds to these good bits of casting by also getting Pérez to reprise her role from the original cast, as well as yet more to talk about with former porn star Olson too. The thing is, whether I want to grumble about it being a clickbait piece of special-effects showing off, it actually does work, and I really enjoyed the dark tone, slick action, and violent content. It may or may not be easily available but it is worth having a look for what it is.

This is the Power Rangers Film we deserve...even if it isn't the one we need right now.

A seriously dark and dystopian take on the 'Teenagers with attitudes' that we grew up with.

It manages to get a hell of a lot of story into its short runtime...and luckily it's a great story too.

Impressive visual effects add to the film instead of being the basis for it. Sackhoff & Van Der Beek turn in good performances too.

The only downside for this film, is the fact that it gives us a taster of a fantasy product that we are never going to get; but one could say the same of a lapdance, yet the stripping industry still manages to get buy.

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.