Early Tuesday morning, I woke to a glaring headline: “Katee Sackhoff and James Van Der Beek Star in Gritty ‘Power Rangers’ Fan Film.” Anyone who’s met me, or, at the very least, listened to our Power Ranger episode, knows that I am a near life-long fan of the American Power Rangers franchise. Eyes widened, I clicked with cautious, but furious excitement.
I say ‘cautious’ because fan films have a…divisive nature to them. For every Batman: Dead End, Mortal Kombat: Legacy or Punisher: Dirty Laundry there are countless unwatchable, if well intentioned, spectacles littering YouTube and fandom blogs.
And you never really know what you’re going to get. Sure, there are entire studios (Bat in the Sun) dedicated to such films or, like in the case of Power/Rangers, as they chose to call it, there are known names behind it, indicating that there will at least some semblance of production value behind it. That doesn’t always equal a quality product, but it helps.
Directed by Joseph Kahn (Torque, Detention), mostly known for his music video work, including two favorites of mine I didn’t realize he did: Rob Zombie’s “Living Dead Girl” and Blink 182’s “Always”, Power/Rangers runs a tight fourteen minutes, twenty seconds long. By fan film standards, that’s about your average morsel. Due to the money involved, few ever venture into full length feature territory. I remember a surprisingly fun, if extremely student-looking, Mega Man feature fan film that came out a few years ago, but that’s a rarity.
I’m going to go out and say it: I freaking LOVED Power/Rangers.
Cliff’s Notes version: I cannot begin to tell you how delighted I was to see something as conceptually dark and ominous as the Machine Empire taken with vicious sincerity. The wandering Ronin-esque Tommy Oliver? Loved it. The exceptionally cool effects used to display his shield? Beyond loved it. Katie Sackhoff as an older, war worn Kimberly Hart? Perfect. And Van Der Beek’s Rocky DeSantos as the turncoat? Totally bought it.
Not only did they tell a tightly packed story filled with surprises, but it looked phenomenal. You can thank Adi Shankar for that. Who? He’s the producer for films like The Grey and Dredd. Not only that, he’s got a little fan film history himself. Remember when I mentioned Punisher: Dirty Laundry? He did that. He’s also got a Venom fan film and a non-canon Dredd animated project under his belt. This ain’t his first rodeo, which is absolutely evident in how the film looks.
Nearly every website has thrown the words “dark” and “gritty” when discussing this film. Normally, that language would elicit a groan at people not understanding the material. But it fits here. Mostly, because that’s what Khan was going for. For him, it’s more a sardonic, dark joke. “The dark and gritty reboot thing,” Kahn told HitFlix, “ is such a cliché that the intention was not only to make it dark and gritty but make it even darker and grittier than you could possibly imagine, hence the brains, the blood and the violence and the sex….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.”
While it’s apparent from the way he spoke in the interview that Kahn cares little to nothing about the source material, the writers involved with the script, which includes, surprisingly, Van Der Beek, did a fantastic job of incorporating and twisting Power Ranger mythology into this short.
Now, I couldn’t help myself. I perused the comments on nearly every single news article to gauge the interest the fan film was or wasn’t generating. Response, even from the typically snarky media, has been overwhelmingly positive.
A few comments, though, offered tirades of “ruined childhoods,” “too violent/dark/cynical” or “”they totally missed the point.” The irony of the last one tickled me to death. I’m a wary of the complaints of things being darker or more realistic. Or rather, I’m fine with it as long as it works. But at the same token, I’m not fine with blanking on something that could be considered dark or gritty just for the sake of it.
Some people just don’t like or see the need for darker stuff, and I’m okay with that. That’s not your bag? Cool. Difference of opinion. No big deal. I also understand the desire for Power Rangers to be a bit more…hopeful. In fact, I fully support that. But you can just throw the “ruined childhood” nonsense in the trash where it belongs. No one’s childhood was ruined. I have always hated that comment (along with “they ruined the ___!”) because it really makes zero sense when you think about it. It’s also a generally lazy comment made to just puff up with dissatisfaction without having to really say anything. If you happened to complain that it was “dark for dark’s sake,” you’d be right. But you’d also be missing Kahn’s point.
Don’t worry, though. If you’re not a fan of it, you’re not alone. Legendary Ranger himself, Jason David Frank, gave his two cents on the piece. Yes, he thought it looked very cool, but he was simply not down with the R-rated direction. He, too, sort of missed the point of the film, but I also absolutely understood where he was coming from in terms of the Power Rangers brand. I respectfully disagree, but I get it. Because of this, he declined to reprise the role of Tommy Oliver for the project, which bummed me out as I’d loved to have seen him in this.
Moreover, this isn’t the incoming 2016 reboot. It’s not official. It’s not canon. Don’t worry. It was a 14:20 length fan project. Look at it like an issue of an Elseworlds special or What If?. Sure, Vampire Batman or Communist Superman or Six-Armed Spider-Man is cool for a few stories, but you don’t want those to be the official, ongoing story for the long run. But it’s fun to have for a mini-series or event.
Same goes for this. Patrick or Drew may call me out for claiming to want “a three or four hour version of this” in a maniacally gleeful text message when I discovered this film. And it’s true. I would absolutely love a full length feature of this. Would I want this to be the new Power Ranger continuity? Not so much. But I think I liked it a lot more than most hardcore PR fans.
Here’s what, more than anything, made me over the moon about Power/Rangers: they took the content absolutely seriously. I am absolutely grateful for that. Look, I love Power Rangers. I love the camp. I love the silly fun. But I have always, always, since I was a wee one, wanted to see a legit serious Power Rangers product. Even the fact that this was hyperbolically serious doesn’t bother me. It’s something I’ve always wanted and am extremely thankful they gave it to me.
As I stated above, the set up was fantastic. Utilizing the Machine Empire was both a logical and surprising choice. If there were one set of villains who truly did not benefit from the campiness of the show, that’s the one. Essentially, they were Space Terminators, a race of mechanical aliens whom had conquered countless planets and systems before coming to Earth. Sounds fairly familiar, right? I can’t imagine where I’ve heard that recently.
Anywho, these goomba’s had their tails handed to them time and again by Tommy and the rest of the Zeo Rangers. With names like Prince Sprocket and Queen Machina (voiced by Lois Griffin herself, Alex Borstein), you can imagine they didn’t necessarily command fear. Of course, that’s exactly what the company wanted from their villains. Sure, the Mighty Morphin era villains were no Michael Myers or anything, but many of the monsters’ early designs, especially the American exclusive Lord Zedd, drew some controversy for being too scary for children. Zedd was immediately toned done and Saban kept that in mind for their future iterations. For these reasons, the Machine Empire just fell sort of flat. They were subpar versions of the villains that came before them, which was a pity given, conceptually, they could have been extraordinarily effective.
Here, they were written exactly that way. Perfectly dystopian in tone, we’re still not exactly sure the hold the Machine Empire has on humanity. We’re not given enough information. There was a war, then a truce that clearly favored the machines. It appeared that everyone was able to live somewhat free lives in their post-Ranger life. Regardless, when the Machine Empire is depicted, it’s with severity. Rocky (the second Red Ranger) defected, but that’s all we know 100%. For the context of the film, it’s not entirely clear what Rocky does for the machines. It appears he’s some sort of peacekeeper or cop. He has Kimberly handcuffed to a chair in an interrogation room, demanding to know the location of Tommy Oliver, who he believes has been murdering his former teammates one by one in cold blood. I argue cop because, why would the Machine Empire care if someone’s killing Rangers? Wouldn’t that benefit them?
I’ll stop before I go down another tangential rabbit hole. Suffice to say, the tone is super serial, you guys. And that’s awesome.
My other favorite aspect of the film came in such a small detail: Tommy’s shield. We get brief glimpses of some Ranger action via flashback sequences. In this iteration, the Rangers always stayed the Zyuranger-inspired team of the original Mighty Morphin era. Let me clarify. The Power Rangers as a team stayed that way. The line-up changes for at least all of Mighty Morphin’ remains seemingly canonical (hence Van Der Beek’s killer performance as Rocky). So no Ninjetti Team. No Alien Rangers. No Zeo. And most importantly, no freaking Turbo. Tommy’s shield has come up a few times in conversation I’ve had with some friends regarding the upcoming reboot. A standard shield would work, but the story behind the Green Ranger was that he had additional power. Keep in mind that during “Green With Evil” he pretty much took on all the Rangers by himself. I’ve always maintained that it would be cooler if Tommy’s shield was actually made of raw power. Apparently the set designers agreed with me, because that’s what we got. Though the design they went with came out a tad too simplistic for my taste, I’m so in love with the idea that I didn’t mind.
Two factors alone don’t a success make, but those two were, as a fan, things I had really wanted to see for a long time. Everything else was icing on the cake. The general plot stayed fun, if depressing. I cannot state how solid the special effects looked. In all seriousness, it looked near theatrical in quality. The production team really brought their A-game in making this look as high quality as possible. Costuming did an admirable job making the suits retain their original look while looking clearly more battle ready in the brief shots of the rangers we got. That twist at the end? Woo boy! Totally down for it. All in all, the majority of this fan film simply gave me a really cool alternative version of one of my all-time favorite franchise.
Of course, I did have a few nitpicks with it.
One of the most glaring things to Mike, that I later agreed with, was the scene where we see the Rangers fighting an unseen enemy, presumably flunkies of the Machine Empire. “Power Rangers with assault rifles is pretty stupid.” Upon first viewing, the assault rifles they carried and fired, making it seem like a cutscene from a Bungie game, hadn’t really registered with me. When I rewatched it, I completely agreed with him. I initially argued that the Rangers often had blasters or guns, and some interactions used them far more often. However, the contention wasn’t that they had projectile weapons, but that the designs of them didn’t really make sense. The guns honestly looked like the belonged to Master Chief.
Admittedly, it is a little jarring, especially considering the alternative routes they could have considered. Personally, I propose it would have been much cooler if we saw the Rangers wielding their signature weapons: Kimberly firing off energy blasts with her bow or whomever the Black Ranger was during the battle (I’ll get to that) coming down on machines with that awesome battle axe of his. A small detail from a very minor scene, but it did take away a little from the Ranger-ness of it.
Another smaller, if still noticeable, visual problem I had were the helmet designs. Honestly, I don’t have much to say about them other than they were slightly smushed and ugly looking. They’re not a travesty. I wasn’t angry about them, but I wouldn’t buy any action figures of them. No, it wasn’t enough to really distract from my enjoyment as other caveats I had, but I just felt the helmets were a tad uninspired.
What really bugged me the most, though upon repeat viewings, the reasoning became more clear, was Kimberly’s marriage to Jason. That just didn’t sit right with me. I knew things went sour for the Rangers, so who knows what personally happened, but their marriage just seemed random and weird to me. I know there have been hints and fan theories that Kimberly ended up with Jason after sending Tommy that Dear John letter in Power Rangers Zeo. Some fans theories postulate the person she claimed to have found while in Florida was Jason. I’ve never bought that and it’s also one of the things from the main Power Ranger continuity that always bugged me. Granted, I liked Kat (the second Pink Ranger) a lot, if not slightly more than Kimberly as a character. I even didn’t mind her and Tommy’s forced romance. But Kimberly’s romantic exit always bugged me. Just one of those things. I think I just hate the Dear John conceit in general.
That little oddity I can ignore once the twist at the end clears things up a bit. I found it more forgivable then. Given that some of you may have not seen it, I’m not going to give the ending stinger away. Just know that it absolutely makes sense (just watch it already!).
Kimberly’s nuptials wasn’t the only little gaffe to me. I know this project isn’t married (zing!) to Power Ranger continuity; however, it seemed to be relying heavily on the Mighty Morphin years. That said, Rocky is the one second generation Ranger present. Aisha, Kat and Adam are never mentioned or obviously referred to. More than anything, I thought those omissions the most distracting because when Rocky is psychologically goading Kimberly for information about Tommy’s whereabouts, using Tommy’s relationship with Kat seems like a tactic he would have taken advantage of.
One could argue that within the context of this film’s universe, Rocky was the only replacement Ranger. It would explain why Zack still has his power coin and gives credible reason as to why Jason doesn’t know about what’s been going on with Kimberly. It’s not something I can argue against. I’ve not freeze framed the moments where Rocky swipes through the Minority Report screens while questioning Kimberly. The scene implied the faces he was going through were of fallen Rangers. Even though they are not specifically mentioned, it’s fully possible they were active at one point in time. Still, there’s no evidence I’m aware of that Kat, Adam and Aisha existed, which frankly bums me out.
I know! I know! It’s nitpicky and only like 4 other people on the planet care about it, but I reserve the right to criticize what I love. If there’s a huge issue I really have with Power/Rangers, that’s the biggun’.
Okay, one last thing. There’s two giant…machines fighting in the background of a blink-and-you-miss it scene. One of the machines seems to have a color scheme that resembles the traditional MegaZord. It’s the only thing about it that resembles the traditional MegaZord, but that’s neither here nor there. You can see two Rangers on the ground. One’s the Green Ranger. That makes sense. Tommy’s got his own. But the Black Ranger? Shouldn’t he be…uhhh in the cockpit with everyone else?
Aside from another sweet view of that awesome energy shield, I’m a tad confused as to what’s going on here. It’s a pure fanboy nitpick, but they had to know someone was going to ask what another Ranger is doing on the ground floor. For that matter, Tommy, what are you doing? Get in the Dragon Zord, brah. It does sort of look like the other ranger is trying to run towards the MegaZord. Maybe he got knocked out somehow?
Listing my problems with Power/Rangers may make it seem like I come on the more middling ground, but I promise you, that’s far from the truth. Massive fans tend to break out their microscope after they’ve gotten through the sugar rush of how awesome their favorite thing is. Power/Rangers is no different.
I’ve been waiting with baited breath for more information on the 2016 Power Rangers reboot film. With us ending the second month of 2015, you’d think we’d have been given the slightest bit of information at this point. Sadly, no dice. Power/Rangers completely scratches the itch of dreaming up possibilities for tinkering with the classic Power Ranger formula. Dark to the point of ridiculousness? Probably, but still incredibly cool.
If anything, this fan film’s obvious popularity sends a message to all involved with the reboot that people respond very well when the source material is taken seriously. Maybe not to the lengths this film went to, but I would happily welcome a sincere, serious full length Power Ranger film.
Moreover, I’d be thrilled to know what you nerds thought of Power/Rangers. Send your comments along on Facebook or shoot me an e-mail at themoreyounerd@gmail.com!