Dark Power Rangers Reboot is the Greatest

This will probably only be relevant for people, such as myself, who were of a certain age during the 90s. But damn is this Power Rangers short film awesome... and bloody. I didn't see anyone else talking about it here, so I wanted to make its existence known since there have to be others like myself. I was never really into dubstep, but watching Power Rangers brutally murder people to it was pretty alright. This pulling weird 90s nostalgia strings while being current and awesome for anyone else?

Nowhere near as good as Gokaiger.

Insane. I remember really liking the first Power Rangers movie, but I've never gone back and watched it as an adult because there's no way it could possibly hold up. I'd give a new one a fair shake, though.

I had no clue that this existed.

Basically my same thought hearing about this. After getting way into Super Sentai a "gritty" Power Rangers is the last thing I'm interested in.

The biggest thing that doesn't hold up about that movie is the awful, awful CGI at the end. The rest of it is pretty alright as a "kids" movie, unless you're super against puns/one-liners.

I really like the idea of Bulk and Skull betraying the Rangers and finally giving them what they deserve.

Fucking perfect.

No, no it isn't. It literally looks like a parody of dark, gritty reboots. Which is why it's awesome that the director only did this for a laugh. I just wish the rest of Hollywood could be so self aware.

On a related note: as a child of the 90's, one of the many 5 year olds who spent most of 95 worshiping at the feet of Tommy Oliver, I can say without doubt that MMPR does not hold up. At all.

I don't like this because it docent fell like Power Rangers, fells like generic action movie 254872. Also dosent help the director did that on purpose.

@panelhopper said:

Sure, but that's why it works. He takes it way further than it needs to go without ever playing for laughs.

@octaslash: I hated that part becaues even by the end of MMPR Bulk and Skull were friends with the rangers and are 100% allies to all power rangers.

Meh I don't kneed a dark reboot.

I'm more of a megabot fan:

Will wait until the "darker version" is back up. Kinda curious to see this.

A DARK REIMAGINING OF A CHILDS TELEVISION SERIES WHAT WILL THEY THINK OF NEXT

This was great, thanx @paul_tillich, I especially enjoyed Bulk and Skull showing up (the machines had the best meth, that was all it took) and Rita showing up at the end in the stupid floppy horns costume was icing on the damn cake. the only way this could have been better is if they somehow managed to work Zordon, Alpha 5, Goldar or lord Z in there, would like to see those get a dark gritty reboot.

Any way this got a good chuckle out of me, watching the show as a kid becuase I knew it was bad was half the fun. I remember this one scene in the opening of 1st movie where the green ranger does multiple frontflips into frame ending up like 2 feet from the ground and then just landing on his feet in the next frame, me and my friends used to think that was hilarious.

Edit: this is a joke right? they are not actually making this... right?

What a tweeeest.

It was alright I definitely didn't think it was awesome. Kinda had that SyFy original look about it.

@humanity: If it weren't for the somewhat known actors I would 100% believe it was a random fan film.

@hassun: Good action scenes are hard to film. They probably should have left that whole sword fight out and largely trimmed the black rangers fight as well.

That's quality satire.

Also, this is from the same guy that directed Torque. Everybody should watch Torque.

@humanity: They sure are, even for big budget titles. Watched Kingsman today and I was pretty disappointed by the way they shot their action scenes. I have pretty high standards for that stuff but still. It's NOT easy.

@hassun: The Man from UNCLE looks like a better version of Kingsman for adults. Not sure what the target demographic is for Kingsman but it sort of looks like a young adult type of movie. I'd only go to see that prosthetic razor leg girl fight cause she seemed cool. Is she cool?

Exactly. I don't understand the couple of comments complaining that this is a parody. As if it can't be that and great at the same time because of it. I never suggested we should be taking this super seriously.

Giantbomb.com All cynics welcome

@humanity: She is cool. Her big fight scene left me wanting though. But again, my standards for fighting scenes are very high so your mileage may vary. I've you've seen Kick-Ass you know what to expect form Kingsman.

To agree with the person who started this thread, I thought it was highly enjoyable. This isn't what the new movie from Lionsgate will be like but I enjoyed it immensely. The fight choreography was really well done and the stinger at the end was really cool too.

@hassun: I gotta say I disagree. My biggest problem with a alot of action movies is that they are shot way too close and use way too many quick cuts. I didn't see that at all with the Kingmens. Nearly all of its action is viscerally clear and it is very well edited. It has to be it make Colin Firth seem like a bad ass. That church scene alone was worth the price a admission. I even like the whole class welfare thing they had going on. I'm not saying its a perfect film by any means, but I found it to be some of the most fun I had in theaters this year.

@humanity: Id say the target demographic is probably young adults to people old enough to have seen and enjoyed the old Bond films. I feel like its and parody film done right. It doesn't just put things up on screen and say, "Hey, dude! Remember this?". Its a movie that can stand on its own but it can be bolstered if you've seen other the top spy movies. Oh yeah, Razor leg chick is cool, but the actress has one of those face that a cant tell if she is hot or not.

Is this thing on?

Apparently... Sometimes I miss the Whiskey Media days when the site wasn't big enough yet to draw a crowd angry about everything all the time.

They Tranformerized Power Rangers...so meh.

Also, Joseph Kahn is an AMAZING music video director - and of course he is the mastermind that brought us Torque.

@blackichigo: I thought it did totally have the camera way too close and spinning around a lot but my biggest problem was totally the way they sped up the footage, then went to normal again, then sped it up again, etc.

I also don't think it had anything to say about it anything. I don't think it ever tried to either. I don't think any of Millar's work has a bigger message (even if Kingsman was changed a lot from comic to film).

But tastes vary of course, that's just how I felt about it.

Although "some of the most fun I had in theatres this year" probably doesn't mean all that much since it's only February (unless you really watch a lot of films).

Anyway I'll shut up now, this is a power rangers thread after all.

@hypnotoadbrwowrowrow: ok, I've had time to think and watch it again. You guys are right, I should've focus more on the fun side of things ( I even said I knew the director was joking in my OP) I guess thing which got my blood up was thinking about the kind of Hollywood executive who would say, without any sense of irony : "people think that short film was awesome, we need to make that, but it should be 3 hours long and played totally straight."

Dubstep and Cocaine and a bleak outlook on the future. It's like the power rangers literally grew up with me.

I am now having a good time watching Megabot. Thanks forums.

@paul_tillich: yeah, that's my bad, I'm in a bit of a bleak mood today.

This is a really cool post. Thanks for making it. Three cheers for the internet not always being shouting matches!

@hassun: Hey man to each his own. I just wanted to voice my opinion and yours is certainly welcome.

Sorry to the op for the getting off topic.

i thought it was great. if it didnt have the guns but kept the more aged and serious looking suits it was great

This whole thing was hilarious, but what sold it for me was James fucking VanDerBeek as the traitorous Red Ranger. I mean let's be real, that is fucking perfection (plus he has a co-author credit on it, which, come on, that totally rules). Can you imagine VanDerBeek scribbling down script ideas for his gritty Power Rangers reboot in a spiral notebook while filming Dawson's Creek? Because I can, and that's hilarious.

I feel like it matched the tone of Dredd, where the over-the-top grimness was part of the joke (have you watched Dredd? You should watch Dredd. Dredd is exquisite). By far one of the best parts of the whole thing was the reveal at the end. Once I saw that costume, man... I was sold. And then DUBSTEP SO MUCH DUBSTEP AAAAAH MAKE IT STOP

You should watch the sitcom he's in, on ABC, where he plays himself trying to reboot his career after dawson's creek. Dude knows how to sell himself.

The fact that Kahn directed this to be a joke against Hollywood and their constant need to reboot childhood franchises into dark, gritty bullshit with dubstep just makes it that much better.

I never understood the appeal of Power Rangers and other tween programming. Once, I was over the age of 12, teen books, teen movies or teen-tv was boring. Once I was in 6th grade I was reading Stephen King novels and only wanting to see adult movies...not even consciously...if they asked what movies I wasted to see it was Dirty Harry, The Dead Zone, or Year of the Dragon or something like that. Every Sunday from 1979 to 1999 I watched 60-Minutes...that just how my mind functioned.

Totally agree.

It's been years since I watched Power Rangers, but after watching the short film I dug around the universe. I honestly did not know that Jason got replaced in Season 2 and had no idea who Van Der Beek was supposed to be until I looked it up on Wikipedia. I thought he was like a humanized version of Alpha for a second....

Funny you mention Dredd, since the guy behind the short was an executive producer for Dredd, and also worked on Machine Gun Preacher, The Grey, and the awesome Punisher short with Thomas Jane. Which totally makes me want Netflix to produce a Punisher TV series.

Thought it was pretty great actually.

1. I LOVE that there are dorks on various forums and on Twitter that don't realize this is a big, obvious joke, especially the disgruntled 30+ year old Power Ranger fans. Also, I love that Gary Whitta didn't realize this was a joke until movie critics told him.

2. I really hope everyone got to see the original unedited cut that featured the black ranger having sex with two porn stars.(somehow people still managed to think this was a real thing, even with the titties)

My favorite piece of weirdness to come out of Power Rangers nostalgia is Astro Fighter Sunred: