INQUISITR.COM / Entertainment

Power Rangers Gritty Reboot Goes Viral [Video]

By Erin Staley
Published on: 05:05 PST, Feb 24, 2015

This isn’t the Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers from your childhood, but it’s still awesome. Although, it’s not at all safe for work.

The camera work is raw and visceral, the language is profanity laced, and the visuals are dark and gritty. The new short film, called simply POWER/RANGERS is writer-director Joseph Khan’s take on the future of the universe depicted in the almost 22-year-old series. The film focuses on original era characters Kimberly (Katee Stackhoff) and Rocky (James Van Der Beek) as two former power rangers at odds between their past and a hinted war between humanity and machines.

POWER/RANGERS is available on Vimeo and YouTube. Khan explained the reason for the POWER/RANGERS short film on its Vimeo page.

“Deboot of the Power Rangers. My take on the FAN FILM. Not a pilot, not a series, not for profit, strictly for exhibition. This is a bootleg experiment not affiliated or endorsed by Saban Entertainment or Lionsgate nor is it selling any product. I claim no rights to any of the characters (don’t send me any money, not kickstarted, this film is free).

This isn’t the first dark re-imagining of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and it’s many sequels to surface this year. Artist Eddie Del Rio released an image that brings the destruction common in the Power Rangers universe down to a human level. Del Rio is an artist based in northern California. He has done work for Lucas Arts, Lucasfilm, Disney, THQ, Activision, and 2k.

A view of the epic battles from the perspective of those on the ground.
A view of the epic battles from the perspective of those on the ground.

The darker and edgier tone of POWER/RANGERS is timely. J.J. Abrams’ dark reboot of the Star Trek franchise was so well received it spawned two sequels, the second of which is still in pre-production.

Power Rangers was last in the news after Ricardo Medina Jr., a veteran of Power Rangers Wild Force and Power Rangers Samurai, was arrested on suspicion of murder in early February 2015. As previously reported by the Inquisitr, Medina and his roommate, John Sutter, got into an altercation, during which Medina stabbed Sutter to death with a sword. No charges were filed against Medina.

Reviews of the darker and edgier take on Power Rangers have so far been mixed, though mostly positive.

What do you think of the POWER/RANGERS“deboot”?

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