There’s a trend traveling around all manners of media these days: take a well-loved icon and turn it into something darker, grittier, and more plot-driven. Look at Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins, or that ridiculous thing Michael Bay had the nerve to call a Ninja Turtle film, or any comic book movie/show from the past five years, and don’t even get me started on the darkness in Care Bears: Journey to Joke-A-Lot. I think you get my point.
Joseph Kahn (Torque director) and Adi Shankar (Dredd producer) have followed this trend and taken our beloved Power Rangers, stripped them of the cheese and geekery, and made them into…well, humans, actually. I mean, minus the Tarantino-esque blood and murder. Surprisingly, they managed to craft an entertaining and engaging (if graphic) premise in under fifteen minutes.
Bonus: the film stars James Van Der Beek* and Captain Marvel Katee Sackhoff. Oh, just watch the darn thing.
*High-five to me for not making a Dawson’s Creek joke. Look at me grow.