Adi
Shankar is not an unfamiliar name to fan film connoisseurs. He's the
producer of such unauthorized "bootleg universe" favorites as "The
Punisher: Dirty Laundry," and "Venom: Truth in Journalism." He's also
produced some fairly successful mainstream action flicks like "The Grey"
and the recent reboot of "Dredd." His latest, a grim 14 minute short
film directed by Joseph Kahn, based on the "Power Rangers" franchise,
was released last week. It was titled "Power/Rangers" and quickly
attracted a storm of attention.
Once word got
around to the studios, Saban Brands, which holds the rights to the
"Power Rangers" IP, had the short pulled from Youtube and Vimeo. An
agreement was reached two days later that allowed it to be put back up
with several new disclaimers in place to emphasize that Saban had
absolutely nothing to do with it. After all, "Power Rangers" is still
being produced with new episodes currently running on Nickelodeon.
There's also a feature film in the pipeline that has been scheduled for
the summer of 2016. This is a lucrative IP with a lot of mileage left
in it. Those two days when "Power/Rangers" was in limbo were a lot of
fun, with speculation flying around about copyright implications and
whether or not the short could be categorized as fair use.
It's good
to see that fan films and other unofficial derivative media are so
commonplace now that trying to pull something like "Power/Rangers" from
circulation is recognized as being completely counterproductive. Any
controversy just makes more people want to see it, and pushes curious
viewers to employ less visible distribution channels. Something like
"Power/Rangers" might be pushing the definition of fair use a bit, since
this kind of "reimagining" is something that Saban could create and
monetize if they wanted, but I doubt that they would ever be in the
business of doing something so violent and bleak with the property. And
so more creatives are taking risks on doing projects like this, playing
with various IP in ways that would have been unthinkable a decade ago.
My
thoughts on the actual quality of the fan film? Sadly, not very
positive. It's kind of embarrassing how bad this thing is considering
the involvement of such recognizable faces as Katee Sackhoff and James
Van Der Beek. The whole things plays out like a College Humor parody of
a "dark and gritty" reboot of "Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers" dreamed
up by overgrown, navel-gazing fanboys. In the short film's universe the
bad guys won. All of our heroes are now dead or foul-mouthed, cynical,
badass cliches. The production design apes every other generic,
dystopian sci-fi movie that's come out in the last five years. The
plotting is a confusing tangle of rehashed noir and revenge story tropes
that goes to great lengths to relay the sordid fates of our once
squeaky-clean teen protagonists.
The production
values are very good, and there was clearly a lot of time and effort
poured into this, but I guess I just don't get the point. Most of the
short is almost comically overserious, but the final reveal is very
goofy, undercutting everything that the filmmakers were trying to
accomplish. The truth of the matter is that you can't do a "Power
Rangers" adaptation that isn't on some level silly, campy and over the
top. At their core all sentai series are designed for small children,
and trying to darken it all up for adults - even nostalgic adults -
just ends up looking ridiculous.
I understand
the fun in dreaming up "darkest timeline" scenarios for kids' shows to
illustrate their shoddy worldbuilding, but this was way too earnest in
its aims to be a joke. At the same time it doesn't evoke any of the
elements the fans might have genuinely liked about "Power Rangers,"
aside from some generic brawling. No kaiju battles? No wacky robots?
No wildly elaborate morphing sequences? Clearly the filmmakers were
familiar with "Power Rangers," but I don't they liked the
series much. And that defeats the whole point of a fan film.
So
while I'm glad that "Power/Rangers" survives online to inspire other
fan filmmakers, I don't care much for the short itself. Seriously,
guys, with all the resources you have at your disposal, you're capable
of better than this.
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