Power Ranger Online Message Board - Dark MMPR Fan Film with Katie Slackhoff

Most reviews I've read or listened to all just say the same thing over and over. It's dark, gritty, violent, and nasty. And either people love it or hate it typically.

You have ten year old kids watching it and saying, I know nothing about PR and didn't understand anything that was going on. But there was cussing, violence, sex and drug references, and it was dark and gritty so it's awesome!

I found plenty of stuff that I liked and disliked in it, and after watching it three times, for being a one and done artsie movie with a different take. I liked it more than I didn't. Mainly because it was something different for a change.

The beginning is what in my opinion is actually the worst thing about the movie. stop and go first person shooter sequence where the rangers are fighting the machine empire. It's really hard to see or distinguish much here, as the camera work is really shaky and you only see glimpses at a time. Ala all handheld movies from Blair Witch to Cloverfield, It's pretty annoying and ineffective, and kind of gives you a headache. Luckily it was short. Instead of handheld weapons or their pistol like power blasters, they have Call Of Duty like machine guns. Which I really didn't care for. Then there's the final shot of their megazord being destroyed in battle, which looks like a really cheap knock off of Michael Bays Transformers(which I'm also NOT a fan of). So while it was attention grabbing and full of hokey effects, this was the lowest point in the movie for me.

As far as the set-up & back story was concerned, I was pretty pleased with the idea of earth's government negotiating a truce with the machine empire, and the rangers disband. A good majority of fans have never liked the character of Rocky and were bummed when he replaced Jason, so to see him interrogating Kimberly as an affiliate of the Machine Empire was neat. His bitterness and disdain of teenagers being employed as power rangers was a good take.

I liked the flash back story telling, like Bulk & Skull working for the empire as violent drug dealers who helped assassinate Jason. I laughed at Hip Hop Kido, and the fact that Zack was sleeping with Divatox & Scorpina. Aside from the black ranger suit not looking very impressive, the fight sequence was alright with a slow and deliberate pace, and is excessively violent with Zack dispatching the thugs via head shots and knifing to the head/throat. Which was really over the top, but that's kind of the whole point with this thing.

I wish they would have done more with Billy and Trini, but I thought Billy being gay and Trini dying at the beginning of the peace treaty negotiations with the machine empire were decent touches. Subtle nods to David Yost and the World Peace Conference in Switzerland.

Rocky using Kim as bait was good, which lead to the Rocky/Tommy fight. Compared to the earlier Zack fight, this one was shorter but much quicker, more precise, and in my opinion better choreographed. I also liked that Rocky almost won, although he aside from his robotic leg, I'm pretty sure he had strength enhancements too.

The ending with Rita being behind the rangers and Bulk & Skulls death was alright, although her costume/design looked atrociously bad. And leaving the ending kind of open was good too, considering everyone else is dead hahaha.

So in closing, aside from it being dark and gritty. I liked the approach that they took on this, especially without permission. With a pretty minimal budget, most of the effects and such looked good, while others looked pretty tacky and bad. So many are complaining that this is defacing the franchise, and that It will be bad for children. Kids today are much different than the childen of the 90's. If this movie had come out in the early mid 90's, I could see it being way more controversial and uncalled for. But nowadays young kids are already exposed to most of this content anyway through nasty movies or video games. But that's a whole separate argument an discussion. I think it was a fun and different spin on the franchise that took cues and paid small mentions to fans of the show and characters, and had some pretty decent acting and action sequences for what it was worth.