The American Power Rangers show from the 1990s was goofy, cheesy, and colorful. It was filled with safe action and easily resolved plotlines, but it was still a ton of fun.

Director Joseph Kahn's Power Rangers fan film is the exact opposite. It's violent, dark, gritty, and not safe to watch while you're at work. It's almost like asking what if the Power Rangers were real and things haven't been going too well for them at all.

Check out the film below by Joseph Kahn starring Katee Sackoff (Battlestar: Galactica) and James Van Der Beek (Dawnson's Creek).

Warning: Again, this video is NSFW. You've been warned.

Yeah.... Exactly.... If you're hoping to get a full-on feature film from Joseph Kahn with this level of awesomeness, don't hold your breath. In an interview with HitFlix, Kahn said he simply wouldn't do it.

The irony here is that I wouldn't even want to make "Power Rangers: The Movie' for real. Like if I had to make a 'Power Rangers' movie, this is it. It's 14 minutes long and it's violent and this is what I have in me. If they offered me the 200 million version, the PG-13 version, I literally wouldn't do it. It's just not interesting to me.

What did you guys think of the short film? Would you like to see a Power Rangers feature film like this?

UPDATE

Here's the Safe for Work Youtube version.

UPDATE 2

Looks like the original version has been taken down.

UPDATE 3

Sorry. Looks like the YouTube version was pulled too. Hope you had a chance to check it out.

The fact that this was played straight-faced makes this insanely hilarious.

Love adrenaline junkie Zack.

COOL! If they did ever make a new movie though I hope they use new names/characters, but have the older actors come back.

POWER RANGERS MOVIE RELEASE DATE SET

They are gonna make a big screen movie set for 2016

To think only that THIS is how fan films look nowadays: it's quality is actually equivalent to a low-budget movie.

As a matter of fact "Serious Power Rangers" are still sorta funny, but this was pretty awesome.

I'd like to see him do a live action Voltron or Voltron Force, where he might have the leeway to go for the 'R' rating.

...though they may have pulled the movie?

edit: Nevermin it's back.

LMAO Power Rangers does NOT need to be this mature and dark.

I actually enjoy that, and it's nice to see Katee

That was amazing.

This is dark and gritty (and ridiculous) for satirical purposes btw.

Interesting, but I think nor everything in life must become a dark thing to be valid, these characteristics is precisely what differentiates the Super Sentai of other works, the Power Rangers: RPM had this thing darker and was the least liked, despite the story have been good.

Also power rangers is space was waaaay better then the original

Do people not know in Zyuranger, the Super Santai counterpart to the fist season of Power Rangers, has Witch Bandora (a.k.a. Rita Repulsa) make a deal with a being literally called Great Satan after her young son is killed by a Tyrannosaurus Rex?

This was dope. My nostalgia was in full overdrive when they started showing the old Rangers. And Zack...hip hop kido lol (then he kills a bunch of dudes). I liked that it was this dark and it made sense when they explained the whole exploiting kids thing. I think I'd pay to see this full length in a theater...or at least find it online.

While well done, I'm not a big fan of a lot of the "dark" reinventions that people like to do with properties like these.

I loved it. Big props. XD

Who was Dawson playing again?

interesting, i would actually see this if it were a movie.

@meatwadf: I was thinking the same thing when I got done watching it.

Pretty cool I would watch a full movie if they had better actors. James Van Der Beek was the only one I could stand. But it shows that the Power Rangers still have potential but they would never make it so mature and dark..which is actually what I liked about this.

Interesting to say the least

This was great! The start reminded me of Starship Troopers and the rest reminded me of Watchmen.

And RPM did have a Terminator vibe to it. Now with this fan film...I don't think that everything needs a dark and gritty feel to it. It really wouldn't work IMHO. But Zack and Hip Hop Kido...That was priceless.

This is one of the better fan films I've seen. And I know the dark and gritty remakes are overdone but I really liked this one since I use to make some dark stories with the Power Rangers as a kid. There was even a horror story.

I'm not 100% sure, but based on the extremes used, it almost feels like a parody of the dark and gritty reboot. At least, that's how I view it. Maybe it wasn't intended that way and I'm looking too far into it, but whatever. Either way, I'm kinda glad I saw it, but I don't think I ever need to see it again. lol

I'm still trying to determine who James was playing in the film. For a bit I thought it was Billy, then it showed him dead later on. I also didn't catch that it was Jason that Kimberly had been married to for eight hours before being murdered. When Tommy showed up with scars I just thought it was the same guy just with his hair cut.

I would almost kill to do my own spin on the classic PR. It wouldn't be as dark as this one, but it wouldn't be as cheesy as the show either.

~KL~

Garbage

Nice

Same ques3tion

He was playing as Rocky. The replacement Red ranger turned, Blue Zeo Ranger. Though in this version he betrayed the Rangers and joined up with the machine empire. Which ironically is very close to real life. For a long time the guy who played as Rocky (Steve Cardenas) had a chip on his shoulders for a long time about how being a Power Ranger ruined his career.

As a matter of fact for all the Rangers in this fan film they sort of applied their actors real lives to the fictional persona. Jason being country, Billy being gay, and Trini dying.

The part that I found really laughable was that the two porn stars Bree Olsen and Amia Miley were actually Scorpina and Divatox. I never could figure out who in the fan film which one was portraying Cestria.

Funny.

It was like watching a dark version of the smurf where the smurf get genocided by Gargamel and a grown-up baby smurf get a revenge by killing Gargamel from the inside of his belly, alien style.

I'm more skeptical on a long movie version, tough. Even if the movie is impressive for a fan movie.

(Heck, Could we still even call this a fan movie ?)

I'm not a fan of Joseph Khan's work. He's all flash no substance, which is how I find this short. It's a fun idea but the execution is forgettable.

Power Rangers has always been dark, if you'd payed attention.

Psh no one cared about Dawson on Dawson's Creek it's all about that Pacey! I love the irony of turning late 80's bubble gum remediated pop into a dark and gritty reboot.

What happened to the NSFW version?????

@delphic:

That trivia actually makes the short way more enjoyable. Kinda felt generic otherwise.

I find it interesting how when you have a story based around light and fluffy humor. Then someone makes an alternative view then constantly you have people arguing how much better the other side was. While say if the series started out dark and someone did the reverse it would be the same argument. Why would someone make some stupid light hearted version of this cool dark show.

I think there is always this two tone perspective of things. I personally enjoyed this dark glimpse of a show I just could never swallow with its goody goody gum drops view of everything. I truly understand how you liked the kiddy version I really do. It took you to a place where everything can be happy and the good guys win. Heck that's why many people read comics. That's why many characters never stay truly dead because it's goody fiction.

The two perspectives are that some find this kind of darker view as a fictional view of realism. While I feel the truth would be much darker. We see darker colors, more adult conversations, and heavier violence in this and feel accosted by dark views. While being far from the truth it's more of an alternate reality.

How can you corrupt a show that never took it self seriously in the first place with all the bubble humor?

As dark as Mortal Kombat is then you have the little guy pop his face out and yell "TOASTY!"

We all either ride the Baron Von Blood or the Gum Drop Trains in our mind at any given point of time. While humor seems to be the one thing keeping us all grounded or loose enough to stay on the track.

Anyway just some stuff that popped into my head. Everyone have a good one.

Well that jacked up a large chunk of childhood right there....

That was so bad and cheesy in a good way.

I think if Power Rangers embraced their sentai side you could get a better balance. I enjoyed this for what it is, but I think Sentai better walks the line of darkness and humor. The heroes aren't squeeky clean, someone mentioned Zyurangers the source for the original series dealt with death and other things that are often glanced over when remade. I know it is satirical, but just the fact it has to go to the absolute darkest works for a short film not a long one.

Lol.

Its funny this comes out the same day as that laughable DBZ video.

Was it just me or did anyone else get flash backs of Bale's Batman when Jason said "who are you?"?

Don't care about Power Rangers.

Katie Sackoff is sexy though!

SHe could be Captain Marvel!

~MiB

Eh....

Don't get me wrong its good for what it is. But I don't like anything where the entire cast is killed off for shock value. There's dark and then there's DARK. Its missing a bit of substance of what power rangers are. I'd love a edgy rendition and I like this premise, but the directors comments sort of make it seem like this wouldn't interest if he was somehow to end up directing a full project. Sort of reminds me of a fanfic where the writer just goes as far as possible with a dark premise.. Good for him and that niche but not what i'd like to see for the franchise.

Also I think people should just let the Sentai/PowerRanger comparison go...I mean I don't even think it needs to be explained that the two aren't comparable even when they don't deviate.

Halo? Dont care if its Dark and Gritty or even Violent Dont like the Power Rangers using guns.

it looks damn cool !!! i didn't even finish the whole trailer but it looked interesting.

……that was amazing.