Fan-Made Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers Short Film Reveals Red Rising
Looking at the subject matter of modern internet short films it’s easy to tell when the filmmakers behind them came of age. The late 80s and early 90s were fertile fields and now would-be filmmakers are tackling properties like Captain Planet or The Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers.
The trend continues in a new fan-made Power Rangers short film. Created by director Shawn Shaman Red Rising takes the character of Jason, the Red Ranger and the leader of the Power Rangers, and puts him in a grim situation. It feels like the opening to Tron: Legacy with a Skrillex soundtrack behind it. Check out Red Rising…
Red Rising is set five years after the Power Rangers had split up and went their separate ways. A mysterious alien invasion has summoned the Power Rangers back into action. But while on his way back to Power Ranger HQ, Jason stops to save a damsel in distress. He manages to “teach” a group of street punks a lesson, while getting back into fighting shape for the unknown mission ahead of him and his mighty morphin’ team.
Recently, we’ve seen other fan-made Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers short films, trailers, or animated sequences. They’ve all been pretty impressive with their scope and managed to capture something special with their limited resources. A word of advice for filmmakers out there: as long as the trend of making the Power Rangers darker and grittier NEVER turns into a self-referential, “meta” parody like the new Robocop remake or the failed Ninja Turtles script, then you’ll make the Internet very happy.
