Fans of the original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers TV series are looking forward to the upcoming movie with little idea what to expect. Bryan Cranston now says that what we'll get will look very different from the original series. The man who will play Zordon, and has a bit of previous experience with the kids show from back in the day, says that the Power Rangers movie will be similar to the TV show in the same way that The Dark Knight was similar to the series starring Adam West.
The original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers series from the 90s was more than a little corny. They took footage from a previously existing Japanese action show, and combined it with new scenes using American actors. While it all came together in a way that was probably better than the idea had any right to, it still made the final product look a bit cheesy. Brian Cranston knows this, because he worked on the original series providing voice work for the occasional monster of the week. The actor tells The Huffington Post that he wasn't sure about taking the job in the new film because the original had been so silly, but he ultimately changed his mind because of the way the story has been reimagined.
I wasn't really high on it until I talked to the producer and read the script and talked to the director. After that I went, 'This is different.' This is as different a reimagining as the Batman television series, as it became the Batman movie series. You can't compare those two, and nor can you compare this movie version of the Power Rangers to that television series.
Bryan Cranston clarifies that he is referring to Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy when referring to the Batman movies. While he says the material of the Power Rangers film isn't as dark as Nolan's Batman -- the main characters are teenagers, after all -- he does say that the film will deal with all of the things that go into being a modern teenager, like dealing with high school cliques, bullies, and personal insecurities, which, having been a teenager once, is actually some pretty dark material thank you very much.
The Power Rangers TV series only had 30 minutes at a time to tell a story and as such it fell into a pretty simple formula. The focus was on the Power Rangers kung-fu and the giant robots that got to run around and blow up bad guys. The rangers as characters became fairly interchangeable, as evidenced by the fact that the series has gone on for years through several different iterations while replacing the heroes again and again. It sounds like the Power Rangers film will make these heroes people, not simply replaceable fighters in identical costumes.
Does this sound like the Power Rangers movie you want to see, or would you prefer something a little more in line with the old series? Let us know in the comments.
