Sci-Fi Storm

I’ve never been a “fan” of the Power Rangers. I’ve watched it in the earlier years, and occasionally since…one of my daughters picked up on a more recent series so saw a bit of that. But the feature movie, due out March 24th, appears to be a step above them all. It appears to take the concept with full seriousness, and brings to bear current heavy hitters Elizabeth Banks (The Hunger Games, Pitch Perfect) as Rita Repulsa and Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad) as Zordon in a reboot of the franchise for the big screen. It will be interesting to see how the serious reboot of the campy adaptation of the Japanese Super Sentai series will work out.

Saban Brands wants to take it’s 20-year-old Power Rangers franchise to the next level – as a series of feature films – and Lionsgate is going to help them do it.

The companies announced today they are teaming up to produce a feature film based on the long running and still popular martial arts/robots vs. alien monster (and often cheesy) franchise, with the hopes of many more.

This would not be the first feature film, though – there were two previous features. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie was released in 1995 midway through the original series’ run when it seemed the initial fascination of American face actors intercut with Japanese action footage from Super Sentai started to wane. Then in 1997, Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie kicked off the third series, Power Rangers Turbo. In total, 17 different series were produced along with the two movies in 20 years.