Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: The Reboot (My Take)
Upon seeing Joseph Kahn and Adi Shankar's "Power/Rangers" short film (a.ka. "Power Rangers: The Unauthorized Bootleg," I could not believe myself. While it had some stunning effects and breathtaking plot points in it surrounding the Rangers after their supposed final battle, I was left with my head scratching. So, I am now expressing what should have been.
Over the past “X” amount of days, I got bitten by the Ranger/Sentai Bug after so many years of taking my time off the Power Rangers fandom. I, myself, am a big fan of the whole series (save a few seasons here and there like "Overdrive") and feel that a reboot should get a treatment better than its source material.
Two weeks ago, I happened to see Joseph Kahn and Adi Shankar's "Power/Rangers" short film (a.k.a. "Power Rangers Unauthorized Bootleg" as Shankar put it) and got a mixed bag out of it.
So, in order to counter the effects of the bad part of the mixed bag, I devised a list of who can make a better reboot work and what elements should have been included. Here it is:
THE POWER RANGERS
Aaron Taylor Johnson (Dave Lizewski/Kick-***) = Jason Lee "Jay" Scott (Red Ranger)
Nicholas Hoult (Nux in "Mad Max: Fury Road" & R in "Warm Bodies") = Wiliam "Billy" Cranston (Blue Ranger)
Lily Collins (Snow White in "Mirror Mirror" & Clary Fray in "The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones") = Kimberly Ann "Kim" Hart (Pink Ranger)
Anna Akana (The Writer in "Ant-Man") = Trinity "Trini" Kwan (Yellow Ranger)
Trey Smith (Criss-Cross in "All of Us") = Zachary "Zack" Taylor (Black Ranger)
Augustus Prew (Todd Haynes/*** Kicker in "Kick-*** 2") = Thomas "Tommy" Oliver
THE SUPPORTING CAST (VILLAINS, ALLIES, & NEUTRAL PERSONAS)
Irina Pantaeva (Jade in "Mortal Kombat Annihilation")/Lucy Liu = Rita Repulsa
Toby Stephens (Gustav Graves/Colonel Tan-Sun Moon in "007: Die Another Day")/Damian Lewis = Lord Zedd
Jason Isaacs (Lucius Malfoy in "Harry Potter" & Captain Mike Steele in "Black Hawk Down")/Noah Emmerich = Zordon
Bai Ling ("Crank 2: High Voltage")/Devon Aoki (Kasumi in "DOA: Dead or Alive") = Scorpina
Scott Adkins (Yuri Boyka in "Undisputed")/Kane Kosugi (Ryu Hayabusa in DOA) = Ninjor
Lauren Cohan (Maggie in "The Walking Dead")/Rose Byrne (Seth Rogen's on-screen wife in "Neighbors") = Dulcea
Ed Harris (General Hummel in "The Rock")/Christoph Waltz (Colonel Hans Landa in "Inglourious Basterds") = Ivan Ooze
Clark Duke ("Hot Tub Time Machine") = Farkas "Bulk" Bulkmeier
Anthony Padilla (One of the 2 men behind Smosh) = Eugene "Skull" Skullovitch
Jamie Bamber (Apollo in "Battlestar Galactica")/Rob Riggle ("The Hangover," "21 Jump Street," "Dumb & Dumber To") = Chief of Police Jerome Stone, Angel Grove P.D.
Josh Gad ("Pixels")/Wayne Knight ("Jurassic Park," "3rd Rock From the Sun") = Ernie
Jim Parsons (Sheldon in "The Big Bang Theory") = Alpha 5
Lateef Crowder (Baraka in "Mortal Kombat: Legacy," Capoeira Fighter in "The Protector," & Eddie Gordo in "Tekken") = Goldar
Costas Mandylor (Mark Hoffman in the "Saw" movie series & Shin in the 1995 "Fist of the North Star" live-action movie) = King Mondo
Andy Serkis (Gollum in "Lord of the Rings" & "The Hobbit") = Baboo
Clint Howard ("How the Grinch Stole Christmas") = Squatt
Tony Curran (SAS Sergeant Pete Twamley in "Ultimate Force") = General Klank
Peter Dinklage (Tyrion Lannister in "Game of Thrones") = Finster
Jonathan Pryce (Juan Peron in "Evita" & Elliott Carver in "007: Tomorrow Never Dies") = Master Vile
Ian Anthony Dale (Kazuya Mishima in "Tekken" & Scorpion in "Mortal Kombat") = Field Marshal Rito Revolto
Kira Reed (actress that formerly appeared in softcore "romance" shows in Showtime & Cinemax) = Divatox
DIRECTOR = John Woo ("The Killer," "Face/Off")
CO-DIRECTOR = Zack Snyder ("300," "Sin City")
PRODUCER = Jerry Bruckheimer ("Top Gun," "Beverly Hills Cop," "Pirates of the Caribbean")
WRITER = Frank Miller ("300") - If you have anyone else in your mind on who should be the writer, feel free to comment.
COMPOSERS = Ron Wasserman, Tomoyasu Hotei (previously a composer for the "Kill Bill" movie series), & Brandon Flowers (the latter being the singer of the Las Vegas-based band The Killers)
Now, some of the plot elements that I can suggest:
* Have Jason, Trini, and Zack intact with Jason being the White Ranger to replace Tommy later
* Pair Kimberly up with another guy within the team. Billy would be my personal recommendation. As any of you might have seen, Pink and Blue have one of the strongest inter-character chemistries in the show. Tomberly romance is overrated from what I perceived. Oh, and leave the homosexuality of Billy's previous actor (David Yost) out of the question. In other words, think that the situations that led Mr. Yost's departure from the show before "Zeo" was over did NOT happen.
* Pop culture should have a decent degree of references. For example, elements from video games like "Street Fighter" and "King of Fighters" and anime's like "Mobile Fighter G Gundam" could help certain scenes more vivid (e.g. fight scenes).
* The reboot should have deeper origin stories. For instance, there should be something like Zordon and Lord Zedd being blood brothers and going to war with each other later on before the events of the MMPR reboot
* Have the Rangers develop their fighting abilities based on the warriors of the old (e.g. Mongolian warrior from the Khan dynasty, Japanese Samurai, ninjas, ancient Siamese warriors, and heck even the Roman Legions and the German Teutonic Knights). Have traces of certain moves as to convey how they relate to techniques used by those that have gone before in battle. This would be likened to the origins of the Ansatsuken, the fighting style Ryu, Ken, Gouken, and Akuma use in "Street Fighter."
* My suggested filming locations (not necessarily all of them should be used):
- Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia (Angel Grove's "Little Mongolia")
- Fukuoka, Japan (The Grove's "Tokyo Town")
- Phuket, Thailand (Grove's "Thai Town")
- Tianjin, China (Grove's Chinatown - along the Chinese-Mongolian border)
- Glasgow, Scotland, UK (rural countryside)
- London, England (Grove's valley sector)
- Singapore (main hub of Angel Grove)
That's all I have for now. Feedbacks as well as any other suggestions & additions are welcome. Thank you for your time reading this.
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RayRay8907
10/4/2015