Haim Saban and Shuki Levy actually gained the rights to some of that Sentai during the Zyuranger series which sould have done much better than the previous Jetman series, which featured bird-rangers and might not have hit as hard as the dinosaur edge of Zyuranger. In the fifst season of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, a great deal of footage from the Zyuranger series was used, mostly during the fight scenes which were overdubbed in English.
Sentai fans have taken notice and fully embrace the film. That’s a good sign. In any case, the Sentai series was a bit more adult as one might see scenes not found in the child-friendly version. Characters cursed and rather profusely, there was tobacco usage, scenes of blood and situations where victims were put into predicaments that would get them killed, not just captured or poked at, like in the Power Rangers adaptation. In short, the original Power Rangers watered down the franchise heavily. Here, that isn’t the case. Power Rangers contains harsh language, adult situations, scenes of death and the word “kill” used instead of “defeat”or “beat” as one might find in the child version. As much as one wanted to believe there was a real threat from Rita Repulsa or Lord Zedd, it just didn’t feel like either of these two wanted to do anything more than to conquer Earth – even though, let’s face it – Lord Zedd was a frightening looking character for a childrens series, even today. Believe it or not, the designer of that very costume wound up in a Face Off competition, which surprised the hell out of me. The man who designed Lord Zedd should not be broke, looking for work and exposure. He just shouldn’t be.
Now, before you start throwing in the buzzwords “edgy” and “pretentious” let’s examine Super Sentai. I’ve been watching Jetman which premiered right before Zyuranger and let me tell you that it’s like night and day compared to what we remember. For instance, the black ranger is an absolute rebel that tells the red ranger he’s going to break his neck if he ever sees him again. He has no desire to fight for justice and believes that the world is not worth saving. It takes a lot of convincing on the red ranger’s part for him to finally join the team by the third or fourth episode. So this rivarly among rangers is nothing new or edgy for the sake of edgy – it’s actually closer to the series roots. Also, the fact that the teens have their powers after exploring a cave, finding some odd stones and winding up in a very intense car crash (they tried to beat a freight train across the tracks) which they later awake from, is NOT out of the ordinary for this series.
Commenters online have posted statements like, “they only had their powers when they were in their suits” and “this is too much like Chronicle” even though half of these people aren’t even aware of Sentai and how the original rangers got their powers. Yes, powers – as in, they did not need the suits to perform herculean feats. In Jetman, each was struck with a bolt of lightning. In Power Rangers, just by having the stones they were given remarkable abilities of strength and stamina. For instance, they could jump off a cliff (and do) with no fear in hitting the bottom. It sounds a bit silly, but Sentai had it’s cheese and we’ll not deny that. It’s part of the fun after all.
Rita Repulsa is British now, but that also doesn’t bother me. Obviously, her original actor (and she was beautiful – don’t let that dress, the silly makeup and those pointy horns fool you) is long deceased, but I feel that the role was done well enough – especially when she goes from “that ugly looking thing found on the ship” to an “incredibly attractive, yet undeniably evil, green ranger mishap.” Keep in mind, Zordon was the original red ranger in this mythology, with Rita being the green one. It makes sense in Sentai mythology as there are several generations of rangers that protect Japan from evil forces. More or less, everything has been switched around in someway or another to appeal to the current demographic – and it worked. Rita actually comes off quite insidious, as she doesn’t mind killing Billy and lets him drown to death when the rangers attempt to face her unprepared and without armor. Because none of them could get along, the morphing grid would not activate and they could not use the power of their suits.
In the end, this is what you’re getting: A tale that features delinquent rangers who do not get along at first, nearly end up killed, (unless you go with some fan theory about how they all died in the train crash and this a dream) feature color swaps, have trouble morphing, battle some crazy homeless woman and a giant golden blob while fighting to the background of electronic music and Kanye West rap. It is what it is, folks – and it’s not terrible. It’s a fresh start, comes off much better than I would have ever expected and should be even better once the thrilling Green Ranger story is adapted with Lord Zedd at the villain helm (he’s in talks for the sequel). I loved the film so much that I actually went out and bought a copy of it. At least it’s close to the adult tone of Japanese Sentai and contains just as much cheese. If you know what you’re getting, you’ll love it too.
8/10