Bryan Cranston Compares New "Power Rangers" Movie to "The Dark Knight" Trilogy

[BeastieRunner]

As long as it has people in power suits punching monsters and giant robots fighting giant monsters, I'll be happy.

[simbob4000]

Yeah...I don't need Power Rangers to start taking on the kind of tone and style of the Dark Knight Trilogy, when this is still a franchise that's ostensibly meant for, and still marketed towards, kids. Ideally this should be a movie that appeals to all-ages, not just being a more "mature" take on the Power Rangers property.

Now, if we're talking the same level of craft, writing, characterization, etc., that would be great.

What's Batman?

[Iluvitloud1976]

Geez that's a bold statement mr. cranston. Not sure if doing a serious & grounded take on a campy japanese property is the right direction to go. But whatever. This franchise never did anything for me.

[simbob4000]

If this means it plays less like the Power Rangers tv show, and more like something like the Kikaider Reboot, that's cool.

[Guy1]

Read Cranston's quote again. He said it's not as dark as The Dark Knight Trilogy. He's saying it won't nearly as campy as people make the TV show out to be.

Also, there was never a booger monster.

There were Loogie Soldiers though.

[Huntsman Spider]

And as someone else pointed out, Power Rangers has gone in more serious, mature directions before. In Space was the last of the Zordon era and actually introduced some moral complexity with a second-in-command who was shockingly honorable in his desire to protect his mistress and genuinely loved her like a daughter, even if she was actually the sister of the Red Ranger, and despised another villain for having no moral scruples whatsoever.

The sequel, Lost Galaxy, followed up with another honorable second-in-command who acted in a mentor/guardian role to the eventual main villainess and despised another villain for again having no moral scruples whatsoever, and even turned against the main villainess after an unwilling merger with the second villain caused her to lose all moral scruples as well and resort to turning her troops into suicide bombers to attack the Rangers and the civilians they were protecting. Lost Galaxy even upped the ante on moral complexity by featuring an anti-hero/anti-villain who had Ranger-like abilities and attributes but used them solely for revenge on the villains for the death of his son with little to no regard for innocent casualties of his revenge, only to get a painful wakeup call to how wrong he was and ultimately sacrifice his life to save everyone else, which led to him passing on his powers and mantle to the Red Ranger's brother, whom he had initially fused with for a second chance at life and revenge. Plus, it actually killed off a Ranger (temporarily) during a team-up with the Space Rangers and had her replaced by the reformed villainess from In Space, struggling to redeem herself by becoming a Ranger.

Lightspeed Rescue had a similar juxtaposition between honorable and somewhat principled villains and completely despicable and unscrupulous villains who cared nothing for the lives of others, even the lives of those loyal to them. It also complicated the "Sixth Ranger who starts off evil but turns good" plot by having it so said Sixth Ranger wasn't brainwashed, just basically kidnapped as a child and raised to hate humanity out of the belief that his own family had abandoned him, and him turning good came from realizing that his family did love him and would have gladly sacrificed themselves to save him, which left him struggling to reconcile with himself after all those years of being raised on hate.

Time Force was one of the morally grayer PR series, with the villains being motivated by the scorn they received from the general population of the year 3000 for being genetically flawed --- which mostly manifested as your typical tokusatsu monsters, but some did manage to look more human, and the main villain just had some prosthetic effects and monster makeup --- and the leader of the Rangers being motivated at first chiefly by vengeance for the death of her fiancé, whom the Red Ranger resembled on account of being his ancestor and thus the only one who could bond with the red Chrono Morpher and activate the other morphers. There were also a lot of subtly complex plots revolving around the issue of predestination vs. free will, discovering that the people you loved weren't always as you knew or remembered them, and even a little bit of class conflict with the Sixth Ranger of the series determined to prove himself in a world that discounted him and his abilities because he was born poor and thus resenting the Red Ranger for being born into a wealthy family, even though the Red Ranger had tried to befriend him when they were in school together. One of the most prominent overarching themes of Time Force was the cycle of revenge, as the main villain discovered to his great chagrin that he'd made other enemies besides the Rangers with his past cruelties and his final defeat came from realizing that he was about to kill the only person he truly cared for, his own daughter, just because she was in the way of him finally vanquishing his enemies, which inspired him to break the cycle by turning himself in to face justice for his many crimes.

Wild Force went back to the juxtaposition of surprisingly sympathetic villains with completely despicable ones, and the completely despicable villain was actually a human who ate the plantlike remains of the ancient villain he was impersonating for most of the series to gain power to take revenge on his coworkers . . . because they had the temerity to fall in love and get married and have a child. Out of pure spite and envy for having his own feelings go unnoticed, the main villain of Wild Force killed an innocent couple and turned their child into an orphan, though said child would later grow up to be the Red Ranger and defeat him (twice) alongside the other Rangers. Oh, and there was an environmental message woven into the show that was frustratingly undercut by the arguable top good guy, a godlike Megazord called Animus, deciding humans could go screw themselves for polluting the Earth and taking back the animal Zords from the Rangers, hobbling their ability to defend the planet against the villains, which were apparently created from or empowered by pollution, and then the show tried to walk it back by claiming it was a test of the Rangers' dedication to the mission. Yeah, that was messed up.

All those I would argue as highlights in the thesis that Power Rangers can tell more serious stories and explore more complex themes amidst all the monster-fighting, giant robots, and shiny spandex suits.

[VivaChiba]

If this means it plays less like the Power Rangers tv show, and more like something like the Kikaider Reboot, that's cool.

Do you mean this? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjHnaahVo8I

Is that a feature or a series? It looks pretty darn cool.

[simbob4000]

Do you mean this?

Is that a feature or a series? It looks pretty darn cool.

It's a movie, and it is pretty damn cool. One of the better superhero movies I've seen these last few years.