Many old franchises that were primarily watched by children sooner or later became big films. Examples would be the Ninja Turtles or the Transformers. A franchise based on a Japanese series was supposed to launch a film series in 2017, but nothing came of it. He didn’t stick to the template and flopped.
What film is it about? Power Rangers was released in 2017. This was a science fiction film based on the popular TV series. The TV series is based on the Super Sentai series from Japan. In these series, a team of mostly young people can transform into costumed superheroes using powerful objects.
They have all sorts of equipment, weapons and most importantly: huge robots that can transform into an even bigger robot.
The feature film was then released under the direction of the relatively unknown Dean Israelite. But despite Bryan Cranston, who was on everyone’s lips thanks to Breaking Bad, and a solid budget, the film was a flop. It never became a major franchise. That’s what happened to The Mummy with Tom Cruise.
You can see a trailer for the film here:
Power Rangers – Trailer for the reboot of the action series with Bryan Cranston
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A well-known name is not enough for success
How did Power Rangers fare? According to Box Office Mojo, the budget is estimated at $100 million, although marketing costs can be expected to be more. The film took in almost $142 million worldwide. Although the production costs were covered, the studio expects significantly more for a 100 million film.
The critics weren’t impressed with the sci-fi film either. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a critic score of 51% from 179 reviews. Viewers liked him a little better. With over 25,000 reviews you get 65%.
What did the film do wrong? You can never say 100%, but some factors sound plausible. The original series is pretty silly, colorful, and full of over-the-top martial arts combat and creature designs. The film wants to be something more serious. He is dark, spends a lot of time with the teenagers and also tries to portray the costumes and abilities more realistically.
The beloved elements of the series simply weren’t there enough. The user watermelonmangoberry describes this quite well in a Reddit thread:
They removed all of the recognizable elements of the franchise, such as martial arts, dinosaurs, and having them in costumes for only 10 minutes of the entire film. It’s like making a Ninja Turtles movie where the turtles only appear in the final scene and don’t use karate.
Such an approach can work, but it can also make a film seem generic. In the same year, Transformers: The Last Knight, a film that took a similar approach, was released. This one, however, was an enormous success.
Another aspect could be that it’s not as big a franchise as Transformers or the Ninja Turtles. In Japan, the Sentai series are huge, but here the genre is viewed more as children’s entertainment.
Some fans still like the film to this day: Many viewers didn’t think the film was bad at all, and even loved it. At least if you look at the user reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. Some users there have a pretty positive opinion about the film:
Many films develop a community even years after their release and become cult for them. This happened to another sci-fi film based on an anime. Speed Racer from the makers of The Matrix also flopped: An anime adaptation by the makers of The Matrix cost $120 million – The film flopped, but became a cult film