Debuting in 1993, the Power Rangers, a must watch t.v. show of any 10 year old at that time, is actually still on the air, being reincarnated every couple of years with a new premise and cast of characters. As you can tell, the franchise is still immensely popular, mainly amongst a new generation of kids, and those who grew up watching the show and want that nostalgia hit. Following a group of teenagers who donned colourful costumes to fight evil, the show stuck rigidly to a tried and trusted formula: an evil monster would attack the town of Angel Grove, the Power Rangers would fight it and an army of goons, the monster would grow to giant size, the Rangers would summon giant robots, that would combine into an even bigger robot (these scenes were recycled footage from the Japanese Super Sentai series, which had the same premise as the Power Rangers), and save the day.
While Power Rangers already counts two movies, released in the 90's, as part of the franchise, Saban Brands, who hold the rights, are teaming up with Lionsgate to launch a new, big screen version of the show, that will, according to the press release, "elevate the Power Rangers brand to the next level". Citing Lionsgate's success with The Hunger Games, Twilight, and Divergent as one of the reasons for the team up, it seems that Saban might be aiming a little older than their usual demographic, while I get the feeling that Lionsgate want a property that will appeal more to teenage boys, and with it's martial arts and robot action, they've got it in the Power Rangers. No doubt, an entire generation of Power Rangers fans will start taking a lot of notice of this project, and I get the feeling we'll a lot of the same Internet back lash that is currently being aimed at the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboot.
