Superhero remake proves dark, light at same time

Back in the 1990s, you probably knew them as “Mighty Morphin,” and these days they take the pre-fix “Saban’s.”

But we all know them best as simply the Power Rangers.

Executive producer Haim Saban discovered the “Super Sentai” series on Japanese television in the 1980s and delivered the concept of teens in colorful costumes fighting monsters to American audiences in the form of the somewhatsilly but much-beloved “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers” series.

And now, for better or for worse, we have the bigscreen reboot.

Joseph Kahn’s “Power/ Rangers” short film, which popped up online in 2015, showed what a truly dark Power Rangers project could look like. But this “Power Rangers” is about as dark as many CW series — just enough to be taken (somewhat) seriously but with enough of a sense of humor about itself to have fun, too.

The team of screenwriters has brought a sense of levity and realism to the film, so it centers more on a bunch of oddball teens than it does on colorfully suited karatechopping superheroes.

The first half is “The Breakfast Club” with far more extreme daredevil behavior, as the posse of misfits discover one another and stumble into their startling new powers by Directed by Dean Israelite.

PG-13 (for sequences of sci-fi violence, action and destruction, language, and for some crude humor)

2:04 at the Columbus 10 at Westpointe, Crosswoods, Dublin Village 18, Easton 30, Gateway, Georgesville Square, Grove City 14, Lennox 24, Movies 16 Gahanna, Movie Tavern Mill Run, Pickerington, Polaris 18 and River Valley theaters way of colorful coins they happen to blast out of a mountainside.

The explosives enthusiast is Billy (R.J. Cyler, who steals the movie), a neurodiverse nerd who befriends disgraced football captain Jason (Dacre Montgomery) in detention.

Also on the mountain that day are rebellious former cheerleader Kimberly (Naomi Scott), heavy-metal yogi Trini (Becky G.) and adrenaline-addled delinquent Zack (Ludi Lin).

Soon they’re being groomed by a 65-millionyear-old alien, Zordon (Bryan Cranston — no kidding), and a sassy robot, Alpha (Bill Hader), to take on Rita Repulsa (Elizabeth Banks), who plans to use Goldar the gold monster to steal Earth’s life crystal.

If the Rangers are on the CW, Banks is in a universe of her own, stalking about the small town of Angel Grove in hobo dominatrix gear, dramatically stage whispering, “Gold,” “Crystals” and “Krispy Kreme” to no one in particular.

The committed performance inspires chuckles — which, one hopes, it’s supposed to.

Any power-rangering in the movie is blessedly short, focusing more on character and team-building. That’s a good thing, because director Dean Israelite and cinematographer Matthew J. Lloyd took a chaotic approach to action shooting.

The entire film is dark and murky, and the action sequences have no sense of geography. It seems a trend these days to keep the pace blisteringly fast in order to never let the film drag, but the cutting between scenes might give viewers whiplash.

We are denied a good morphin’ sequence, though — which was the best, most memorable part of the series. All we get is slowmotion strolling when they could have been wildly peacocking on a cliff’s edge.

“Power Rangers” maintains the essence of its origins in that it’s rather pleasantly bonkers.

It errs on the side of goofy rather than gritty — which is to its favor. Taking the movie too seriously would have been a mistake.

Ultimately, the film represents another itch on that nostalgic sweet spot that Hollywood is more than happy to scratch these days.