Elizabeth Banks takes the plunge at Power Rangers premiere

LOS ANGELES – The ’90s TV show “The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers” has been adapted into a big screen version.

The plot hews pretty closely to the original template, with a diverse group of five high school students (including, it should be noted, the most oblique reference imaginable to one being gay) stumbling upon the mystique artifacts that will turn them into the Power Rangers, an ancient order tasked with protecting the universe. “What I mean by that is you can’t change what’s in your head if you don’t open your heart first. It’s insane, man. I can be in an arena filled with so many people and at the same time still feel alone”, she explains. “Because I was go, go, go, go and I had this one day off – this one moment where I’m not doing anything, my body went into shock”, she says. They don’t take themselves too seriously, in terms of how they relate. “I hope kids feel like they’re going to belong when they watch the movie”. By the time the “Go Go Power Rangers” theme kicks in, it takes an effort not to smile a little and more effort still to keep from laughing at yourself for giving in to it.

Banks is actually fairly fun in the part – she snivels and sneers with campy glee under the pounds of zombie makeup as she fiendishly terrorizes some engagement ring shoppers at a jewelry store like she’s the only one who understands what movie she’s in. “She’s an incredible character”. But before they get a chance to really enjoy their super powers like the kids in “Chronicle” (2012), along comes the resurrected Zordon – who has merged with his spaceship so his huge face looks like the Mighty Oz – along with his annoying droid sidekick Alpha 5 (Bill Hader). I kind of felt stuck and in a box.

“My character Trini is a total badass”, she said of her character. “You have different teenagers from different cultural groups, and then, all of a sudden, they spend time together and find this common ground”.

Becky G takes the hurdles as opportunities for growth and understanding of who she is. “Self-acceptance is an important thing, and so is accepting each other”. She bought me this Yellow Power Ranger, the first action figure I ever had. “But I think everybody else is definitely treating this as an origins film, the first of a few”. And one scene suggests that Trini the yellow ranger, played by singer and social media star Becky G, is struggling with her sexual orientation.

“I feel like our nation was built on immigration”, she said. I moved around a lot, and I didn’t have a lot of parental guidance a lot of time. “And we shouldn’t allow any rhetoric to make us think otherwise because America is great – period”. This is indispensable journalism, brought to you by the largest, most experienced newsroom in the region. The show is cheesy and cheap and silly and the fact that the writers were forced to write around action footage they had licensed from a Japanese TV series is painfully obvious, but…

“That doesn’t matter. As far as campyness, you might as well grab a tent and get a bucket because that’s how campy we get with some of our lines and actions”.