'Charlie's Angels'

Brimming with excitement, solid comedy and good feeling, writer-director Elizabeth Banks’ “Charlie’s Angels” is the action movie you didn’t know you needed.

Yes, it’s a reboot of Aaron Spelling’s famously titilating ‘70s detective series, which made Farrah Fawcett-Majors, Jaclyn Smith and Kate Jackson household names. And, yes, we went down this road in the early aughts, with Drew Barrymore, Cameron Diaz and Lucy Liu.

The fact that Banks shamelessly references both incarnations of the franchise — and, in an instant, makes them canon — is just the first sign that she’s got the chops to make this thing fly.

“I think women can do anything,” says Sabina Wilson (Kristen Stewart), in the movie’s first line of dialogue. In context, she says it seductively to draw out a sexist embezzler (Chris Pang), and to distract his guards so her colleague, Jane Kano (Elsa Balinska), can knock them out cold. But it also serves as a mantra for the cast and for Banks.

The Townsend Agency, the boutique detective firm from TV days, has gone international, performing secret missions for a select clientele. Sabina and Jane are two of the Angels. Their fixers are all called Bosley, and when the original Bosley (Patrick Stewart) retires, a younger Bosley (played by Banks) guides them through a new case.

The client is Elena Houghlin (Naomi Scott), a tech genius on a team that has just developed a groundbreaking renewable energy source. Elena has discovered that the device could be weaponized, emitting an electromagnetic pulse that could silently dismantle a person’s nervous system. The problem for Elena is that other people have also figured this out, and will go to lethal lengths to stop Elena from telling the company’s visionary CEO, Alexander Brock (Sam Claflin).

It’s up to Sabina, Jane and Bosley to protect Elena, and find the devices before they fall into the wrong hands. This leads to globe-hopping from Hamburg to Brazil to Istanbul, with Elena (and, by extension, us) learning about the Townsend Agency’s inner workings along the way. Needless to say, it beats your job, hands down.

Banks, directing only her second movie (she debuted well with “Pitch Perfect 2”), strikes the perfect balance of comedy, action and glitz, as the movie runs the Angels through their paces. Stewart’s reputation as a dour, serious actress gets happily demolished here; she hasn’t been this playful, or funny, even in her turns hosting “Saturday Night Live.” Scott, last seen as Jasmine in the “Aladdin” remake, makes the wide-eyed Elena a happy participant in the danger. And Balinska, who at 5-foot-10 towers over her co-stars, has a deadpan comedic delivery that punctuates the movie’s sneakily smart humor.

This “Charlie’s Angels” is more energetic, and more fun, than an action franchise as familiar as this one has the right to be. Let’s get this franchise rolling with another installment, and pronto.

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‘Charlie’s Angels’

★★★1/2

Opens Friday, November 15, in theaters everywhere. Rated PG-13 for action/violence, language and some suggestive content. Running time: 118 minutes.