>>92330645It reminded me of the time when movies like Masters of the Universe and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were the exception rather than the rule, and kudos to them for including both an LGBT ranger and an autistic superhero in what is arguably a relatively progressive/inclusive superhero movie. Still, it was an origin story that spent much of its running time getting the team into ship-shape for the sequel, and it was odd watching a dark and somewhat violent PG-13 Power Rangers movie that outright earned the rating. The good news is that A) fans got one good Power Rangers movie out of the deal and B) Lionsgate is doing well enough right now that it's not going to live or die based on the performance of this would-be franchise play.
Over the last year, they've scored with movies comparatively big (Now You See Me 2, Hacksaw Ridge, John Wick: Chapter 2) and small (Boo! A Madea Halloween, The Shack, How to Be A Latin Lover, etc.) and that's not even counting the jaw-dropping performance of La La Land ($151 million domestic and $443m worldwide on a $30m budget). Said Emma Stone/Ryan Gosling musical became their biggest domestic and worldwide release ever outside of the Twilight Saga and The Hunger Games.
Now that doesn't mean they are batting 1.000 (insert obligatory swipe at their awful animated output), as neither of their Peter Berg/Mark Wahlberg true-life thrillers (Deepwater Horizon and Patriot's Day) clicked and Divergent crashed and burned on the third try. But, Lionsgate is operating in 2017 like a movie studio, with some good films, some bad films, some small films that break out and some big films that do good enough along with films big and small that don't connect.
