The Lone Ranger

If this film would not have been called Lone Ranger and would not have pretended to tell the story the Lone Ranger then I would probably have considered it to be an okay movie. Maybe even a good one. However, this was supposed to be a Lone Ranger movie and that it is not! I put this movie in the same category as the very disappointing Green Hornet movie. It is a typical case of some dumbass Hollywood producer/director taking a known name and thinks he can do what the heck he wants with it. The Lone Ranger is supposed to be the only survivor of a group of rangers, a hero as well as intelligent and so is Tonto. In this movie the Lone Ranger is a bloody lawyer, he is naïve and generally a screw up. Tonto is, well, as looney as one could expect with Jonny Depp in the role. It is really said when you feel the best characters in the movie are the bad guys. I think Butch Cavendish is quite nicely portrayed by William Fichtner. Okay, the movie have its fun moments, a few laughs, some nice special effects and is not really poorly done as such. Unfortunately a lot of the time I phrases like “what and idiot”, “what the f…”, “this is not Lone Ranger” and so on, went through my head while watching it. If this is the first time you have heard about the Lone Ranger, or you do not really care if the movie has anything to do with the original Lone Ranger then you probably will find this an entertaining movie. I am afraid that I was hugely disappointed.

(I wrote a very long and comprehensive review about this but I lost it in a browser crash so we'll have to make do with just one paragraph). Watching _The Lone Ranger_, every now and then, I could genuinely see the spark of a good movie trying its darndest to shine through. With a lot of changes, (foremost amongst them, a change of cast in the two leads) this might have been something special, I really can see how it could have been. But that wasn't the movie we got. We got this, and it is very disappointing. _Final rating:★★½ - Had a lot that appealed to me, didn’t quite work as a whole._

It loses its way a bit at around the midway point, but all in all <em>'The Lone Ranger'</em> is a film I found entertainment in. No doubt helped by much of the people behind 2003's <em>'Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl'</em> - my favourite film - reuniting for this. From Johnny Depp to Gore Verbinski to Jerry Bruckheimer to Ted Elliott & Terry Rossio. Therefore, I was bound to like it. Depp is enjoyable, as is usually the case. There are, of course, question marks as to whether he's 'right' for the role. He claims he has Native American heritage, though you enter a real grey area with all that stuff. Anyway, judging by his acting, he's fun. Armie Hammer is much better than I thought he'd be, while William Fichtner makes for a good villain. Nice to see Ruth Wilson and Helena Bonham Carter involved, also. I like the way the story is told, involving Depp and Mason Cook. It certainly adds a sense of intrigue to events. The end scenes are also enjoyable, at least visually - I don't love the score all that much, to be honest. However, as noted at the top, the middle part of the film is less entertaining - though the finale helps pick things back up. I've, evidently, seen better from these lot. Still, it's a very good film in my books; despite having issues.

Relegated to a fun-fair exhibit, "Tonto" (Johnny Depp) regales a young visitor with tales of his adventures with the eponymous, somewhat green and naive, lawyer "John Reid" (Armie Hammer). It all started when "Tonto" rescues "Reid" after he was ambushed by the nasty "Butch Cavendish" (William Fichtner). Together with his famed white horse they now set out to right this wrong and bring this evil man to justice. What now ensues just isn't very good. It's a sort of loosely hung together series of escapades with the easy enough on the eye Hammer just far too lightweight to bring even a modicum of charisma to the role. Depp is just recreating his "Jack Sparrow" characterisation - just with a white pained face; and the adventure elements are predictable and frankly rather dull. It has an almost slapstick nature to it; the dialogue tries to be pithy but in the end depends too much on the style of delivery from Depp - and I found that style repetitive and unimaginative. It culminates quite entertainingly, to be fair, but this film is just way too dependant on one single character and it just didn't work well for me. At just shy of 2½ hours, it is far too long too. Maybe 45 minutes less with more emphasis on the action and a better screenplay might have helped, but as it is - this is a long, empty, watch that borders on the spoof. Fans of Depp may well disagree, but for the rest of us this is merely a vehicle for him - and not a very good one at that.