It loses its way a bit at around the midway point, but all in all 'The Lone Ranger' is a film I found entertainment in.
No doubt helped by much of the people behind 2003's 'Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl' - 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.
Verbinski and his cast seem to have aimed for the serial cowboy adventure of old and to a large extent they managed this with the Lone Ranger.
Johnny Depp’s Tonto is an enjoyably eccentric hero and protagonist for the majority of the film and he’s quirky, Jack Sparrow-show only starts to grate towards the end of the film but it does grate. Overall the film does pay its dues to the Western films and TV shows with clearly defined white hats against black hats which in this style of film is no bad thing.
Armie Hammer makes a good, if somewhat bumbling, hero to root for and you do care that he succeeds so on this front the film hit the target. Alongside him villains Tom Wilkinson and William Fichtner play the two villain types straight out of the ‘Big Book of Baddies’. Wilkinson being the more traditional Lone Ranger black hat as a slimetastic businessman trying to buy up the West and make himself rich beyond dreams. His muscle is the deranged Fichtner and herein lies the problem with the film throughout. Fichtner’s character, Cavendish, is a straight-up murdering, heartless, psychopath whose appearance and behaviour seems to be from a different, darker, more serious film.
This is the big problem for me with the whole film. We seem to have comic, fun, cowboy romp, yet somehow it makes a huge misstep with the wholesale slaughter of Comanche’s by machine-gun fire and a main character having his heart carved out while he is alive. Hardly light and fun.
The set pieces and action scenes were exciting and rip-roaring if a little over-the-top but if the film was kept in this style throughout that would have been fine. The acting throughout was good, even with Johnny Depp playing his usual character. I enjoyed being swept along by the story except for the general slaughter and horrible deaths being mixed in with the wacky light-hearted humour.
There was enough here to make a reasonable franchise, a popular set of recognisable fun and flawed heroes, good intriguing supporting cast but the tone of the film was uneven and seriously made huge mistakes in some places.
A great opportunity to reinvent a once popular and interesting hero missed due to a few basic tonal errors. Booo.
Review by whitsbrainVIP 6BlockedParent2022-01-15T16:15:56Z
There's been a lot of hatred, almost venom, spewed at "The Lone Ranger". I personally stayed away because I didn't want to see a Western version of "Pirates of the Caribbean". Well, I could only stay away for so long and I did get a "Pirates" western. But you know, maybe I didn't know I needed to see one.
The opening totally threw me for a loop. A little boy, wearing a Lone Ranger mask, visits a carnival with an old West area featuring a wax figure of "The Noble Savage". This savage turns out to be the real life but ancient Tonto. The movie often cuts back to old Tonto, who is telling the boy the story of The Lone Ranger. I enjoyed this method of telling the story. The old Tonto was creepy, though.
Speaking of Tonto, he's played by Johnny Depp, and he is totally off the rails (no pun intended). Depp is a joy to watch. His Tonto is a smart but insane and smart-assed take on the legend. Depp is hilarious. However, the Lone Ranger himself, played by Armie Hammer, is not nearly as appealing. He is the ying to Depp's yang, but the character is too clumsy and unskilled as a lawman to really enjoy. I know he's supposed to be, but it didn't work for me.
The beginning and ending action scenes both feature runaway trains and they are spectacular, especially the final multi-train climax which features the William Tell Overture in all its glory.
"The Lone Ranger" is mostly a comedy but there are some disturbing moments like genocide and cannibalism that give the movie an edge. It's really an odd combo platter, but it made it a real kick to watch. The thing is much too long, though. The story meanders when there's absolutely no reason to.
It's hard to grade "The Lone Ranger". I was surprised at how much it entertained me, it's just that I'm certain it's really not a very good movie. Depp and the great bookend action scenes are its greatest assets.