Directed by: Gore Verbinski
Rating: ★★★
I must begin by saying that I had such low expectations for The Lone Ranger- I thought that it would be a complete bomb, just like The Pirates of the Caribbean movies.
But I am happy to say that unlike Pacific Rim, this is one Blockbuster that is actually enjoyable and fun to watch, and completely revels in its own absurdity. In a good way.
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| Tonto and The Lone Ranger work together to fight injustice... or something like that... |
It ain’t perfect, but it’s a hell of a lot better than some of the other films I’ve seen so far this year. Having already awarded three 2013 releases with zero out of five, I was sure that The Lone Ranger would be another contender for worst picture. But I was wrong.
Based on the radio series created in 1933, that later went on to become a series of books and a very popular and iconic television show, The Lone Ranger is a tongue in cheek pastiche of Western movies and action films. It really needs to be, because nobody could take the idea of ‘Hi-Ho Silver’ seriously in this day and age.
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| Hi Ho Silver! |
The movie begins at a fair where a young boy meets an aging Tonto (Depp), who then tells him the story of how The Lone Ranger (Hammer) came to be. For a fairly simple story, it is told in an incredibly elaborate way, but for the most part this complex narrative works because it is stuffed full of gags, chases and action scenes. There are also some fairly serious and deep moments involving the Native Americans and Tonto, and a disturbing moment of horror when the villain Butch Cavendish (Fichtner) eats someone’s beating heart right out of his chest.
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| The villain Cavendish is one sick man... |
There is a large array of spectacular set pieces- mainly set on trains- but it is the character of Tonto that makes The Lone Ranger what it is, by lifting it out of standard by the book action-adventure agony and making it instantly memorable and, at times, hilarious.
Johnny Depp completely steals the show, as he dominates every single frame of The Lone Ranger with his personality and charisma. It’s hard not to like his portrayal of Tonto- who masquerades as The Lone Ranger’s sidekick, but is, in actually fact, the real hero of the piece. This new take on the film makes it a lot more interesting and amusing because you don’t see many films where the titular ‘hero’ is actually the comedy ‘stupid’ sidekick.
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| Armie Hammer as John Reid/The Lone Ranger |
Hammer plays the role of John Reid/The Lone Ranger fairly placidly, as he has a tough job trying to compete with scene stealing Depp. He was really good in The Social Network as the annoying twins, but in this he just doesn't seem to be giving it as much as he could- but this could be because he is in competition with Depp, and he can't win. As the comic relief however, The Lone Ranger gets to be more accessible than if he was just (to quote a colleague) an ‘emotionless plastic man’, and so the dynamic between the two works really well.
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| The two have a great comic chemistry. |
The supporting characters, that include John Reid’s brother Dan (Dale) and sister in law Rebecca (Wilson), local businessman Latham Cole (Wilkinson) and the butchering psycho Cavendish, are mostly two dimensional, but with a strong performance from Depp it really doesn’t matter. The love interest may be ridiculously sexist, but Helena Bononumham Carter is great as herself Red Harrington, a madam of a local brothel, who gets to do some very exciting things with her peg leg (although not as exciting as Planet Terror). Also, the horse Silver is brilliantly used to hilarious effect.
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| Don't mess with Red Harrington... |
I really enjoyed the narrative bookends at the fair, mainly because the interaction between Tonto and the boy is really funny. The fact that the entire film is told via flashbacks is original and fresh- and the fact that the truth of the narrator’s stories are called into question is also really unique.
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| Every action movie needs a love interest... |
There are also quite a lot of genuinely funny jokes throughout the film, most of them being self-deprecating towards the silliness of the premise and original story. One great strength of The Lone Ranger is that it definitely doesn’t take itself seriously, and the fact that it can insult itself and still make you enjoy watching it is quite a difficult thing to do well- but this is an example where it succeeds.
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| The Lone Ranger (eventually) does his part to save the day... |
The plot of destroying the Native American’s homeland to strip mine for silver is refreshing and thought-provoking in that it doesn’t glorifying what happened to the Tribes- it shows it in a very real very dark and very disturbing unpatriotic way… as it should be. The Lone Ranger doesn’t try to sugar coat the truth of the barbarism that the Natives Americans suffered, unlike another movie I can mention.
I also liked the ‘supernatural’ subplot that is introduced- and then randomly dropped- in the first half of the movie. This could be one possible instance of executive script meddling, as the idea of The Lone Ranger and his horse Silver being ‘supernatural’ entities is raised and then completely ignored, which is a shame. But this is probably because they wanted an action packed spectacle as the finale- instead of a more ethereal one.
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| The horse, Silver, is a great character in itself. |
And speaking about both the end of the movie and major rewrites in the same sentence seems ironic- because the finale is insanely ridiculous, in a bad way. The ending, which is essentially a train chase- and yes I mean that literally- with two steam trains chasing alongside one another while The Lone Ranger navigates his horse between them (by leaping from the roofs of carriages) is crazy BUT still manages to just about be fun and enjoyable. It could have been done a lot better, but for what it is, I’ll let it slide because luckily for The Lone Ranger, the rest of the movie up to the third act is enjoyable and well-paced, so the over the top action packed conclusion doesn’t damage the film too badly.
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| The action scene are mostly very well done. |
Overall, The Lone Ranger is above average summer Blockbuster fare that goes slightly beyond what most people would expect from a brainless action movie. If you want to sit back, relax and actually enjoy something by having a few laughs, watch Johnny Depp use every ounce of his star power and see some incredible action sequences, then The Lone Ranger is for you.
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