Hi-Yo, Silver! Away! Throughout the years, The Lone Ranger spawned an eight-seasoned TV show from 1949 to 1957, four films (the last attempt was the Warner Bros TV movie way back 2003 starring Chad Michael Murray), eighteen novels, two newspaper comic strips, hundreds of comic books and a video game by Konami for Nintendo released last 1991.
With a budget of $250 million, Disney decided to reboot the famous mask hero for the new generation. Originally, Mike Newell (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Prince of Persia: The Sands of time) was in negotiation to direct but they eventually hired Gore Verbinski with Johnny Depp slated to star – a blockbuster tandem behind the successful Pirates of the Caribbean series. To everyone’s surprise, the film underperformed despite the names involved. With all the poor reviews from the critics and a flop opening weekend record ala John Carter at the US box office, I’m sure there is one question galloping in your minds – is this film worth watching at the cinema?
In 1933, a young boy who idolizes the Lone Ranger visits a fair in San Francisco. While checking out the displays, he encountered an elderly Tonto (Johnny Depp), a Native American warrior who recounts the untold tales that transformed John Reid (Armie Hammer), a man of the law, into a legend of justice – taking the audience back in time as the two unlikely heroes must learn to work together and fight against greed and corruption.
The Lone Ranger didn’t lack for gorgeous shots and visuals. The film benefited from Bojan Bazelli‘s breathtaking cinematography. The screen was filled with landscape shots of the Wild West captured beautifully in its glory. The film was also able to showcase a bit of its creativeness in the costume aspect through Helena Bonham Carter. Her gun leg is fantastic.
Another aspect that I like is the music. In April 2012, Jack White was first hired to compose the musical score of the film but due to some scheduling conflicts, he was replaced by Hans Zimmer last December. It may not reach the level of his Pirates, The Dark Knight and Man of Steel scores but his work is magnificent enough. There are times that it sounds quite like his score in Sherlock Holmes. His rendition of the iconic William Tell Overture makes an appearance in his Finale track which is fun and exciting to hear as it is incorporated to the film’s climatic action scene. Speaking of the climax, I have to say it’s the best part of the film. As evident in his Pirates of the Caribbean series, Verbinski is good at balancing peril with humor. Bringing in more spirit of the character, it is pure adventurous fun that will surely entertain you.
Sadly, the film has a very slow pacing and feels unnecessarily long in its running time of 149 minutes. It has too many filler scenes. But to be fair, it’s not boring all the time – Johnny Depp’s charismatic and amusing presence saved the scenes. As expected of him, he still didn’t fail to bring in the laughs and his chemistry with Armie Hammer is just hilarious. This is also the problem of the film. It became very Depp-dependent. Scenes without him are just dragging. The supporting cast filled the extended scenes uninterestingly. I can’t help feeling, “Can we just rush it all up and go to Johnny’s next scene?”
Given that it’s Disney, there is also a surprising amount of violence. For instance, there’s a scene of suggestive cannibalism in the beginning. I’m not against this but I believe it is needlessly violent for a PG rating film targeted for kids.
Verdict:
To answer my opening question, do any of these names matter to you: Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Gore Verbinski and Hans Zimmer? If it does, I’m sure it is enough to get you galloping to the cinema. Overall, it’s not as terrible as I have expected with its stunning cinematography and thrilling climax but it’s still an undeniable overlong missed attempt. Good thing Depp is in the film.
Now showing across the Philippines, “The Lone Ranger” is distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures International through Columbia Pictures.
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About the movie reviewer:
Orange Magazine TV‘s newest film critic is a self-confessed movie geek. John Albert Villanueva love movies so much, he watch every movies from the big screen and collects DVDs of classic movies. Read his other review here.
