The Lone Ranger ended up being one of those movies that was unfairly panned by critics, which I believe led to driving a lot of people from seeing it in theaters and unfortunately that ended up showing in the box office numbers. For some reason Western movies as of late have not done well and to me that is just simply confusing to me because the Western is a big part of cinema history and is one of those genres that is strictly tied to America. To me I have rarely gone to a Disney movie and left feeling let down and The Lone Ranger certainly did not disappoint me. I found it to be a movie that was a great adventure ride from start to finish. I loved how The Lone Ranger gave a new take on the classic characters of The Lone Ranger and Tonto. Not to mention for me it ended up being precisely what I want to see when it comes to a summer movie as it is a perfect mixture of story, action and that perfect pinch of comedy mixed in.
One of the unique aspects from The Lone Ranger was that of the casting. It is not done often where the top billed actor for a film is not the lead role, that is precisely what they have done in casting Johnny Depp as Tonto. Depp plays Tonto with his trademark off the wall and unique traits that he has brought to so many different roles. Depp has great chemistry with everyone on screen that he really seems to be able to elevate others performances. Armie Hammer plays John Reid, who becomes the Lone Ranger. Hammer plays the role well as we see the inner battle that he has in trying to bring the bad guys to justice, while battling a system that is a little corrupt. Hammer seems to take to the role and really envelops his character and the way he interacts with Depp as Tonto absolutely perfect. William Fichtner in the role of Butch Cavendish, the treacherous western villain gives a strong performance, and he fits in so well that you practically forget that he is acting. Fichtner for some reason has an uncanny ability to play villains perfectly that as someone watching the movie you just have immediate revulsion to his character. The supporting cast all provide decent performances, but with some of them I would have enjoyed a little more depth and time given to each character.
The story for The Lone Ranger was in my opinion a fairly well done origin story. I am sure a lot of the critics that saw The Lone Ranger had memories of the old TV show and so they were expecting the character to be the same and not have the origin story feel that was given to all the characters. The origin story was the perfect way to introduce The Lone Ranger to a whole new generation of not only movie goers, but Western movie fans. The story was laid out well and perfectly paced the movie. The use of the old Tonto telling the story to a young boy and from time to time jumping back to the present with the boy and Tonto helped surprisingly and did not make the story feel disjointed like one might imagine it would. Instead using this helped to make the film not feel rushed, but would give a moment to catch your breath before moving back to the action.
To go along with the origin story Gore Verbinski with his directing brings some fun and great action to the old West. Verbinski does a great job at mixing the up close gun fights with large scale explosions that work perfectly for the old West. While The Lone Ranger ended up taking a lot of flak for the amount spent, but when you make an action movie using very little CGI, but instead build sets and trains that you in turn blow up it is not cheap to do. Yet, personally I love to support these movies that use the "old school" way to do action. For me in the action it was great to see the progression of the Lone Ranger's character from one who believes solely in the judicial system for bringing about justice to realizing at times that he must bring about the justice himself to counteract the corruption that is within the judicial system. The action used throughout the film was great and the sequences aboard the train were truly great and fun to watch.
The Lone Ranger while the critics panned this film and will probably be viewed as a box office flop, I greatly ended up enjoying the film. Depp and Hammer give strong performances and really worked well together and played off one another with such a great ease. I can not think of anyone else out there that would have given a better performance as the villain then Fichtner. Personally, I loved the use of an origin story to reintroduce The Lone Ranger to a whole new generation. The lack of CGI was perfect for an old West movie as they instead focused on real sets and real explosions. The Lone Ranger was a decent movie and I am giving The Lone Ranger three and half buckets of popcorn out of five. This is a movie that has ended up in our movie collection, and while the critics did not like it I hope that does not stop Disney from future installments in the Lone Ranger franchise.
-The Movie Man
