Review : The Lone Ranger

The Lone Ranger :  Native American warrior Tonto embarks on a noble adventure, with inevitable John Reid, a man of the law turned into a legend of justice.

Hello There, Everyone.

I trust your having a nice weekend, I welcome you to my review of 'The Lone Ranger' the new Disney film, which stars Johnny Depp and Armie Hammer. Set in the wild west of the USA.

Going into this film, I was very excited about what it had to offer, it seemed to me a bit out of the ordinary to any other western themed film, I had seen previous. Also it has two great leading members of the cast, which are also well know faces, which in turn, always help publicity advertising.

Having actually watched it, I look back on with some fondness, there a aspects of this film which were brilliantly done, and other bits of which were not so great.

The Storyline entails, back in the 1930s, an elderly Indian, known as Tonto tells a young boy the tale of John Reid, the Lone Ranger. Who starts off as idealistic lawyer, and ends up becoming the legendary 'Lone Ranger', Tonto tells us of how he came to ride with his brother and fellow Texas Ranger to catch the notorious bandit - Butch Cavendish, who is a very vile and nasty character.

Ambushed by the outlaws and left for dead, John Reid is rescued by Tonto and a noble white spirit horse, who tells Tonto, John is destined for greatness. When explained his destiny, Reid agrees to help Tonto, on the condition that they both bring Cavendish to justice. Becoming a reluctant masked rider with a seemingly incomprehensible partner, Reid pursues the criminal against all obstacles, which face him. However, John and Tonto learn that Cavendish is only part of a far greater and disgraceful injustice.

Here's a clip.

As a story, I thought that the concept was good, everything fit together very well, and the first 30 minutes of it, are very good. However, it is one of those films in which had lots of padding, which results in the story not going anywhere.

The films biggest problem, is the fact that it's far too long, I left the cinema thinking 'that didn't need to be as long as it was'. Certain scenes could of been cut, and left as deleted scenes for the DVD.

For instance all of the scenes in which Tonto, tells the young boy of the story of John Reid as an old warrior, did those scenes really need to be in the film? no. They were so unneccary, and they slowed the story down. As an audience member, I wasn't bothered at all by that, I was more interested in what was going on in the story, yet with this, it's a story egisting within a story. Didn't think it worked, would of preferred it if this film was cut down to 100 minutes. That way, all that could be accomplished, could be accomplished, in a much more shorter and flexible time frame.







Though this film has flaws and padding, there are good aspects to it. The costumes and make up in this are really good, Very authentic and capture the time of the setting. I thought that Johnny Depp's make up was just fantastic, he looked incredible. It just goes to prove what good make up can do, it make the character that the actor or actress is playing, much more believable in it's appearance, as looks are important.

I also thought Helena Bohnam Carter, looked great. She's a woman of great presence and she presents herself very well, and her costume is just amazing, she looks marvellous and very appealing, lots of interesting reds and dark colours, they really do reflect off the essence of here character well.

Performance wise, I thought that Johnny Depp, as Tonto was really good. Armie Hammer as John Reid, very good acting from him. Helena Bohnam Carter was also really good, however sadly she didn't do enough in the film, to make much of an impact, however she did really good with what she had. William Fichtner as the villainous Butch Cavendish, very vile and grusome, he looked grim which always compliments the meaning to a character.

A twist in the tale is Tom Wilkinson's character Lanthom Cole, who is a town mayor on this story, is actually a corrupt bad guy. And is also the brother of Butch Cavendish. Very interesting twist, really clicks into the story. We learn in the film that a long time ago, when Johnny Depp's character was a boy he found two white men badly wounded and brought them back to his village, he noticed a watch that they had, which he liked. And the tradition of the Indians is they make trades, so he makes a trade with these two white men, and reveals where the valley of silver is kept, for an ordinary pocket watch. In a sense these two white men take advantage of a young Indian boy, and Johnny Depp seeks a revenge against them since.



Another thing which I thought was great, where the two action sequences on the train. One at the beginning of the film. And one near the end of the film, I thought they were both, very pacy, very well shot, very well directed. And it's a shame in a way that this film wasn't in 3D. I think those effects would of been marvellous to see in a third dimensional view. I'm guessing because films becoming so more advanced in it's effects these days, we as the audience members are used to them, were not so much taken back in a 'Wow Factor' sort of way anymore, because we're so used to what we see on screen.

However, those two train action sequences, were for me probably the best bits of this film.

So Overall what does this film get out of 10? I'll give it a 6. I liked it, but I didn't love it.

1 Gold Star to Johnny Depp

Thanks for reading this review.

NEXT TIME : I will review Guy Ritchie's 'Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrells' - I will post that review on Wednesday the 28th of August 2013.