Lets just start this review with a few choice words. “Don’t believe the hate!” The Lone Ranger has been on the receiving end of less than stellar reviews in the States. I’m not sure why that is, but what I am sure of is that, its incredibly undeserving of the negativity. While far from perfect, The Lone Ranger offers an old fashioned tale and delivers it in a spectacular, modern day way.
The most famous Native American of all time, Tonto recounts the story of John Reid, a lawman who became a legend and ultimately, The Lone Ranger. So while the movie is mainly set in the past, a very elderly Tonto recounts his tales to a young boy and at a fairground attraction. These scenes, while not only humorous add a breather from the spectacular action and fit quite well with the overall narrative. Speaking of spectacular action, director Gore Verbinski delivers here with 2 major set pieces which will literally have you hanging on for dear life. Safe to say they involve trains and horses, but I won’t go into any other detail for spoiler fear, because they are genuinely thrilling and exciting.
Johnny Depp, while a fine actor, has certainly in my book, become a bit of a one trick pony in the last few years. Mainly due to the fact of too much character gimmickry, and while Jack Sparrow is a joy to behold, the similarities to him and Tonto are rather obvious. That said, Tonto provides most of the humour throughout and memories of Pirates are soon forgotten. Armie Hammer on the other hand, has really arrived. He’s got the look, he’s brimming with personality and commands a really likeable screen presence. With no shortage of action, he isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty either. A supporting cast is made up of William Fichtner, Ruth Wilson, Tom Wilkinson and Helena Bonham Carter and while all are watchable, Bonham Carter and Wilson seem a bit underdeveloped which is kind of hard to fathom given the movie’s 149 minute running time. Fichtner seems like hes having plenty of fun playing the bad guy Butch Cavendish, he certainly looks like he relishes the role of a pretty insane bad guy.
There's two places where the movie falls down and thats the story development and the running time. One could argue that with such a running time, there should be plenty of time to develop things out. And while that is certainly very true for the first half, once we get the origin story out of the way, the latter chapter’s characters and plot seem to be just an afterthought in places. Things just happen with little sense or meaning. You will be scratching your head at times wondering what the hell just happened. A shorter origin story (surely a 10 minute montage would have sufficed) would have allowed for a tighter plot and could have easily sliced 20-30 minutes off the running time. All that said, The Lone Ranger never feels that long. The pacing is solid enough, and while the length is noticeable its not a total disaster.
Visually, this is a sight to behold. It’s an incredibly authentic vision of the Old West with no dusty stone left unturned. The towns, the wide sweeping vistas are a sight of beauty and are entirely convincing. But its the railroads and especially the trains which are nothing short of jawdropping with incredible amounts of detail on display during equally incredibly set pieces. Its a very authentic experience! So authentic in fact, even the Jerry Bruckheimer logo has a railroad instead of an asphalt road. A small, but nice touch.
Fans of The Lone Ranger will be be delighted to know that the William Tell Overture has been given the Hans Zimmer treatment and it adds nothing but sheer excitement in the finale, where it lasts for a whopping 9 minutes. I’d argue it could have been slightly better placed in the finale (it seems to come in a wee bit too early for my liking) and not used near the beginning of the movie, but its a very welcome addition to a score that adds to the overall feel of the movie.
While The Lone Ranger is far from perfect, its gigantic fun with plenty of laughs and offers a finale thats worth the price of admission alone. Check it out!
