The Lone Ranger

Just got back from seeing it and we were thoroughly entertained. Depp and Hammer were fantastic in their roles and the action was over the top, as expected. Be advised, this film is told from Tonto's point of view based on his recollections of what transpired. This is not an Oscar contender, nor was it ever intended to be, but it is a great popcorn flick. It is violent in certain scenes and may not be suitable for smaller children, but for adults and tweens, it is about right. I did think that the first 10-15 mins or so were a little too slap-sticky for me, but once it gets going, it gets good. To all of the naysayers out there, what did you think you were going to see? It is essentially a western Pirates of the Caribbean, and Depp portrayed his character with the usual humorous persona he always does.

I recently attended an early screening for the film at Disney's California Adventure and wow it was great. The story is well told and gives you a good idea of how a man named John Reid becomes the Lone Ranger who is brilliantly played by Armie Hammer. Johnny Depp obviously stole the show for his portrayal of Tonto; I thought it was one of his best characters he's ever played. The highlight here is the two's chemistry throughout the film, these are two very different people who both have different perspectives on life and they were just hilarious together. My only problem with the film was the supporting cast, I thought some characters were a little under developed and not as enjoyable as the leads. I wished the villain were just as enjoyable like how Geoffrey Rush was for Curse of the Black Pearl. So in other terms the film is not as good as Curse of the Black Pearl but more superior then the Prate sequels. Go see this movie you'll have a great time, and people can learn from this movie it's got some good messages.

I saw a screening of this last night with a friend and to be honest I wasn't expecting much. From the previews I had seen, I wasn't going to spend money on this. So Time Warner offers me two free tickets, I invite a friend and we go and watch this. I was presently surprised after watching this. I remember some of the Lone Ranger comics and remember seeing small clips and my dad telling me stories about it but I never actually saw a show. I enjoyed this movie, it reminded me of fun action with the family. The violence wasn't ridiculous where you couldn't bring children to watch it but authentic enough to know not to try it at home. I saw in an interview that Armie did all the stunts and you can tell. His work on making the character honorable, noble and pretty much a decent human being was very well portrayed. Johnny Depp steals the show with his one liners, a few times I just started laughing at the comments he would make. Overall i'd give this movie an 8/10. Well written, excellent character development, you actually care for them and a great job with the actors and the acting. What I really enjoyed about the movie was that the special effects didn't look too fake. Yeah a few scenes you may have been like yeah right in your head but unlike Fast and the Furious 6, the special effects people on this project do a great job keeping it looking realistic. Bring your family to watch this, a great story of an iconic character. Hopefully this is the start to more because I wouldn't mind watching a sequel or two.

I was a little disappointed about the critics' review of the movie, since I adore Johnny Depp and had been waiting for the movie to release for months. I was pleasantly surprised. The movie was lovely. It had action (as promised), a good plot and pretty generous doses of humor for a movie of this genre. Depp stole the show with his portrayal of Tonto, but the other actors were great as well. The obvious comparison of this movie is with the Pirates of the Caribbean series because of Verbinski and Depp. There were parts of the movie, especially those where Tonto's actions generated laughs from the theater, which reminded me of the latter. Both have Depp in eccentric roles which provide ample comic relief. But since the themes are completely different, I feel that a comparison is not exactly fair. All in all, it is a good, lighthearted, entertaining way to spend two and a half hours, and I am considering hitting the theater for it again soon.

The early signs were not good, tales of production problems galore and early critical notices wading in to kick the film before it had even had a run at the theatres. The Lone Ranger seemed destined to be a blockbuster stinker. Yet in spite of it noticeably alienating original Lone Ranger purists, and some Western lovers as well, for a rollicking action fun packed time then Gore Verbinski's movie delivers in spades.

It's awash with the serial silliness of adventure films and TV shows of yore, pitching good guys against bad guys with buddy buddy shenanigans pulsing away at the core. The stunts are outrageously enjoyable, the landscape photography as beautiful as it is respectful in homage to past masters of the Western genre, while in Depp's Tonto there's a bona fide hero to root for just as much as he makes you laugh out loud.

This is an origin story, a tale of how John Reid (Armie Hammer) became The Lone Ranger, and of course how the noble steed Silver and Indian side-kick Tonto became integral to his villain fighting ways. Tom Wilkinson and William Fitchner file in for polar opposite villain duties, the former is the weasel business man trying to mould the West in is own image, the latter a repugnant psychopath with a penchant for eating human hearts! Then Helena Bonham Carter wanders in from some Grindhouse movie for a couple of cameos that are resplendent with sexual energy.

It's all very wacky and wild, and rightly so, but this is not at the expense of very good story telling. Some parts of the narrative could have been trimmed, but as the bromance builds between our two heroes, and Silver gets up to all sorts of comedy horse escapades, there's nary a dull moment here. Producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Verbinski throw all the action staples into the pot. Chases, fights, swinging from ropes, shoot-outs, people dangling from speeding train (pic is bookended by awesome train sequences), grisly deaths and on it goes from start to end.

There's caustic asides to the machinations of organisations of the time, from railroad magnates to the cavalry, while the catchphrases and legends of The Lone Ranger TV series are deftly inserted into the tale. It was interesting to see Depp come out and defend the movie against those damning early critic reviews, it's not something he does, being as he is very much a guy who sees acting as just a job. Bruckheimer, Hammer and Verbinski backed Depp up, stating that some reviews were written before the film had even been released, the big budget and production problems clearly making this a big stinker…

Not so, it's certainly not flawless, and those seriously into anachronisms are likely to have kittens. But if you haven't seen it yet, if you was put off by the venomous early reviews, then give it a chance, you may just be surprised at just how entertaining it is. It also looks and sounds brilliant on Blu-ray, where repeat viewings even show Hammer to be better than first thought as that masked man. 8.5/10