Lone Ranger : Naissance d'un héros

I was surprised to learn that many people deem the 2013 Lone Ranger as 'unsalvageable', and there are a few decent reasons why. The plot is quite convoluted and the gritty tone is a bit off putting, but it's a film that always manages to entertain me.

Armie Hammer does a decent job as the titular character, and he has good chemistry with Johnny Depp's Tonto. Depp might've been an odd choice for the character, and you could argue it's a Jack Sparrow reskin, but he makes Tonto strange and humorous to watch.

One of the film's greatest strengths are the action and the humour. In particular, I really love the climax, which gets my vote for potentially the best train chase in cinema history. Zimmer's score is also great, and very dramatic. The film did go massively over budget, but I think that was a good thing because of just how much of it can be found on screen.

You could cite this as a misguided Pirates of the Caribbean clone, and in some ways there are similarities. But the influences aren't too noticeable, and the film is still a lot of fun. It is something of a shame it never got any sequels, but it stands on its own just fine.

You know the plot; you also know who is in this movie so lets get to it. Gore Verbinski has delivered a film that moves leisurely along peppered with rousing action sequences, comedy, villainy and pathos. It is solid entertainment. I would place this movie alongside Waterworld, The Last Action Hero, and John Carter as unfairly panned films which deserves to succeed in the cinema halls.

It is too bad that there appears to be a hate on for this movie simply because it seems that a lot of money was spent in its making. But look at it this way, when you hire real stunt persons, construct and destroy real trains and stage many stunts for real, it is not going to be cheap. I would rather support this type of movie-making any day instead of the tired CGI based effects laden yawners. Every penny of the budget is on screen in a beautiful shot and staged movie. I found it to be an enjoyable 159 minutes of entertainment.

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.

Is The Lone Ranger a great movie? Not really, but it is relatively entertaining.

Is the movie slow in the middle? A little, but not as bad as most critics would have you believe.

The Lone Ranger is a bit long and does ask you to be patient at times, something that seems to be lost in the modern video-game world we live in.

The strength of the movie lies squarely with Johnny Depp and his portrayal of Tonto. I seriously doubt that any other actor could have pulled it off. Depp deadpans through several one-liners, which gives us much of the movie's humor. In Depp's capable hands, the character of Tonto is both admirable and witty, with a charm all his own.

The first part of the movie definitely gets us started with a bang. It does jump around quite a bit in the first few scenes, which seemed a little disjointed at times, but things are tied together well enough as the movie progresses.

The middle of the movie is slower, but we are provided with many of the answers as to the back history of the characters, especially with Tonto and the villains. I will agree that the movie could have accomplished the same with five to ten less minutes, but that is certainly not an adequate reason, in itself, to skewer the film.

And the last few scenes are the non-stop action sequences that most modern audiences love, although they do almost come off as cartoonish at times.

As stated, Depp's performance is the single biggest selling point for this movie. I thought William Fichtner was very good as Butch Cavendish, the film's main villain. Tom Wilkinson, James Badge Dale, Ruth Wilson, and Helena Bonham Carter all lend excellent support.

Of the movie's title character, I'm not sure that someone else other than Armie Hammer wouldn't have made a better Lone Ranger. That being said, the interactions and dialog between him and Depp's Tonto are enjoyable and occasionally laugh-out-loud funny. In many ways, this is a buddy movie, albeit with a bit of a twist.

Perhaps, one of the main reasons critics dislike the movie is its title. For all intents and purposes, this is really a Tonto movie. It is more his story and told from his point of view. It probably should have properly been called Tonto. But I don't see that as being a bad thing at all.

If you take it for what it is, The Lone Ranger is a reasonably entertaining film, with a very strong performance by Depp. And that was enough for me to give it a 7 out of 10.

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.