Rating of
3/4
Hope for the Western Genre
Looneymanthegreat - wrote on 07/03/13
The Lone Ranger is a very flawed movie. Its tone (and much of its plot) seems to be a random hodgepodge of different Ideas they head for a Lone Ranger movie, none of which meld together particularly well. The result is a movie that is often jarring in its plot and tonal shifts; a big bag of western lunacy.
That’s only partially a negative critique, since the bizarreness of it all makes the movie strangely entertaining. The many strange aspects of the movie are hit and miss, but they hit more then they miss. The overall effect is one of an entertaining, and surprisingly original summer adventure.
Armie Hammer and Johnny Depp both do a good job with their characters. Armie Hammer is especially fun to watch, this probably won’t be his breakthrough role (with a 25% on Rotten Tomatoes and the label of “western,” it will probably flop hard,) but I foresee a good career for him. Johnny Depp dosn’t come off nearly as charismatic as Hammer, and it’s kind of frustrating that he’s still playing “white face paint characters,” but at least he’s not just playing Jack Sparrow over again, his character is serviceable.
I think the main reason I’m able to get past the movies flaws, is my adoration for the classic adventure westerns from the 30’s, 40’s and 50’s. almost every western that’s come out in the last decade has been a brooding character study (not that I have a problem with those,) it’s great to see a movie that is able to recreate just a little bit of the fun movies like The War Wagon and The Sons of Katie Elder contained. It’s definitely not the best movie of the summer, but it gives me hope for the western genre.
