After Pirates of the Caribbean became a
billion dollar franchise, one can see the inherent appeal in reuniting the same
filmmaking team to revitalize the Western genre. Gore Verbinski, Jerry Bruckheimer, and Johnny
Depp were tasked with resurrecting the Lone Ranger and Tonto, legendary
characters at the height of popularity in the 1930s via a radio serial and who
hadn’t been seen in a theatrical release in more than 32 years. And if reintroducing such dated subject
material to a modern audience wasn’t difficult enough, highly-publicized
difficulties with script revisions and other budgetary concerns certainly
didn’t help future prospects…at one point, the script boasted werewolves. Johnny Depp is usually a safe casting choice,
but following the failure of last summer’s Dark
Shadows, his dependability was starting to wane; and was Armie Hammer of The Social Network fame really the right
choice to carry a high-budget project that had so much stacked against its
success? Thoroughly sub-par critical
reaction and massive competition had many analysts labeling The Lone Ranger as a guaranteed flop,
one which would be even more embarrassing for Walt Disney Pictures than John Carter…ouch!
Overly
long, woefully underdeveloped, and shamefully corny, The Lone Ranger misfires on nearly every level imaginable,
infuriatingly squandering briefly brilliant elements and solidifying that the property
can no longer be taken seriously. Armie
Hammer and Johnny Depp share enjoyable co-star chemistry, but the novelty of
another off-beat and wacky Depp character fades very quickly and there isn’t
much else to hold audience attention.
Perhaps the biggest crime involves the script’s refusal to neither
update nor respect the core material, as the character of the Lone Ranger is
reduced to a worthless simpleton and every element of his legacy (from the mask
to the theme music) is presented in a cringe-inducing manner. Even forgetting the wasted inclusions of
Helena Bonham Carter and William Fichtner, The
Lone Ranger still offers nothing to justify its baffling budget. In delivering this critical and commercial
failure, Disney may have very well driven the final nail in the coffin of the
Western genre.
Overall
Recommendation: Very Low
