Ten years ago a very famous Disney franchise called Pirates of the Caribbean released it's first film. People expected it to flop, pirate films were not as popular as they once were and for a Disney made film Pirates seemed quite mature for it's usual target audience. Well the Pirates of the Caribbean series was a hit with two of the series films making over a billion dollars and the first instalment Curse of the Black Pearl receiving critical acclaim. In hopes of re-creating the success the Pirates franchise Disney have decided to reboot the iconic western tale of The Lone Ranger. The film like Pirates is of a genre that it is not as popular any more and is also pretty mature for a Disney film. But unlike the hit franchise starring Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow, The Lone Ranger has bombed at the box office losing Disney an estimated $190 million, but does it deserve this? The Lone Ranger is not an amazing film but it is certainly an exciting film and with the brilliant performance of Johnny Depp as Tonto if you are interested in the film it's worth the watch.
Firstly I believe that the film takes too much time explaining the back stories of both Tonto and John Reid (The Lone Ranger). This problem plagued the Pirates series later instalment and is an evident problem here, that being said it doesn't completely ruin the experience as it did with the disappointing Pirates sequels. Armie Hammer is decent in the role of Reid who joins forces with the Native American Tonto after his brothers are killed by the evil Butch Cavendish, but it's clear from the outset that the film is predominantly Tonto's. The film is actually told from the perspective of Tonto's.
Johnny Depp plays Tonto incredibly well and it is clear he done some research on Native Americans in order to prepare for the film. The only other character worth mentioning really is Tom Wilkinson as Latham Cole a corrupt railroad tycoon. He provides a pretty decent alternative to William Fichtner's Butch Cavendish who plays the typical bad guy. Ruth Wilson is pretty wasted in her role as Rebecca Reid John's brothers wife who plays the textbook damsel in distress. Finally Red played by Helena Bonham Carter plays a pointless role in the film and doesn't really add anything to the mix. The film drags on a bit too with 2 hours and a half hours run time the film should have ended much earlier then it did.
Although it's definitely not going to win any awards The Lone Ranger is decent viewing if you are interested in the sort of genre and you just want to watch a fun film with good action sequences and a good performance from Depp.
I give The Lone Ranger a 6 out of 10.
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