The Lone Ranger may not be a great film
by any stretch of the imagination, but it is a far more interesting failure
than you might imagine from the overwhelming mass of critical disparagement. It
should be noted, however, that I had no previous attachment to previous radio,
television and film incarnations of The
Lone Ranger, so I was able appreciate this film as a standalone piece of
entertainment without judgment about significant alterations made in the
adapting process.
All of the
criticisms made about this film are most definitely true; the budget was
outrageous and all in an obvious attempt at harnessing some of the success from
the previous Disney/Bruckheimer/Verbinski/Depp collaboration, The Pirates of the Caribbean. The film
is also over-long with some structural issues, like much of Gore Verbinski’s
filmography, and Johnny Depp’s elaborate performance overshadows the title
character and hero of the film. I also saw some unexpected assets buried
beneath all of the excess the film has to offer.
