The Lone Ranger review: Batman and Robin of the West!

As always I want to point some things out so you understand my perspective before reading my review:

1) I have never seen, heard or read anything dealing with the character of the Lone Ranger that I can clearly recall.  I am aware of him and that he has a horse named Silver and a side kick who is Native-American named Tonto.  I also remember that his catch phrase was "High-ho silver Away!" I am not sure how, probably just through pop culture references on television and my parents.

2) I love Johnny Depp.  He is my favorite actor currently in main stream cinema even though he has put out some stinkers recently like: The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, Alice in Wonderland, The Rum Diary and Jack and Jill. Recently I also for the first time ever, consciously avoided his last remake movie that was released (Dark Shadows) because it looked absolutely terrible beyond belief. So I am excited to see him in a new movie that looks entertaining and fun.

With that said here is my simple review of the movie The Lone Ranger:

I could not decide if this picture was really stupid or hilarious...you decide.

If you have seen the previews to this movie you probably think this movie should be named Tonto.  It seems like Johnny Depp is the lead and the movie is mostly about him.  However much to my surprise this was not the case.  I thought they did a good job of balancing both characters, but having the Lone Ranger still be the general focus.

Here is the basic gist of the entire film:

A young boy (Mason Cook) meets Tonto (Johnny Depp) an elderly Comanche warrior, who gives the narration of the story of the film while telling the boy the story of Tonto and John Reid's (Armie Hammer) relationship. The movie then goes on to tell the story of how Reid and a group of Texas rangers were murdered.  Reid survives and is told by Tonto that he is a spirit walker.  A horse (who is later named Silver) has also appeared to help them on their journey.  The movie goes on to have a lot of action and explosives in order to tell the story of how Reid and Tonto become partners. The story also highlights how they go on to stop the bad guys who killed the rangers (one of them Reid's brother) and how they also stop them from getting a huge amount of silver that caused some problems in Tonto's past.

Overall:

I thought this was a decent fun action packed movie.  I mean it won't win any awards and it isn't very original, but it's entertaining. I was afraid the whole movie was going to be about Tonto as the previews suggested but as I mentioned above, that was not the case. They did a great job of eliminating the side kick aspect and making them more as partners who in the end choose to work together. Knowing nothing about the characters beforehand I mostly felt like I was watching The Batman and Robin of the west.  The character of the Lone Ranger essentially becomes a vigilante and makes his own rules in order to bring justice.

As for the two leads, Armie Hammer is fine as the Lone Ranger but the role doesn't really call for too much. Depp on the other hand does what he normally does. He is a little bit crazy, a littler unique and funny all at the same time.  What is so great about Depp is that he brings a classic sensibility to his roles.  He brings a lot of Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin persona's to Tonto that works very well in most cases.  There is a Vaudeville feel to the humor when he is on screen and I think it gels nicely here. Depp obviously steals the show here and is probably what most people will talk about when positively discussing this movie.

The overall feeling of the film felt very modern even though it was a western.  Certain shots are slow motion action that you don't normally see in the western genre.  I am not quite sure why this movie has been critically panned.  It is a good watch and really injects the western genre with some adrenaline we haven't seen in a while.  Once again I am not Saying this is a mind Blowing movie but it is easily a 3 (possibly 4 depending on my mood) out of 5 stars. If you like westerns or Johnny Depp I would go check it out.

As I was writing this I saw another preview for the movie and got a little excited. It made me want to go see it again, this time focusing on Depp and the essence of the movie rather than the basic plot and the many action sequences and explosions.

Boom! That's all folks! West Siiiiiiiiiiiddddddeeeee!