Review of The Lone Ranger (1956) by Matt D — 15 Jun 2014

What does one do on a 15 hour flight? You watch a critically derided, box office disaster of epic proportions for free, of course!

From the moment I heard about a new film adaptation of 'The Lone Ranger' starring Johnny Depp as a Native American I couldn't help but fear the worst. Add in major production difficulties, scathing reviews, and a poor box office performance and I couldn't force myself to pay admission to see it in a theater. But I was oddly curious enough to watch it for free as a time killer.

Did it live up to the horrible hype?

Well....yes and no.

First of all, this film has no justification for being two and half hours long. None. In fact, I feel strongly enough about this one point alone that I would dare to say its reputation would've been salvaged had someone simply cut it down to something between 90 and 120 minutes.

At a most basic filmmaking level Gore Verbinski is actually firing on all cylinders here with action sequences that easily rival anything being done in most other big budget extravaganzas. Its everything surrounding these action sequences that derails the film and keeps it from being the wild, fun western romp that it could have been.

Aspects like production design, cinematography, special effects, costumes, and makeup are all outstanding - they are just overshadowed by a bloated screenplay that was clearly crafted by committees and focus groups rather than a singular vision that could have brought all of these exceptional pieces into a cohesive whole.