Review of The Lone Ranger (2013) by First N — 20 Mar 2014

I'm not sugar-coating anything in this review. The Lone Ranger is pure crap. The only reason that this film gets a star is the entertaining action. However, there are only two action scenes, at the beginning and at the end, and by the end, it's far too late to save the movie.

All of the actors in this film are wasted. Johnny Depp isn't good, but definitely isn't the worst part of the movie. Tom Wilkinson is probably the best actor in the film, but isn't great. William Fichtner is wasted as a cliched villain. However, my main problem with the movie is its titular protagonist. Armie Hammer is horrible in this film, absolutely dreadful, though I don't entirely blame him. I blame the film's script. Hammer was very good in The Social Network, but I think that in order to be good in a role, he needs a good script, and he doesn't get it here.

The film's plot is fairly generic, and easy to understand, but it has a huge problem:Its tonal inconsistency. The film is marketed toward children, as it's made by Disney. Naturally, it tries for humor, but in this film, the humor never works in my opinion. The bad humor isn't the worst of it, though. The tone, as I said earlier, is inconsistent. The film has a lot of attempted humor, but also has dark scenes that try to be dramatic, which include cannibalism. The next scene, Depp is talking to a horse, trying to be funny.

The film does have bright spots. Verbinski directs a very nice-looking movie with impressive visuals and decent makeup. The visuals, depending on the competition, could potentially be nominated for the Oscar. Despite this, this isn't enough to save the film.

All in all, this is a bad movie with sub-par acting, a messy script, and tonal inconsistencies. The only thing that saves it from being a total failure is the visual effects. 1/5.