Where to start.
I am a 17 and therefore have no right to compare this to the old Lone Ranger radio and TV show. However, I have enough knowledge to gather that this was an utter failure of a movie when compared.
From the beginning, I was certainly intrigued. The framed storyline told by the leathery-skinned, and broken English-speaking Tonto seemed like a great way to introduce the story. Soon, after John's brother dies, my attention span derailed, much like the steam engine in the beginning. The tone seemed like it would be serious.
And the director's couldn't decide if it would be.
There were many intense, almost dark scenes that could have made a great film about scandal and morality, and the soundtrack did its job highlighting important moments. The betrayal of Tonto to his people, the heart eating brutality by Cavendish, the corrupt greed of the railroad, and the horrifying conflict between "Civilization" and the Indians (including a devastating massacre by Gatling gun), all could have made a fantastic film with the same dramatic caliber as "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee," but instead found themselves among ill-placed jokes, a painfully cowardly "hero," and so much CGI, that I found myself trying to find what was actually real scenery.
An hour could have been cut from this as well, between a useless hint of a love interest between the "hero" and his sister-in-law, the captivity of the main actress (whose escape is never explained), and dry, uninteresting humor that ruins any form of being a serious storyline. Did we really have to see CGI cannibalistic rabbits, or Depp and Hammer buried long enough to joke and be licked by a horse?
And even in its length, the Lone Ranger still doesn't become the legendary hero, or anything more than a over-honored weakling who shows up just in time to save the day.
I do admit, the classic train chase at the end did take on that feeling of a Wild West show, but could have used a healthy dose of realism to make it not so outlandish.
The Lone Ranger was a disastrous flop, full of pointless scenes and plot changes, weak and stereotyped leading characters, and a despairing glimpse of what could have been a fantastic film. With its storyline balancing tediously between a "Rescue/Revenge" flick and a "Moral Justice" drama, the script could not have possibly fulfilled both ideas to match the status of the legendary hero.
I am a 17 and therefore have no right to compare this to the old Lone Ranger radio and TV show. However, I have enough knowledge to gather that this was an utter failure of a movie when compared.
From the beginning, I was certainly intrigued. The framed storyline told by the leathery-skinned, and broken English-speaking Tonto seemed like a great way to introduce the story. Soon, after John's brother dies, my attention span derailed, much like the steam engine in the beginning. The tone seemed like it would be serious.
And the director's couldn't decide if it would be.
There were many intense, almost dark scenes that could have made a great film about scandal and morality, and the soundtrack did its job highlighting important moments. The betrayal of Tonto to his people, the heart eating brutality by Cavendish, the corrupt greed of the railroad, and the horrifying conflict between "Civilization" and the Indians (including a devastating massacre by Gatling gun), all could have made a fantastic film with the same dramatic caliber as "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee," but instead found themselves among ill-placed jokes, a painfully cowardly "hero," and so much CGI, that I found myself trying to find what was actually real scenery.
An hour could have been cut from this as well, between a useless hint of a love interest between the "hero" and his sister-in-law, the captivity of the main actress (whose escape is never explained), and dry, uninteresting humor that ruins any form of being a serious storyline. Did we really have to see CGI cannibalistic rabbits, or Depp and Hammer buried long enough to joke and be licked by a horse?
And even in its length, the Lone Ranger still doesn't become the legendary hero, or anything more than a over-honored weakling who shows up just in time to save the day.
I do admit, the classic train chase at the end did take on that feeling of a Wild West show, but could have used a healthy dose of realism to make it not so outlandish.
The Lone Ranger was a disastrous flop, full of pointless scenes and plot changes, weak and stereotyped leading characters, and a despairing glimpse of what could have been a fantastic film. With its storyline balancing tediously between a "Rescue/Revenge" flick and a "Moral Justice" drama, the script could not have possibly fulfilled both ideas to match the status of the legendary hero.