The Lone Ranger (Dir.: Gore Verbinski; Cast: Johnny Depp, Armie Hammer et al.)
I watched The Lone Ranger on a flight entertainment system on a long flight back home. It is an ideal film for such purposes: passing time and having a few laughs on the way. Some have described the film as “Jack Sparrow in a Western”. The lazy description, while not inaccurate, does not tell the entire story. No doubt, The Lone Ranger evokes images, situations and the central character of the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy. However, in its Western setting, Johnny Depp’s Tonto is a new character, with a new sidekick. For one, the “sidekick” of this story, a lawyer played by Armie Hammer, is a man more self-assured and stronger than Orlando Bloom’s Will Turner.
The highlights of the film are the comedy-action set pieces with Depp cracking his one-liners on the go and doing his thing. Watching Jack Sparrow reincarnated isn’t bad after all, and maybe that is what the commercial think tank had counted upon. The characterization of the anti-hero could use a bit more thinking, but the minor characters – both human and beast – make up partly for the void.
To conclude, The Lone Ranger is good entertainment if you have some time to kill. Having said that, it is an unlikely candidate to enter the list of must-watches of this genre.
