Tuesday, July 9, 2013
I have no idea what it is about Johnny Depp that makes people go absolutely nuts about movies he is in. I genuinely can’t remember the last live action performance of his that I really enjoyed. Maybe Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl? I think that he is, for the most part, a one note actor. He has played one character since the 90’s, and that is the weirdo. So, you can imagine how unexcited for this film I was. Did I really want to see Johnny Depp play the same character that he always plays...again? No. But did I want to see Gore Verbinski (potentially) make one of few excellent westerns in the 21st century? Hell yes. Sadly, Verbinski couldn’t completely save this film from itself, no matter how hard he tried.
I think the biggest flaw with this film was the script. I enjoyed that it tried to be more like a classic western in many ways, but it felt a tad too convoluted and corny. The corniness of script especially clashed with the grittiness of Verbinski’s visuals, which very much detracted from the film. I think the convolusion of the script also made the pacing a little wonky, giving the film several dead spots where 15-20 minutes go by with nothing fun going on. When you make a summer blockbuster, you shouldn’t be boring me with overcomplicated bullshit.
Just like the script, the acting wasn’t all there. There were some strong performances (Armie Hammer, especially. And James Badge Dale) but, overall, I think it was a little lacking. Some people were a little too campy for my liking, but maybe that was what Verbinski was asking for...I don’t really know. And then there was Johnny Depp...doing his usual bullshit. It was pretty much just him doing Jack Sparrow...as a Native American. Dead god is this getting old...
There were two places that I thought this film actually shined. First off, the visuals. I think that Gore Verbinski had a vision and just went to town on making it a reality. The entire film looked so real and gritty, and I just loved it. This man also knows his way around staging action sequences. Every time the action picked up, it all looked so perfectly staged and just natural. I thought that the final action sequence was completely all over the place...but in a good way. We got to follow so many different people doing different things...but the camerawork made it all make sense. Quite good.
The second thing I really enjoyed was the score. I thought that Hans Zimmer did a fantastic job with integrating in the William Tell Overture into his score to make it subtle (at time) and absolutely obvious when it needed to be. The one issue I had with the score was the fact that it reminded me so much of the Sherlock Holmes score a few times. But that happens with composers...they tend to have similar sound between scores, so I can’t really be that angry.
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While the story kind of falls apart at times, it makes up for it by being a thoroughly entertaining, well directed film. While some of the acting is pretty corny, it almost feels right in the context of the film. Oh, and the action scenes are pretty great. While it’s not Rango, I do think The Lone Ranger is worth seeing at least once. I wouldn’t say you need to go out and see it, but you won’t be too sorry if you do.
Writing: 5.5/10
Directing: 7.5/10
Acting: 5.5/10
Pacing: 6/10
Rewatchability: 6/10
Score: 6.1/10
