The Lone Ranger!!!!

The Lone Ranger.

Now when this western TV show started out as a Radio series in 1933 and then to hit TV screens for eight series from 1949-1957 and it was to be a great success. With a handful of films made they were not to really make an impact and so for decades the franchise was left, until now that is. Bought up by the Disney corporation and worked on for numerous years it was finally given the green light and was to steam into cinemas. Brought to screens by the makers of the highly successful Pirate's of the Caribbean franchise it was in people's eyes to be a potential great success, a massive budget of over $250 million dollars was to make people sceptical. 

Of course Johnny Depp was to be cast as the native american Tonto, along with John Reid (Armie Hammer) as the Lone Ranger himself it's an interesting duo of actors for the film. Starting off with a scene of a young boy who walks into a tent at a carnival to speak to what looks like an old and wrinkly Tonto. As the story begins we see John Reid travelling home on the train, unbeknown to him two outlaws are travelling on the same train, Butch Cavendish (William Fichtner) and Tonto.  

As the train is derailed and Butch is saved by his fellow outlaws John and is brother Dan go off in pursuit of Butch and his outlaws which in turn brings tragic circumstances. Waking up on top of a wooden structure overlooking the canyons John Reid soon comes into close contact with Tonto for the first time and is told of what happened to him. 

With an intertwining storyline that involves many characters it brings the western film to life but at a slow and at times a snails pace. Not wanting to give too much away the film for the first three quarters is quite slow and is a more drama based film with the situations the characters are involved in. The last quarter of the film is where it eventually picks up the pace, the classic theme music comes in and all action ensues. From fast paced out of control trains, fast horse riding and a massive explosion that will impress anyone it finally has the oomph behind it but it's too little too late. As the film finishes on a massive high it's a bit of a let down in that sense as it could have done with being more fast and punchier at the start. 

Johnny Depp for me is just the same character he was in Pirate's, changing his accent and taking off his pirate hat and placing a bird on his head he's to me not worked on his character. Armie as The Lone Ranger just doesn't work and he seems to be too wooden and doesn't convince me that he is a guy who is conflicted with what to do, be a ranger or become an outlaw. 

For a film with a big budget you can't see where the money has gone, with any other film you can see the special effects and CGI in action but here it seems most of the money was spent on script re-writes, sets and set design which is a shame. If I was to recommend the film to anyone I would say they were to only watch the last quarter as the first three quarters didn't grab my attention and I kept looking at my watch to see when I could leave. A real shame but no doubt Disney will shove another one of the films out in the near future and we will yet again see Depp with a bird on his head and Hammer on his white stead, Silver. 

To finish off all I can say is, this film franchise......."Hi-Yo, Silver! AWAYYYYY!!!"

6/10.