I have to separate myself from my tiny little involvement as an extra in this film to write a fair review. Let's start with the bad: After having been a part of the Moab, Utah shoot I decided I had better brush up on my Lone Ranger knowledge and so I bought a DVD of the first few black & white episodes and watched them all. The Lone Ranger was an epic character. He was a courageous, fearless good guy who, with his horse silver and his signature silver bullets, became a legend in the old west. In this 2013 rendition, he is reduced to a cowardly wimp who is scared of guns. When you cut away all the action sequences, he really didn't bring anyone to justice, little lone Cavendish. I am so tired of our modern cinema's reliance on special effects rather than plot lines to tell stories. There were plenty of my pet peeve moments when I'm left rolling my eyes going "yeah right!", like when Tonto jumps from one train 40 or 50 feet down to another movie train & it doesn't break both of his legs. Though I think Johnny Depp is great actor, I think his personality & his version of Tonto made this into a huge Depp-fest whereas they could have given the role to a full-blooded Native American to give them honor & stay true to the story. Another bone I have to pick is the senseless deprecation of Christians or, I guess, "church folk" in this movie. They are made to look like a bunch of backwoods, nerdy, half brained dogmatists preaching hellfire & brimstone. What was the point in that? Also John Reid makes it a point to show that his "Bible" is a law book, rather than the Bible. The original Lone Ranger could actual be seen quoting the Bible in the old black & white episodes! OK, now for the good: This movie is a high-budget non-stop adventure. It's fun to watch & is has a good amount of humor dispersed throughout. I enjoyed the aspects where they stayed true to the original story. The look & feel of the film seems authentic and is overall visually exciting, not to mention filmed in beautiful locations. If you really liked movies like Pirates of the Caribbean, then you will probably like The Lone Ranger.
Review of The Lone Ranger
