Review: The Lone Ranger

Gore Verbinski and Johnny Depp started their partnership back in 2003 for Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl and that movie gave Johnny Depp his first Oscar nomination. In addition that movie was a whole lot of fun and the balance between the action and humor is very good. Then the sequels happened and the quality of the franchise is dwindling. So, is their latest offering be as good as the first 'Pirates' or is it bad? Read on for my thoughts below.

Synopsis:
From producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Gore Verbinski, the filmmaking team behind the blockbuster "Pirates of the Caribbean" franchise, comes Disney/ Jerry Bruckheimer Films' "The Lone Ranger," a thrilling adventure infused with action and humor, in which the famed masked hero is brought to life through new eyes. Native American spirit warrior Tonto (Johnny Depp) recounts the untold tales that transformed John Reid (Armie Hammer), a man of the law, into a legend of justice-taking the audience on a runaway train of epic surprises and humorous friction as the two unlikely heroes must learn to work together and fight against greed and corruption. (c) Disney

Story:
The construction of the story is pretty weak, there was no part in the story that you will feel engaged and there was no part of the story that you will feel invested on the movie. To be frank, the story (and not just the construction) of this movie is pretty terrible. It's like every little idea that they have thought about, they will just throw to the screen to have a longer runtime. Plus there was also some unnecessary scenes in this movie that could make the movie shorter but with no difference.

The runtime is probably my biggest gripe with this movie, it's just too long and for me, it made the movie boring and bland. It also felt like every scene is the same and nothing new was being brought in for the viewers to like the movie.

Acting:
It's the usual Johnny Depp romp, he's wearing make-up, he drops some funny lines and he showcased a good performance to his character, the only problem is that we have seen him done this before and yes this character is basically Capt. Jack Sparrow the only difference is that in this one Depp uses a some type of native-indian accent which in my opinion he did pretty good. Aside from that there was nothing new from him which he already did some time ago.  As for Armie Hammer as The Lone Ranger, he was good enough in his role but you are looking for something ore in his portrayal, an certain "edge" was missing from his character which was a little underwhelming.

For the supporting cast, they did quite well in their roles but it was really nothing new, it's just the moustache-twirling bad guy, the 'immortal' right hand of the bad guy and the side characters for the lead that will like a baggage throughout the movie.

Action:
The action was pretty good, it helped the movie to have a lively kick to it and made the movie watchable. What I hated though is that there are two train sequences in this movie, both for the introduction and the climax of the movie, at first it was exciting, it was thrilling, but towards the end it just became tasteless and tiring and at times you might want this scene to just end immediately.

Music:
There was only instance where I liked the music because this is the scene where it really breaks out for me and that is the final action scene. This music actually helped the finale to be bearable. I'm going to embed the sound so as for you to hear it's awesomeness.

Cinematography/VFX:
It was lovely, the backdrops looked amazing, the tracking shots were good and as I hate to admit it, the train sequences were shot very well and was able to show the supposed intensity of that scene, too bad it didn't work for me.

The visual effects also did a great job at adding some depth to the photography, although some of the CGIs were noticeable and not very polished.

Direction:
I didn't like Verbinski's direction with this one. In this film, the way he made the pacing was just super boring and the way he directed the actors was for me a bit mediocre especially to Depp. Even though I praised some of them as I stated above, there was some potential that he actors involved can actually do much more in their role, too bad it wasn't fully shown. As for Depp, I think Verbinski told him to show a Jack Sparrow performance with a native accent.

Overall:
'The Lone Ranger' is a boring 2 1/2 hour adventure of big spectacle. I am actually anticipating this movie and I am extremely disappointed with this one. That said though, there was some instance that I enjoyed this movie but unfortunately with this one, the bad outweighs the good.

Favorite line:
Tonto: Something very wrong with that horse.