Movie #17 - The Lone Ranger

Surprise #1 - this is a Disney movie?  Surprise #2 - it's not as bad as the critics have made out.

The Lone Ranger is an entertaining piece of fluff with the occasional bursts of violence (it's not for young kids at all).  We have three main groups in the movie - the Texas Rangers (lawmen of the Wild West), a gang of hardened criminals led by Butch Cavendish (played by familiar face William Fichtner) and a group putting a railway across the country (led by another familiar face, Brit Tom Wilkinson).   How these three groups interrelate will slowly be revealed with a surprisingly dense plot for a fun action flick.

The film opens with a great setpiece where main character John Reid (Armie Hammer who played both Winklevoss twins in The Social Network) is travelling by train to hometown Colby where he is taking up a position as District Attorney.  On board is Butch Cavendish who is due to face justice for his brutal crimes, chained up with Tonto (Johnny Depp) whose only crime is being an Indian.  Waiting in Colby is Dan Reid (John's brother) and his fellow Texas Rangers who will supervise Cavendish's trial. As Cavendish's associates attempt to free him from the train, Tonto and John cross paths with Cavendish and each other and a train crash. 

The Rangers then go in search of Cavendish and his gang, leaving behind Dan's wife, who just happens to be John's ex-flame from many years ago, and his son, to keep the homestead safe despite the Indians who seem to be moving across the river against the white man.  It's no spoiler to say that a tragedy occurs which leaves Dan as the lone surviving Ranger.  And that he will cross paths with Tonto again and again as the film becomes about two men's search for justice, even though they have different definitions of justice.  John's struggle with using the law to mete out justice in a savage world is well portrayed.

If you do go and see this movie, be prepared that it is quite long.  This is the fault of the framing device which they have used, which could have been completely dropped out and the movie would have kept up a rollicking pace while losing nothing.  The framing device is a young kid, dressed in Lone Ranger costume, who ventures into a sideshow display of the Wild West in the 1930s and begins a conversation with an elderly Indian who claims to be the legendary "Tonto".  This adds nothing other than jolting you out of the action which is being told in flashback.

Enough about the negatives though.  The positives are that it knows it's pretty dumb and just has fun with it, and the CGI action is well executed and mixed with real stunts (check out the YouTube video of Depp's horse fall).  Johnny Depp is definitely still in 'Jack Sparrow' mode with his 'dumb but cunning' schtick as Tonto, and he does get all the funny lines.  Everyone else is pretty serious.  Armie Hammer has the perfect square jaw, tall build, deep voice and furrowed brow to play the conflicted hero.  The crooks are all pretty evil and boo-worthy.  Ruth Wilson is passable as the feisty damsel in distress.  Helena Bonham Carter steals yet another film with a funny cameo.

If you have a spare two hours (plus trailers etc) and want to turn your brain off and be entertained, you could do a lot worse.  Also the thundering William Tell overture (the Lone Ranger TV show theme song) over the top of the final scenes will leave any music lovers with a happy grin and humming it for ages.