The Lone Ranger review

Ride ‘em cowboy! Disney takes on the Wild West in this remake of a television great… 

The prospect of a Walt Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer produced big screen version of a popular fifties TV series – and a western genre back in fashion thanks to Mr Tarantino – sounded exciting. However, this Ranger hit a few notes but not the right ones.

Starring Johnny Depp as Tonto and Armie Hammer as the Lone Ranger, this could have been a modern classic, but with an abundance of production problems and budget concerns from the start, the story has suffered. It is too long at over two hours with quite a few boring scenes where characters didn’t do anything or nothing happened. Director Gore Verbinski really should have addressed these issues in the edit room.

Themes of revenge and redemption could have been explored with more emotional impact. The relationship between the two leads was underdeveloped but Armie Hammer came out better with witty awkwardness. Depp was the weakest link in a film full of great character actors. He looked bored with an dead bird on his head.

Even the white stallion wanted to be elsewhere.

The cinematography was impressive with the sense of isolation and voyeurism amongst the folding Rocky Mountains. The final action sequence with the tapping western music redeemed the film but only just.

Rahim Galia