Sadly it looks like it ended up being 'Wild Wild West'. By now you know it has become one of many flops that came out during the USA summer blockbuster period and has been a big loss for Disney. For me there are a few good elements but they just did not come together as a cohesive whole. I can understand film makers wanting to give people value for money by making really long films but they need to make them interesting to sustain the length and sadly director Gore Verbinski is not able to do that here. I am a big fan of Gore's and have enjoyed all his other films. But I think he has joined that group of directors who just do not know when to stop their films. 'The Lone Ranger' just seems to drag along with a story that could easily have been shortened and tightened to make it more tense. While I cannot say exactly what needed to be cut just a general trim of a few scenes would have been sufficient. I was also not fond of the use of the railroad as the films central premise. It does provide for the film's best moment at the end with an exciting chase scene, I don't think it was a good plot for the entire film. You are meant to care that the evil rail road owner who wants to use the rail road to effectively take over the country. I never felt that anyone was threatened by this premise. I suppose I should feel bad for the Indians who were used as pawns in the take over but I did not feel that strongly for them.
Johnny Depp is one of the best actors working today and I love when he plays his more wacky characters. Sadly that is not the case here. Part of the problem is that he is an actor of such high regard that he must get top billing in the film even if he is supposed to be playing the lead characters side-kick. Normally his characters are so strong that they usually steal the film and are the thing you most remember. I did not feel that here. While he is trying to play one of his more wacky characters, he seems to have toned it down slightly. I'm not sure if that was so he did not overshadow Armie Hammer who is supposed to be playing the title character. Armi Hammer is quite good but I tend to get the impression he is not playing the part as heroically as he should. He does not come across as forceful enough to be the title character . Tom Wilkinson is very good as the bad rail road owner but as mentioned above I did not feel his plot to take over the country was effective enough. William Fichtner is probably the best thing in the film with his disfigured face making him an effective henchman. Also great is Helena Bonham Carter but I wish she had a bigger part.
There was the potential there for greatness but it seems to have been squandered by a director that cannot show some restraint.
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