From the very start you realize that this incarnation of The Lone Ranger is not going to be anything like the classic-dud The Legend of the Lone Ranger from 1981. In fact so much time has passed since 1981 I wonder if I’m only but a few that actually remember seeing the “original” movie. In this version of The Lone Ranger we get a movie that tries to be too much of a good thing all at one time – it’s a western that wants to be part comedy, part serious drama, part action flick, part romance, and part Pirates of the Caribbean (the first one, not the other three). When The Lone Ranger works it really works. But when it falls flat and the plot starts to drag, you really start to wonder if this is going to be as good as it wants to be??

Starting in 1933 San Francisco we see a young child dressed as the Lone Ranger walking through a carnival as he enters a tent that promises to show off “The Wonders of Yester-year”. This tent is filled with side-show type displays of the 1869 old west – stuffed buffalo, a wild white horse, and a native barbarian (native Indian to us today). This is where we get our first glimpse of an older Tonto as he relates the story of how The Lone Ranger came to be.

So what worked? What didn’t? You know the drill…

Grade: 3 out of 5 stars

The Good:

• Johnny Depp as Tonto and Armie Hammer as John Reid/The Lone Ranger really work well together giving us a great mix of seriousness and comedy from both. The chemistry that is built between the two characters is akin to a buddy-cop movie as they have to learn to work together with two different styles and morals. Depp manages to capture the same energy he used in the first PotC movie and really makes Tonto a character worth rooting for and not just a side-kick. If anything, Hammer’s John Reid/TLR is the side-kick for most of the first two-thirds of the movie as he relies on Tonto to help him move the plot along.
• Director Gore Verbinski and writers Justin Haythe, Ted Elliott, and Terry Rossio capture the origin of The Lone Ranger. They took a classic story and were able to bring a western that doesn’t feel old to today’s audiences. Their origin story has all the bullet points that are required – ruthless villain Butch Cavendish (William Fichtner) being pursued by Texas Rangers lead by Dan Reid (James Badge Dale) for various outlaw crimes (murder, robbery, etc…). Butch’s gang gun down the Rangers in an ambush leaving them to die in the hot Texas desert. Tonto finding the body of John Reid and realizing that he is not dead and is the Spirit Walker that will come back to bring justice to the land. Silver….yeah, we’ll get to him in a minute. And a last act that makes you sit on the edge of your seat watching the actions unfold in front of you.
• We also get an origin for Tonto explaining why he is alienated from his tribe and what he did to make this happen. Tonto may seem crazy but it’s all explained and makes you care for him and what has happened before and after (remember, in 1933 he’s telling a little boy this story as part of a side-show).
• Silver – a very interesting origin for the wild horse that TLR rides. Originally Silver was tamed by TRL and Tonto as he was in fact a wild horse found in the plains. As Tonto puts it, “Horse says, you are spirit walker: a man who has been to the other side and returned, a man who cannot be killed at all…”. Silver is used to deliver some of the best comic relief in the movie next to Tonto.
• The last act delivers an action piece that is right up there with things we saw in the first Pirates of the Caribbean – action, comedy, and really making you care about what happens. This is where The Lone Ranger shines the brightest and delivers the best part of the entire movie.

The Bad:

• TLR has a run time of 2 hours and 3o minutes and it feels like 3 hours have passed by the time the movie ends. This was just tooooo looooonnnngggg and could have had at least 30 to 45 minutes cut from it. There is a love story between Dan’s wife Rebecca (Ruth Wilson) and her past connection to John before going to law school. Rebecca married Dan and stayed with the hero Ranger yet her heart still beats for John (sappy!!). When we first meet Rebecca she is in town waiting for Dan and John to return from the train station. We the audience can see that there was something there between Rebecca and John in the past but it doesn’t need to be repeated later in the movie. There is also a scene early on with Red Harrington (Helena Bonham Carter) who runs a brothel that really had no spot in the film. It just felt forced and again it could have been removed and not hurt the needed plot movement that was happening at that time.
• When I first heard that Jerry Bruckheimer was producing a new adaption of The Lone Ranger and Johnny Depp was going to be in it the first thought I had was that this was going to do to westerns like Pirates of the Caribbean did for pirate themed movies…bring them back into the main fold of cinema.  There would be action mixed with comedy and a plot that really made us care. We got that but we also got long periods of slowness and seriousness that really changed the mood of what was in front of us. There is a sequence where Tonto and TLR go to find Rebecca and her son Danny (Bryant Prince) but the scene before this we find Rebecca and her house-help being attacked. This attack is played serious and almost feels out of place when you get to the end of the movie. The balance of the plot seemed off at times and this is where the length of time starts to feel slow and long making a long movie seem even longer.
• The 1933 sequences seem out of place and made me feel like I was actually watching an episode of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. The movie should have been liner in plot and should have been shown in one time period – 1869.

The Geeky:

• The William Tell Overture (the theme to The Lone Ranger) is used and plays when the action is at it’s best. I’m glad they stuck with this timeless and classic theme.
• “Hi ho Silver…away!!” You’ll love how this line is featured.
• I keep coming back to it but that last act where all the action really takes place really is the bright spot of the movie. This sequence mixed with the use of the William Tell Overture delivers the payoff for the entire film.

Rated PG-13 with a very long time of 149 minutes (basically two and a half hours), The Lone Ranger manages to keep the summer blockbuster going.