REVIEW: The Lone Ranger on Blu-Ray

Mitchell Stein- I love Western movies. There’s nothing like the classic Westerns, like Zorro, A Fistful of Dollars or The Good, The Bad and the Ugly and even Back to the Future: Part III. Unfortunately, The Lone Ranger is nothing like those.

I have mixed reactions towards Disney’s $300 million budget summer blockbuster. On one hand, I enjoyed it and remained on the edge of my seat, but in other scenes I was just waiting the scene to be over and they cut back to the action.

The story begins with a strange narrative by a featured character which was totally unnecessary. The narration lasts throughout the movie, and usually at specifically bad times (i.e. in middle of action sequences) and just really brings the movie down to a complete low. It should’ve cut right to the action sequence and dived right into the movie, the movie starts off boringly, bad story-telling, and some other problems, by the time they cut to the action, most people probably got to the ticket counter and asked for a refund. But once it gets rolling and on its feet, it remains steady for the most part. 

The film unites the unlikely duo of John Reid (a.k.a The Lone Ranger) with the Indian native Tonto for their ride for justice, and both seeking revenge against the film’s badguy, Butch Cavendish.

The first excitement of the film only starts about 15-20 minutes into the film, so bear with the first couple of scenes while it establishes the story and character, once past that, most of the movie is filled with action, suspense and a dash of comedy, but of course, spoiling that is the narration scenes and a really long sequence featuring the tribe smacked in middle of the movie.

The movie is also very violent. I believe this is a part of the strategy from Disney to shatter any stereotype that might be surrounding Disney, like “Disney only makes kids’ and princess movies”. The scenes are extremely bloody and sometimes very frightening. The violence felt too extreme at times, and felt like they were only one step away from the R rating for violence. 

On top of that, some things in this movie are completely uncalled for. I won't go into full detail, but there's some explicitly violent sequences, and another scene that was completley uncalled for. The movie would've been fine without those. 

The characters are very strange as well. Johnny Depp plays Tonto, where you’re never sure whether to laugh or not at him, and he creates some very strangely awkward scenes. 

As well as that, Helena Bonham Carter’s character is absolutely ridiculous. She played no important role in this film, except for using her 'superpower' when our heroes are in trouble: Showing her tattooed legs to distract the male badguys. When our heroes are in peril, Carter’s character stops and shows her legs to the bad-guys, who suddenly stop what they’re doing to look. This is not what you’d call cinematic brilliance. 

But over all of those complaints, the action sequences really left me on the edge of my seat. Some of those scenes were so intense, and so exciting that it would’ve been worth the price of admission just for those scenes.

The bonus features add some excitement to it, showing how the incredible train sequences were filmed, along with ‘Becoming A Cowboy’ showcasing some of the training the actors went through to shoot this film and a deleted scene. It also includes bloopers, which is made to look like a trailer gone wrong. I wouldn’t suggest you buy the DVD, since that seems to be the only feature on there.  

It’s unfortunate that The Lone Ranger didn't do as well at the box office, since Disney really wanted to make a franchise out of this like they did with the Pirates of the Caribbean series.

They took a big gamble with this movie’s budget, and created a whole slew of Ranger merchandise before the movie even came out. Just like John Carter, only a handful of people even knew who or what The Lone Ranger even was in the first place, and while up against Despicable Me 2 over the July 4^th weekend, the Ranger didn’t stand a chance. Plus, The Lone Ranger's budget was $250 million, so to be honest, I don't really know what Disney was expecting in total at the end of it's run.  

The Lone Ranger was really supposed to be Disney's next big 'Avengers' or 'Pirates' franchise, but it completely went the other way. I'm sure the folks at Disney are scratching their heads wondering where it went wrong. 

 If you never liked Westerns in the first place, don’t bother. But if you are a big fan of Western style films, I suggest you make sure to check out this movie. 

Rating: 2.5/5 pieces of silver

The Lone Ranger is now available on Blu-Ray and DVD.