So let’s talk about the Lone Ranger. This is a character that has been interpreted
in films repeatedly, starring in his own comic book series and television show,
and…he has suffered greatly. The major
problem with the character is that outside of being the stalwart cowboy action
hero, riding a white horse, wearing a white hat, no one really knows how to
portray him. I remember some time ago
they tried doing a “reinvention of the character” and make him kind of a
womanizing jerk, which failed horribly.
The problem is, he’s kind of “too good for his own good”. They thought back then by giving him character
flaws they could humanize him. But there
is a way to portray that kind of character while still making them
compelling. I look to Captain America:
The First Avenger, with hope that Disney and Jerry Brukheimer can somehow instill
that sense of “right man for the right job” into the Lone Ranger without
stooping to old tricks of “but he’s really a tortured soul.” What makes characters like Captain America,
and by extension Batman and the Lone Ranger isn’t their pain, it’s their
unwillingness to compromise in the face of overwhelming odds. It’s that “not one step back” mentality
because they know they are right and they will fight anyone who challenges
their ideals of freedom that makes them compelling. But…we don’t get a sense of that from the
Lone Ranger in this trailer. There is
nothing about this character that makes us believe this movie is going to be about
him. I fear, just from an initial
viewing, that the Lone Ranger will be a sidekick character in his own movie, relegated
to being Johnny Depp’s straight man.
Why do I fear that?
Because we see Depp’s Tonto on horseback, in prison, and riding
underneath a train, wearing some very off putting face make up, a bird
headdress, and speaking in the classic stunted speech pattern of Tonto. Lone Ranger doesn’t even get to talk in his
own movie trailer. It is very clear that
they were trying to build this advertising for this film around Johnny Depp
being weird. Which, Depp is very
good. Like a pirate, he stole one
franchise away from Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightly. He reinvented classic characters, and managed
to get us to feel compassion for a cold blooded psychopathic barber. Johnny Depp has an ability to create
compelling, if visually off putting characters and becoming the focus of any
given scene he’s in. Which is what made
me incredibly nervous when I read he was going to play the Lone Ranger’s
sidekick. Johnny Depp is a lot of
things, but he is no man’s sidekick. That
told me immediately that the Lone Ranger movie was not going to be about the
Lone Ranger, and sure enough this trailer made that abundantly clear.
Beyond seeing Johnny Depp being, Johnny Depp, there is
nothing compelling about the trailer itself.
Its voice over, trains, weird visuals of what I think was supposed to be
a rolling brothel, and gun fire, but nothing in this trailer made me want to see
this movie, nothing sold me on the idea of this film.
Maybe in subsequent trailers something will pop out and make
me want to see it, but thus far, I can wait for it on Red Box.
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