The Lone Ranger , featuring Johnny Depp as Tonto, is an attempt By Disney to capture a market that doesn’t seem to exist. All today’s baby boomers who sat glued to their TVs in the 1950s enthralled by the adventures of the original Lone Ranger are not today’s moviegoers.
And the teenage market is more into superheroes and outlandish – and, usually, unbelievable – special effects.
This movie is reported to have had a production budget of OVER $ 200 million. So, what were the people at Disney thinking ?
Well, if they hoped it was going to be the beginning of a rolling franchise, looks like they’re about to be disappointed.
Some of the cast claim to have already signed up sequels. Will they ever be made? Seems unlikely after the first critical reviews.
Most critics slammed the film, due to open tomorrow, July 3. Many got wildly creative in their descriptions.
‘The Wrap”says that the director (Gore Verbinski) and his writers “have taken a promising idea and put a silver bullet in it’s head.”
One of the milder comments comes from ‘The Playlist’. It notes that the story is “dreadfully dull” and that the film “often sags when it should gallop.”
‘Screen Daily’ calls the Lone Ranger “an indigestible swill of forced humor and oversized, overbearing action sequences .”
‘HitFix’ really goes overboard. It’s writer says: “it may be the single most punishing experience I’ve had in a theater this year.” He goes on to say that the film should be studied by all aspiring film makers “if only to see clearly how not to bring a beloved character back to the big screen.”
‘The Hollywood Reporter’ notes that Verbinski was a “crack shot”with his animated Western, ‘Rango’ but describes his latest effort as “a work that wobbles and thrashes all over the place.”
‘Rotten Tomatoes’ only gives the movie a 25 percent rating. That’s like a death sentence. And as for Johnny Depp himself, well, he might be thinking that now was not the ideal time to talk so openly to the media about his divorce.
Could it be that he, and the Disney people, planned this as some kind of P R stunt?
If so, it was not one of their better decisions!
[Image via: MSN Movies , Trailer: Youtube ]
