https://www.cbr.com/pulp-heroes-hollywood-comback/
Pulp heroes like the Long Ranger and Doc Savage have tried to make comebacks in Hollywood, but why haven't they been successful?
I'm watching The Lone Ranger right now and it is pretty darned entertaining. But I watched the old Lone Ranger show in the 60s, and I long for a strong, decent hero like that on the big screen. A do-over with Dan (James Badge Dale) as the lead, and less CGI and mystical nonsense, would be quite welcome.
shareFor one thing, this movie was not very good. There are moments that work like William Fichtner chewing scenery as the villain and the big train chase at the climax. If the rest of the movie was like that ending, they might had something.
But the movie is just clearly trying to rehash the PotC formula without paying attention to what made it work. For a while anyhow. And Gore Verbinski should had known better since he directed those first three movies.
The LR and Tonto mostly bicker throughout the movie instead of the begrudging respect we see between Jack Sparrow and Will Turner in the 2003 PotC movie. It doesn't help that Armie Hammer plays the LR as an ineffective klutz and the horse does most of the work.
Johnny Depp being cast as Tonto is a questionable decision at best. Yet at the same time, I don't think he's sleepwalking through his performance. Some of his Buston Keaton schtick works in the action scenes.
The villains' plan in The Lone Ranger is way too complicated and even the mystical elements are backed off halfway through the movie. We see these hideous looking CGI jackalopes and hints that the lead villain is an evil spirit but then we learn that Tonto is just crazy.
As for Ruth Wilson's character, she's one of the most forgettable love interests I can still somewhat remember in a major release. I wonder if it would had improved the movie if she was secretly a villain and that was gonna be a third act plot twist.
And this might be a weird complaint, coming from someone that doesn't mind gore or violence, but I think it was too violent (at least for a first installment for a prospective franchise). The villain is a cannibal who eats people's hearts and limbs while there are a big scene with Indians being massacred that is too morbid for a family-friendly action-comedy.
....this was more than I planned on talking about. In short, the 2013 Lone Ranger failed because it's a fucking mess.