Is The Lone Ranger a great movie? Not really, but it is relatively entertaining.
Is the movie slow in the middle? A little, but not as bad as most critics would have you believe.
The Lone Ranger is a bit long and does ask you to be patient at times, something that seems to be lost in the modern video-game world we live in.
The strength of the movie lies squarely with Johnny Depp and his portrayal of Tonto. I seriously doubt that any other actor could have pulled it off. Depp deadpans through several one-liners, which gives us much of the movie's humor. In Depp's capable hands, the character of Tonto is both admirable and witty, with a charm all his own.
The first part of the movie definitely gets us started with a bang. It does jump around quite a bit in the first few scenes, which seemed a little disjointed at times, but things are tied together well enough as the movie progresses.
The middle of the movie is slower, but we are provided with many of the answers as to the back history of the characters, especially with Tonto and the villains. I will agree that the movie could have accomplished the same with five to ten less minutes, but that is certainly not an adequate reason, in itself, to skewer the film.
And the last few scenes are the non-stop action sequences that most modern audiences love, although they do almost come off as cartoonish at times.
As stated, Depp's performance is the single biggest selling point for this movie. I thought William Fichtner was very good as Butch Cavendish, the film's main villain. Tom Wilkinson, James Badge Dale, Ruth Wilson, and Helena Bonham Carter all lend excellent support.
Of the movie's title character, I'm not sure that someone else other than Armie Hammer wouldn't have made a better Lone Ranger. That being said, the interactions and dialog between him and Depp's Tonto are enjoyable and occasionally laugh-out-loud funny. In many ways, this is a buddy movie, albeit with a bit of a twist.
Perhaps, one of the main reasons critics dislike the movie is its title. For all intents and purposes, this is really a Tonto movie. It is more his story and told from his point of view. It probably should have properly been called Tonto. But I don't see that as being a bad thing at all.
If you take it for what it is, The Lone Ranger is a reasonably entertaining film, with a very strong performance by Depp. And that was enough for me to give it a 7 out of 10.
