The Lone Ranger

On a scale of 1 to 10 with 1 being John Carter and 10 being Wickerman, how bad?

Well I liked it a lot, but I can totally understand how it tanked with the younger ADD crowds who did not grow up on Westerns and had no familiarity with the source material. The target audience of this flick was too narrow for the amount of money and talent involved in it. The John Carter comparison is pretty good, because even less people were aware of the source material, but pulp sci-fi has a shot at getting wide audience acceptance. I think calling it a bad movie is a bit of a stretch, though. The acting was certainly way better than John Carter, the Hobbit or, dare I say, Man of Steel. The action was well done and on target for the genre. I just think that the day of the big budget western is long gone. Hell, I think if Back to the Future 3 came out in the current era it would likely bomb because it just does not connect to younger audiences and you cannot sink that amount of money into a movie and not grab a good chunk of that crowd.

Timing of its release was also beyond dumb. Despicable Me 2 and (Disney's own) Monsters U coming out in the same holiday meant this movie had pretty much zero chance. They should have pushed the release back and release it as a Thanksgiving or Christmas movie. This lesson should have been fresh in their minds, considering Dark Shadows got killed by coming out at the same time as Avengers. Better to wait for a lull in the movie schedule than try and go head to head with veritable money machines.

On the movie itself, I know the internet hate machine loves to pile on failure, but really if the genre interests you see the movie and form your own opinion. It has probably one of the most amazing western action sequences ever done in a movie and it was actually fun to watch. The entire build up to where he actually starts going full ass kick mode and the music kicks in is one of the best emotional payoffs of any film I have seen this summer. That moment also highlighted to me why Man of Steel was such a failure on so many levels, despite trying to have the same sort of moment. In this movie, the characters developed and you actually felt fired up to see the hero do his thing, unlike Man of Steel (or the most recent Spider Man reboot) where there was literally nothing relatable of inspiring about the protagonists at all. I liked it, but I am an old fart with some nostalgia, so there is that. If you do not like Westerns or character arcs in your summer popcorn movies, then yeah pass on it and enjoy Pacific Rim Job and whatever Bay shits out next.

The timing issue is particularly egregious because one of the main competing movies (Despicable Me 2) was released by Disney, as well. If this movie had released when they originally intended, prior to Disney shutting down shooting and waving its dick around, it would have come out in late spring and early summer with no real competition aside from IM3. Anyhow, wife and I are going to catch it again at the Cinepolis in Rancho before it gets yanked.