Films not to See #2 The Lone Ranger

The Lone Ranger starts off like a an epic as an unrecognisable and heavily made up older version of Johnny Depp’s Tonto regales the story of pacifist lawman John Reid (Armie Hammer) and his transformation into the titular Vigilante. But it is this epic length that kills the film, running at an exhausting two and a half hours that drains all promise from the film. Trying to imitate a John Ford western in running time doesn’t work when the characters are so familiar and the story so predictable.  It’s a story that been told many times that a modern reboot didn’t necessitate that long a film, it just  needed some inventive action sequences. While the train chases are thrilling the film in between them isn’t. William Fichner’s Butch Cavendish never feels a strong enough threat despite what he does to John Reid’s brother Dan and Tom Wilkinson’s politician is just an obvious villain from the start that also never feels like that big of an opponent for Reid and Tonto. The second act seems to last for eternity as the central duo go through numerous escapades involving scorpions, the cavalry and Native Americans. It’s clear that the filmmakers sacrificed pacing in a last ditch effort to show the budget on screen. Also the comedy is quite simple even for a disney film but the bloody scene where Cavendish eats a man's heart seems a bit too strong so I'm not too sure who the audience of the film is; are kids nowadays interested in cowboys and horses?

The biggest story of the film being it’s tortured production that saw a mid shoot hiatus to reassess the excessive budget on what is a pretty rote western full of the usual clichés such as bank robberies and bridge explosions that have been done convincingly before.  It is a very visual film with Verbinski doing some interesting transitions and effects sequences but the film as a whole feels far too conventional and suffers for it as we pass the two hour mark. Helena Bonham Carter’s unnecessary appearance and a cruelly underused Barry Pepper as the cavalry chief means the film rests too much on Depp doing his usual idiosyncratic performance and Armie Hammer’s dull lawman whose strict refusal to do any harm to his brother's killers becomes infuriating; how can a lawman survive without a gun is a key question in the film. Was the film worth it's budget and protracted production schedule... no, probably not.

Verdict: Good visuals but standard western tale and a lacklustre Depp performance

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Past Films 1# Predators

Like many Predator fans, the news that Robert Rodriguez was making a sequel that the franchise deserved by taking inspiration from James Cameron’s Aliens gave a lot of hope that Predator could more equally share the pantheon of Sci-fi Monsters with the Alien. Aside from the 1987 Arnie original the Predator series has remained a one off with the descent into the urban jungle and lethal weapon territory in the completely misjudged sequel and then the AVP films. Predator’s reputation really was only built on the solid foundations of John McTiernan’s expertly done taut thriller which combined equal parts suspense as action. The mistake in the sequel and the AVP films was trying to take it out of its natural jungle habitat; after all in all the Alien films the Alien is still confined to industrial interiors whether spaceships, colonies or prisons. So this return to roots but upping of the ante with multiple predators and an up and coming director under the effects guidance of Robert Rodriguez should have given us the return to form. It didn’t really.

First of all the idea of a mismatched team of Earth’s most dangerous men (and woman) forced to team together using their shared strengths and weaknesses I felt was a good idea but the characters come off too much as cardboard clichés. While in the first film there are also obvious cut-outs such as Sonny Landham’s quite prophetic type or Jesse Ventura’s badass but they often had real characters playing them who made them interesting than a boring imitation and there were more developed characters alongside them such as 

Carl Weather’s company man struggling to keep the team composed in the face of an invisible enemy. And while like most classic horrors and Sci-Fi films the film takes it’s time creating the setup before introducing the predators it feels quite dull and a significant lack of urgency.

The cinematography is pretty good but the whole production lacks much originality from Alan Silvestre’s original score being pasted in here the only real differences are the metallic birds, the predator hounds and the different individual designs of the predators themselves. It dosen’t stand out as sequel as more of a remake and worst of all unlike the hordes of aliens in Cameron’s master class of a monster sequel here there are only four who often attack their prey one on one while one of the four (who bears the classic Stan Winston design from the first film) is tied upto a post the whole film and actually helps our team of humans.

There is a faceoff between two predators and a duel between a Yakuza hecnmen and a predator is an excellent sequence there are far too many nods to the first film; such as the flying log trap or a Gatling gun or a character staring blankly at a tree or a group firing aimlessly into the forest and particularly in the unoriginal faceoff at the end which references the original climax so much that it should give writing credit back to the original creators of the series John and Jim Thomas. There are no classic lines as in Cameron’s Aliens or the original; “If it bleeds we can kill it!”, “I ain’t got time to bleed!” and “Get to the Chopper!”

Nimrod Antal gives the jungle an alien vibe and creates some interesting shots but when the action kicks in, he resorts to the usual quick cutting Bourne style where the camera often doesn’t capture the cool moves. Some revolving shots aside and the duel scene he lacks any of the roving camera angles Mc Tiernan had all over the first film. The final proof is that in the comic book on the DVD I saw more cool shots than in the whole film including a Predator wading through a river.

Verdict;

 While on paper a Robert Rodriguez produced, Aliens-esque sequel with a group of mismatched killers may have sounded (good kind of like the Alien 3 setup) this fails overall to be that memorable. The poor character development and blank faced cast means that we are only watching for the predators who unfortunately are also lacking any new tricks making this just another contemporary reboot that can’t find the original talent that makes the original so engrossing.

Pros; Good set up, Good Cinematography, Interesting Predator design

Cons; Predictable outcome, Follows the original too closely and Poor Cast

Who’s to blame; Script writer and Casting director

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