We had kind of suspected as much. Critics across the Atlantic are letting rip on Johnny Depp's latest offering, The Lone Ranger (which stars Armie Hammer alongside him). While the feedback is largely negative, we'll try our very best to reserve judgement 'til we plonk our own butts in front of that big old silver screen. Though it isn't easy when the below is taken into consideration
Anyhoo, fact of the matter is it currently stands at a paltry 25% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. And it gets worse...
The Hollywood Reporter had this to say:
"Floated conceptually and commercially by another eccentric comic characterization by Johnny Depp, this attempt by Verbinski and producer Jerry Bruckheimer to plant the flag for another Pirates of the Caribbean-scaled series tries to have it too many ways tonally, resulting in a work that wobbles and thrashes all over the place as it attempts to find the right groove"
While Variety wrote:
"This team builds things just to blow them up, and by the film’s climax - which juggles several high-peril situations aboard two criss-crossing locomotives, including the sight of Reid riding his 'spirit horse,' Silver, atop a train - what began as an elegantly epic, potentially realistic retelling of the Lone Ranger legend has devolved into Wile E. Coyote-style cartoon shenanigans."
Then there's HitFix who said:
"To be fair, Depp is not the main problem with Disney's disastrous The Lone Ranger. This film is a catastrophe of tone, a truly tortured screenplay that seems embarrassed by its central character, and at two-and-a-half hours, it may be the single most punishing experience I've had in a theatre so far this year."
Yeesh, not the Mae West for Mr Depp and co. What are your thoughts on Johnny's work of late? Is he up to the standard of days gone by? Is it him? Is it the material? Does he need to change direction drastically?
