As he showed with the last couple of Pirates of the Caribbean movies, director Gore Verbinski makes long, sometimes boring movies, interspersed with enjoyable action scenes. His latest, The Lone Ranger, is the same.

It’s obviously meant to the be the lead off film in another highly lucrative franchise from Disney, although weekend box office receipts were not impressive. It tells how the masked hero came to be, when a nasty gang of outlaws massacres a band of Texas Rangers and the lone survivor is rescued by Tonto. Together they go after the outlaws and start cleaning up the west.

Armie Hammer is okay as the idealistic but stalwart symbol of justice, while Johnny Depp plays Tonto as his more common sense companion. With Depp Tonto is no longer a sidekick, but a major, if still enigmatic, character.

As many have complained, the movie is too long.

There are some neat action sequences, some humourous bits and some off the wall stuff (bunnies and scorpions?), but there are scenes that go on way too long, and some boring bits too. There is the usual emphasis on overlong shootouts and a reliance on computer-generated effects. Some sequences might as well be animated totally for all the reality they contain.

But this reviewer is old enough to remember the Lone Ranger TV series from the 50s, and a couple of not-so-good spinoff movies, so it’s kind of nice to see the story make it to the big screen again.

Rating: three deer out of five

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A lot of people liked the little noticed Admission with Tina Fey.

Alf Cryderman is a Red Deer freelance writer and old movie buff.