Capturing the nation's attention with the Pirates of the Caribbean series, Johnny Depp and director Gore Verbinski seemed like the perfect duo to tackle a quirky, animated western. In fact, with these two together, it seemed inevitable that Rango would be everything we had hoped for and more. Trust me, we were all fooled. Unfortunately, this gunslinger comedy failed to live up to the standards set by its marketing campaign.
The issue in the film does not lie with the cast. Johnny Depp displays a stunning mastery of modulation as he gracefully jumps from one accent to another. The voice work by Isla Fisher and other supporting actors give such charming and humorous personalities to all their characters, reminding me of the archetypal personalities of Westerns past.
The animation also deserves recognition. Rango is the first animated feature film by George Lucas's visual effects company Industrial Light & Magic (ILM). Thanks to ILM's hard work, the film brought the desert town of Dirt, the central location of the film, to colorful life.
So, what's the problem? The answer is twofold: directing and script.
Verbinski simply wasn't the right fit for this film. Despite his solid angles and interesting takes on the action, Verbinski is unable to adequately capture the essence of what a western film should be. I didn't see dust whipping around the body of a hard-faced, grimacing cowboy or sweat beads running down his forehead into the valleys of his temples. Rather, the face-off featured at the end of the film was drawn out and boring. Verbinski lingers too long on unimportant details, accentuating secondary scenes at the expense of major plot turns.
The other major issue with the film is the script; it fails to strike a balance between infantile and mature, and therefore the film lacks concrete perspective. During the fighting scenes with a band of mole robbers who terrorize the town, for example, the lines jump between corny and childish and fierce and adult. The glaring flaw with the script is that, in its attempt to appeal to multiple demographics, it develops an ambiguous character.
Overall, the film delivers a mildly entertaining western with rudimentary humor and great voices. If that balance of pros and cons spurs you to see the film, go right ahead, but for me, it wasn't worth it.
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