Not much to crow about

Even the brilliant Johnny Depp is unable to salvage The Lone Ranger and its confused script

Confession: I know very little about The Lone Ranger mythology - there have been comic books, the character has been part of several children's books, a very popular American radio show and there was a forgettable film by the same name made in the 1980s. The main attraction of The Lone Ranger made by Gore Verbinski (director of the Pirates of the Carribean franchise) is Johnny Depp. That Depp is a supremely talented actor is stating the obvious. But it is the diverse roles he portrays - be it Sweeny Todd, Mad Hatter, Jack Sparrow - that have made him a standout performer. In The Lone Ranger, Depp disappoints, but more on that later.

The film starts with a young boy entering a carnival in San Fransisco and meeting a Native Indian, Tonto, (played by Depp) who regales him with the tale of the Ranger and himself. We first see Ranger, a.k.a John Reid, travelling on a train back to Texas after finishing law school. Aboard the train, he meets a chained outlaw, Butch Cavendish (William Fichtner), and alongside him is Tonto wearing a dead-crow hat. When asked what his crime is, Tonto merely says, "Indian".

Cavendish escapes from the train and our Ranger ends up in Texas where he replaces his Texas Ranger brother and swaps his lawyer's robes for a Zorro-type mask. Tonto becomes his sidekick and both of them march on a heroic journey where they have adventures involving Native Americans, the railroad and the mining mafia. To be fair, the raw materials have the makings of a decent Wild West film but Verbinski seems to be suffering from a Pirates hangover.

There's too much over-the-top and needless comedy and an attempt to cash in on Depp's goofy Tonto. The movie is actually more about Tonto than the Ranger. The comedy is silly at best, apart from a few scenes where Depp delivers one-liners. But this is where Verbinski seems to have lost the plot. To keep it in tone with its Western milieu, there's more than its share of gruesome violence. A lot of people are killed; there is a certain amount of gore and a typical soundtrack plays in the background.

The need for gore and violence is pivotal to the script as the Ranger starts off by getting justice in a non-violent way. But when people around him are butchered, he takes Tonto's advice and dons the mask and goes on a warpath. It's the confused nature of the plot - half comic, half violent - which lets down The Lone Ranger massively.

Hammer, who was last seen as one of the Winklevoss twins in The Social Network, is good as the Ranger. Depp and he share good chemistry but the film is more about Tonto than the Ranger. And while Depp, as Tonto, feeds peanuts to the crow on his head, the novelty wears off after the first 30 minutes. It's a testament to Depp's talent that it's only because of him that the movie is actually bearable.

It's a beautifully shot film and Verbinski captures the setting quite perfectly. The last ten minutes of the film are actually rivetting but it comes a little too late to save The Lone Ranger. Johnny Depp fans might just end up liking the film. As for others, The Lone Ranger is definitely worth giving a miss.