- Crime Drama.
- Authority figures challenge criminal
- Criminal often loses
- Standoff between good and evil
- Criminals often held up in a bank

Why The Lone Ranger was seen as a box-office flop.

The Lone Ranger was considered to be a box-office failure for a plentiful amount of reasons, most of which are pointing to the length of the movie and plot. I’m going to jump straight into it and start handing out reasons and quotes as to why it flopped.

Straight off the bat, the film-critic aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes, based on 210 reviews rated the movie 30%, 100% being the highest rating and 0% being the lowest. Already it’s not looking good but as you begin to read the reviews the reasoning to the abundance of unfavorable reviews become clear. “Armie Hammer and Johnny Depp make for an appealing pair of leads, but they’re not enough to make up for The Lone Ranger’s bland script, bloated length and blaring action overkill.” seems to be the general consensus of Rotten Tomatoes, one person even scoffs “Somewhere, around the hour-and-a-half mark, The Lone Ranger makes the fateful decision not to end. Worse, the movie keeps not-ending for another full hour.”

Already people are saying that a run time of 2 hours and 29 minutes is too long for a movie, which in my opinion is completely true. Nobody wants to associate with a bad plot for more than an hour and even a good movie can’t keep me comfortable in my seat for longer than 2 hours.

Now statistically they made $48.9 million over a 5 day frame and expected $60-70 million on the debut. The movie itself received a high amount of bad publicity after with many people comparing to “John Carter” a big budget Disney movie made just the year before. With a reputation like that ratings dropped even more recieving a whole load of critique. Not only could it be comparable to John Carter but also the 1999 movie “Wild Wild West” both sharing a few similarities. Both rating very low, both not being able to hold a plot.

“Basically this $250 million reboot is overlong, over indulgent and uneven, but it’s also stuffed full of deadpan comedy, breakneck thrills and breathtaking visual spectacle.” - Jason Best

I feel this quote says it all. It’s hard to follow the plot and the run time is way too long but it’s also visually stunning. It must be said that Johnny Depp told the media “I think the reviews were written seven to eight months before we released the films and the critics had expectations that it must be a blockbuster. I don’t have any expectations of that. I never do” Whilst also suggesting that the movies performance was hobbled by unfair expectations and bad reviews. Respectfully this could have been the case, even Jerry Bruckheimer and others in the film said “I think they were reviewing the budget, not reviewing the movie and it’s unfortunate because the movie is a terrific one, an epic movie with a lot of humour”

“It's no sort of masterpiece. But The Lone Ranger is a good deal less dreadful than advance word has suggested”. - Donald Clarke

Ashley Price

Favourite Movie This Summer?

Assuming this means my favourite movie that has been released this summer it would definitely have to be “Now You See Me” Starring Jesse Eisenberg, Mark Ruffalo, Morgan Freeman and Woody Harrelson make amazing leads especially with the teaming of Jesse and Woody back from Zombieland and with an amazing cast behind them produced an brilliant movie about a team of illusionists who pull of bank heists during their performances.

Now I am a huge fan of movies like Donnie Darko, The Butterfly Effect, Red State and Primer. I love movies that make you think, ones that you don’t know what is going to happen. In short, if the plot has twists or you can’t predict what will happen at the beginning of the movie I will rate it highly and this movie does just that.

I love the cast in Now You See Me. I’m not a magic buff but the cast make me believe I am. When you’re watching them perform on stage you can feel yourself swell up in excitement thinking “What’s going to happen next?” The mystery of illusion really keeps you on your feet.

There is an underlying tone of social disturbance and social inequality within the movie. More of a modern day Robin Hood. The illusionists steal money from banks mid performance and give the money to the poor people in the audience. All the people receiving the money reveal to have been screwed over by the same company. It gives a sense of justice to the viewer.

Visually Now You See Me is stunning. At one point the Protagonists are seen digitally on the side of a building. Generating a crowd by initially firing bolts of light through the ground and onto the sides of the building, a breathtaking sight as everything comes together.

The reason I chose this movie over the summer has mainly to do with the fact I’ve only really been re watching older movies. Dog Day Afternoon, The Usual Suspects and American history X to name but a few. Now you see me just has a comparable script/plot to ones previously mentioned and it gripped me from the get go.

There have been some bad reviews claiming that the scattered plot relies on sleight of hand from the director to distract audiences. Now although a clever statement I found this to be the complete opposite. I felt the plot moved a little too quickly but I feel like watching the movie you wont believe your eyes, and that’s the point. It sends the viewer down corridors only to reveal that you’ve been looking in the wrong places the whole movie. It sent me on a comfortable goose chase only to reveal that everything I had been looking for was right in front of me the whole time.

I honestly don’t know if I’m allowed to spoil the movie so I’ll leave out what happens at the end but the script is just, beautiful.

Ashley Price