By the time you read this, you may have already seen Rango. I know, I know. I’m a little late on this one. If you’ve already seen this movie, then I owe you another review. Email the Iron Warrior and I’ll have them send you one free review of your choosing (Editors’ note: No we won’t.). This movie has caused enough of a stir in me that I’ll even put in a late review out for it.
Rango, by all means, should be a movie that was destined to be panned. It’s a computer animation movie – but it’s not done by either Pixar or DreamWorks. It’s one of those ‘stuff as many celebrities as you can’ movies, but outside of Johnny Depp, the next billings go to Little Miss Sunshine and the crazy one from Wedding Crashers. It’s not it 3-D, a seeming prerequisite for any animated movie nowadays. Hell, it’s not even coming out in the summer, but rather late winter with the rest of the trash heap. That’s all well and good, but why can’t I stop watching the trailer?
The first thing you notice from the trailer is that the movie looks beautiful. The movie, or at least the little trailer bits, have spared no expense to making the visuals absolutely jaw dropping. The scenery around the small western animal town of Dirt is ridiculously detailed. The villagers are varied, and all have their own unique look and charm. We got our mixture of rats, moles, gophers, lizards and a group of mariachi owls (which would make a pretty good band name if you ask me). And then we have Johnny Depp, who happens to play the lead. Being decked out in one of those Tilley hats and a Hawaiian shirt, it’s no doubt a call back to that family friendly movie Johnny did a while back where he took a bunch of drugs in the desert and tripped out in Las Vegas. Word on the street is that there’s a Hunter S. Thompson “cameo” in the movie, which makes me wonder why on earth Nickelodeon would do these things. For the parents? You think you could skew more popular if you had him with a pirate hat, scissor hands, a vampire, or even a cokehead before you would go for the Hunter S. Thompson homage. Well, I heartily appreciate it, so maybe its Paramount thanking me for being such a good viewer and I shouldn’t complain any about it. So I’ll move on and just complain about other things in the movie.
There are a few shortcomings that the movie shows and it all stems from what looks like a weak script. The plot isn’t exactly anything to write home about. Rango is a fish out of water, new in town and becomes a hero for defeating the big meanie. He then gets a big ego, and as a sheriff is tasked to clean up the town. Hijinks ensue as he has to use his brain to outsmart the wily bad guy and save the day. I’ve not looked at any synopses for the movie, but just pieced it together from trailers and assuming that it was going to have the same plot as EVERY DAMN KIDS WESTERN EVER. All they need is for Rango to find the washed up drunk crack shot that hasn’t fired a gun in years to be his sidekick in order to provide sharpshooting at Rango’s dire time of need. But again, since I haven’t seen the movie, it might be in there. Actually, it probably is in there, sorry to ruin that surprise too. The dialogue is corny, but expectable, and the use of Depp’s voice is an odd choice. Depp has always made his characters work, but he never really had the voice of a sort of wimpy small fry. We know him better when his words are drunkenly slurred or a nice cocaine staccato or even lunatic fast. But I know, it’s a movie aimed at kids so you can expect the plot to take a hit, or for the jokes to be a little corny and the kids will be ensconced by it.
And you know what? I’m a little ensconced too. The movie looks like a joy to watch, a movie that doesn’t need 3-D because the visuals actually provide the sense of atmosphere there. It looks like a fun, yet predictable ride, that will give you plenty of ooh and ah moments. It goes up there with The Fountain for movies that would actually seem worth buying if you have Blu-Ray. To put it short, I like it. If you need to go see it with your family, they’ll like it. You can drag your loved one to it, and they’d like it. It won’t be the most memorable, but damn is it purdy. Rango is out now so go watch it over that snooze-fest Adjustment Bureau.
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