10 Terrible Movies With One Redeeming Feature

The Lone Ranger is a mess. Too long, too expensive, too boring, all of it applies to Gore Verbinski's botched attempt to recapture the magic of Pirates of the Caribbean in a Western setting. That isn't to say that the movie doesn't have its positives, but for the most part it left critics and audiences feeling more than a little underwhelmed.

For a summer blockbuster with a butt-numbing running time of 149 minutes, The Lone Ranger doesn't pick up steam until the third act but when it does, the results are nothing short of stunning. For the only time in the movie Verbinski's natural tendencies to lean towards excess are genuinely welcomed, with the extended final action sequence a thing of beauty.

Perfectly paced for a scene with so many moving parts, the geography, character beats and propulsive energy are all working in sync, with things really kicking into overdrive when the legendary William Tell Overture blasts into high gear. For a brief moment, Verbinski and producer Jerry Bruckheimer trap the lighting in a bottle that made the Pirates franchise so successful, it's just a shame that the rest of the movie was nowhere near as good.