3. Don't Insult The Source Material You're Adapting
When adapting classic source material, one of the foremost tenets is to ensure that you're sufficiently respectful of the source material; otherwise, what on Earth is the point? This is clearly not a message The Lone Ranger has taken on board, because as several prominent critics have noted, it is a film that is sorely embarrassed of its heritage, seeking to admonish and excuse its own goofiness at every opportunity possible. For example, at the end of the film, Tonto calls The Lone Ranger out for sayng "Hi, ho Silver, away!", requesting that he never say it again. Though Tonto's retort is supposed to be funny, it just indicates that rather than update the story for a new generation, this movie is just keen to poke fun at the very thing it's trying to make money off. The way to do this is to be reverent to the material while making fun of it; take last year's The Muppets, which thoroughly noted how dated the puppets were, but managed to update them to a contemporary audience without actively mocking the spirit of Jim Henson's creations.