20 Underappreciated Blockbusters That Are Much Better Than You Remember
6. The Lone Ranger
Quite why a Western needed to cost $225m is anybody's guess, and while The Lone Ranger may have many flaws (half an hour too long, a clunky framing device, incredibly overindulgent, shoddily written and needlessly complicated), it remains a wonderfully entertaining example of blockbuster excess.
The movie is also tonally inconsistent to an almost hilarious degree; there is a villain that eats people's hearts, references to the slaughter of indigenous people, horse-based slapstick and poop jokes often all in the space of one scene. And it is this completely bonkers spirit that is also The Lone Ranger's greatest asset.
Armie Hammer and Johnny Depp's sparkling chemistry frequently overcomes the weak dialogue they are burdened with, while the action sequences are filled to the brim with pure unbridled imagination from the batsh*t crazy mind of Gore Verbinski, with the final train chase in particular one of the best set-pieces put on the big screen in recent years.