I’d like to begin this review by saying that there were parts of the film that I liked. The voice acting was decent, but Johnny Depp and Ned Beatty did their roles excellently. The visual output was good, and the locales occasionally looked realistic at times. I especially liked that the critters weren’t cute anthropomorphized creatures, but ugly and gritty looking. To me, this reflected that the film was darker than your average kid’s fare. The music was good. I particularly enjoyed the fact that the movie avoided what I like to call “The Dreamworks Method” of a genre parody, in which the film obnoxiously throws in as many pop-cultural references as possible. The last third of the movie (which was considerably more serious than the rest of the film) was probably the best part. If the whole film had taken itself more seriously, then it would have been good.
Unfortunately, this brings us to the problem: Rango is an original film that sadly does not live up to its potential. The conflict of the movie is pretty lenient for what should be a serious subject. Without giving too much of the film away, I’ll summarize: The people in Dirt (yes, that’s what the town is called) are dying of dehydration. Throughout the movie, we do not see them drink a single drop of water. Halfway through the film, it turns out that what remains of the water supply has been stolen. The plot takes place over what I assume to be a week, and literally nobody has died from the lack of water. That kind of kills the tension they were setting up. The jokes that are in the movie aren’t really that good. I usually laugh easily, but there weren’t any memorable punch lines. Then there’s the gratuitous amount of toilet humor in the movie, which seems to only be in there to get cheap giggles out of small children. It isn’t even funny toilet humor; it’s just crass.
Oh, and this is a low note to end on, but the song at the end totally knocked off of “Miserlou” from Pulp Fiction.
Bottom Line: Rango is a good idea hindered by its own script. Go see Blazing Saddles instead.
Disapointing, but still creative.
I’d like to begin this review by saying that there were parts of the film that I liked. The voice acting was decent, but Johnny Depp and Ned Beatty did their roles excellently. The visual output was good, and the locales occasionally looked realistic at times. I especially liked that the critters weren’t cute anthropomorphized creatures, but ugly and gritty looking. To me, this reflected that the film was darker than your average kid’s fare. The music was good. I particularly enjoyed the fact that the movie avoided what I like to call “The Dreamworks Method” of a genre parody, in which the film obnoxiously throws in as many pop-cultural references as possible. The last third of the movie (which was considerably more serious than the rest of the film) was probably the best part. If the whole film had taken itself more seriously, then it would have been good.
Unfortunately, this brings us to the problem: Rango is an original film that sadly does not live up to its potential. The conflict of the movie is pretty lenient for what should be a serious subject. Without giving too much of the film away, I’ll summarize: The people in Dirt (yes, that’s what the town is called) are dying of dehydration. Throughout the movie, we do not see them drink a single drop of water. Halfway through the film, it turns out that what remains of the water supply has been stolen. The plot takes place over what I assume to be a week, and literally nobody has died from the lack of water. That kind of kills the tension they were setting up. The jokes that are in the movie aren’t really that good. I usually laugh easily, but there weren’t any memorable punch lines. Then there’s the gratuitous amount of toilet humor in the movie, which seems to only be in there to get cheap giggles out of small children. It isn’t even funny toilet humor; it’s just crass.
Oh, and this is a low note to end on, but the song at the end totally knocked off of “Miserlou” from Pulp Fiction.
Bottom Line: Rango is a good idea hindered by its own script. Go see Blazing Saddles instead.