Rango
Starring: Johnny Depp, Isla Fisher, Abigail Breslin, Alfred Molina, Ned Beatty, Ray Winstone,
Director: Gore Verbinski
Rating: 2/5
I will admit that Rango was one of the animation movies that I was most looking forward to this year... but sadly it is one of the first disappointments of 2011.
Rango is a sheltered chameleon living as an ordinary family pet facing a major identity crisis.
After all, how high can you aim when your whole purpose in life is to blend in?
When Rango accidentally winds up in the gritty, gun-slinging town of Dirt, a lawless outpost populated by the desert’s most wily and whimsical creatures, the less-than-courageous lizard suddenly finds he stands out.
Welcomed as the last hope the town has been waiting for, new Sheriff Rango is forced to play his new role to the hilt - until he starts to become the hero he once only pretended to be.
The film looks great, the characters are interesting, it's funny in places but there's just something that doesn't sit quite right with this movie.
It's an incredibly slow start - half an hour in and I was bored rigid; heaven knows how the kids felt - but once the action kicks in it does the pace does really pick up.
The second half is really the movie's strength as Rango and co race across the desert to find the stolen water.
Visually the movie is stunning, set in the wild west, a sprawling desert - you have to give it credit for originality.
But the emotion of the movie and the connection to the characters just seems to get lost in the middle of the madness and mayhem.
However Depp's voice work really is very good he brings the character of Rango alive as the chameleon struggles to discover who he really is.
Yes the movie is visually stunning, yes the script is incredible original, but this movie really lacks heart and that is a real shame.
Director Gore Verbinski seems more content on trying to make this a weird ride, which is really is, than developing characters that we latch on to and root for.
It's clear to see the influences from the likes of Sergio Leone but sadly Rango just buckles under the weight of what it is trying to achieve.
This is by no means a terrible movie but it is a major disappointment - it could have been so much more!
Rango is out now.
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw