As a movie, "Rango" has next-to-nothing to do with "Fear and Loathing", which is probably a good thing. I doubt kids would put up with a trippy nearly-plotless film about a chameleon and his Samoan lawyer bumming around the old west trying every single narcotic known to man. Instead the actual plot is a frothy mixture of "Chinatown", "Flushed Away", with a tiny bit of the "Man With No Name Trilogy" mixed in for extra flavor. Obviously this movie is best enjoyed if you've actually seen "Chinatown" and "A Fistful of Dollars", which is something I rather doubt most kids actually have done. If you are a seven-year-old who knows that Clint Eastwood's pony does not like to be laughed at then you get a high-five from me, but otherwise this movie is probably going to go over your head. "Rango" is an odd kind of movie, that's clear.
But sadly I can't really say that "Rango" is an amazing piece of work. Its no "Fantastic Mr. Fox" despite its dreams for trippy originality. Its just a bit less sentimental and clever than it thinks it is. Its funny, its beautiful, its worth seeing, but its not a masterpiece. And I was hoping that "Rango" could be something so much more. Instead its just Friday-night entertainment, little else.
"Rango" stars a chameleon (played by Johnny Depp in a meek voice) with no name living in a cage trying to cast the various toys and objects as actors in his romance plays. The chameleon starts to worry that his own character lacks depth and purpose, and then decides that what is needed is an ironic twist of fate to destroy his comfortable surroundings and give him purpose... which he gets when the cage falls out of the back of the family car leaving the chameleon in the midst of the burning desert all alone. Following the advise of an immortal roadkill victim, he wanders to the animal village of Dirt, where he decides to fit in with the surroundings by pretending to be a badass gunslinger by the name of Rango, a wild cowboy who can kill seven men (err, rodents) with one shot. Thanks to dumb luck Rango actually kills a monster hawk with a single bullet and becomes the new hero sheriff. Sadly Dirt has bigger problems than just a wild hawk, the evil turtle mayor, apparently as much a fan of "Chinatown" as I am, is stealing all the water for his new development scheme. (Luckily the mayor didn't also steal the "She's my sister/she's my daughter" plotline as well, or else this movie would very much not be for kids.) To save the town of Dirt, Rango must fight an armada of bat-fighters, an outlaw snake with a machine-gun for a rattle, and his own lack of identity.
There are some very cool moments in "Rango". The best fight scene is easily the exciting chase scene where Rango and the Dirt townsfolk try to outrun a squadron of moles riding bats. You have to remember that Rango is doing all this while wearing a dress. Of course, Jake, the rattlesnake with a machine gun tail is the coolest character here, but he's sadly underused. He's also voiced by Bill Nighy, AKA Davy Jones from the "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies*. A rattlesnake with a machine gun voiced by Bill Nighy, you don't get more awesome than that! Sadly Rango isn't exactly Rooster Cogburn here, so he can't actually take on this great threat in a final properly-Western showdown. Dumb luck might work as a characterizing process, but it does make for a disappointing climax, I must admit.
The art style of "Rango" mostly attempts to make its funny animal characters as photorealistic as possible. Rango, aside from his clothing, might pass as a real chameleon if he got down on all fours and growled. The Uncanny Vally for the most part is avoided, but some characters do tend more towards ugly than cute. Its a pretty unique artistic choice and I feel its for this movie's benefit. If you look around you'll see that the town of Dirt is actually built out of pieces of human garbage: like the post office is literally a mailbox. That reminds me of "Fantastic Mr. Fox", which is pretty cool. The rest of Rango's world is an amazing CG creation, almost stunning in how much like the real American Southwest it actually is.
Rango is an odd kind of lead. His meekness leads to some laughs early on, but the movie seems to lose him as the plot roles forward. As he sets himself into his role as sheriff, he actually seems to fade away into the background. I think the creators overdid the chameleon metaphor here, because at no point should your protagonist actually disappear like elevator music. There could have been a bit more dream sequences, definitely.
The funniest moments in this come when human characters make cameos. Johnny Depp's Hunter S. Thompson appears at the beginning when Rango flies into his window. Then Rango in an Act 3 spiritual journey meets Clint Eastwood, playing the Man With No Name, giving advise to a chameleon without a name. You don't get more metafictional than that. Of course, the scene is made worthless immediately when I noticed that it wasn't Clint Eastwood's voice. Its Timothy Olyphant, the chickenshit villain from "Die Hard 4". If I needed to pick a metaphor for my "Rango" falls short its this: the movie promises you incomparable Clint Eastwood-level greatness but once you get past the shine all you have is preppy little Timothy Olyphant.
Also for a reason that God only knows, the Eye of Sauron briefly appears without explanation or comment. I don't know what the deal with that is either.
I will give "Rango" credit for its willingness to say the words "kill" and "murder" so freely in a kid's movie. But sadly "Rango" is not edgy enough to succeed as a largely adult film like "Fantastic Mr. Fox" and it doesn't have enough of a soul to succeed as a Pixar-quality family film. It was a fun viewing, it has a couple nice cinematic references, but its not incredible. Just writing this review was an excruciating exercise, because I literally could not find much of anything to say about this one. Ultimately I think I came off too harsh. I can't say I regret seeing "Rango" its a good enough movie, but don't expect to remember this one very well the day after. I don't want to be overly harsh to a movie that is all by all definitions decent, but this one is going right into the FORGET file of my brain, right next to "Iron Man 2".
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* "Rango" is a kind of unofficial "Pirates" cast reunion, with Johnny Depp of course, Bill Nighy, and its directed by Gore Verbinski, the director of the "Pirates" movies. Verbinski has not signed on for "Pirates 4: On Stranger Tides" making me just a bit worried about that one. Not to mention that the "Pirates" franchise was wearing thin by "At World's End".
Well, now I know it wasn't much to avoid seeing.
ReplyDeleteOh, BTW you forgot this week's Bleach recap.
Ive actually been very interested in this one as a comedy. And the eye of sauron? Really? im sudenly more interested in this movie. :) and clint eastwood shows up and gives him advice? lol. thsi seems like a good comedy to me man..... But hey, im an wanna-be actor, so almost everything that is funy looks good to me!
ReplyDeleteDammit, I had really high hopes for this one. Shame. Oh well, I'll still go see it.
ReplyDeleteAnd, Person-with-no-name up there, I'm pretty sure Blue has not forgotten about Bleach, given it's a weekly thing, he probably just has more interesting things to do at the moment, like Rango. It'll come around eventually, just be patient for now.