Missed Movies: Rango

***COMING SOON*** 

A NEW WEBSITE CALLED 'THE EXPOSITIONIST'

BROUGHT TO YOU BY MYSELF AND THE FORMER OPTIMIST

***COMING SOON***

***WARNING***

THE FOLLOWING POST MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS AND CONTRADICTIONS THEREFORE IT MAYBE UNSUITABLE FOR SOME FUCKS.

 ***YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED***

I wish to kick off this review by stating that I absolutely hate it when people argue with a film critics review of any given movie. It is a film critics job to watch a film and then feed back a dialogue explaining their personal experiences of watching said film. The end result of this process is a review that can be ultimately defined as a speculative hypothesis and in no way a statement of fact. So why is it that in the comment box's for every well known and widely followed online review publication I find a plethora of mono syllabic diatribes complaining that the reviewer 'got it wrong' or 'doesn't know what their talking about'. By doing this you are portraying yourself as a person of very insignificant intelligence. Every review of anything is a correct review, because a review is a single individuals opinion of something. Its not a case of right or wrong, it's a case of agree or disagree. If you disagree with a critics film review then why not get out there and write a review of your own to counter act that critics opinion. Doing this is constructive and in the long run contributes to an ongoing dialogue about the topic at hand. With that being said and now fresh in our minds let me talk about ILM's first dip into the CG animated movie pool, Rango.

Rango is the story of a pet chameleon who becomes lost in the desert. After a few troublesome encounters our hero stumbles across a small town that goes by the name of Dirt. He becomes a hit with the locals and is soon promoted to be the towns sherif and is tasked with finding out what has happened to the towns dwindling water supply. Hilarity supposedly ensues.

Rango is for the most part a nod and a wink to the now classic films set in the American old west. It looks and feels like a Sergio Leone film. This is coupled with a story that pays homage to and lovingly references 1974's American neo-noir film Chinatown. This is not a bad thing, many of the best CG animated films ever have contained many a clever reference that will go way over the heads of their pre pubescent target audience. I think it should be a requirement of films like these to throw in the odd bit of content for the parents, especially seeing as they are going to be forced to watch the film with their ungrateful, drug addled spawn who are bound to be too young to experience a cinema alone. References aside the original content of Rango can be found within its script which while simple, is entertaining enough for the core audience members though, for me, an adult, it lacked weight and substance, something which Pixar have spoilt me with over the years. Despite this the story is there and the humour is consistent and services Rango rather well.

By far the most outstanding aspect of Rango is how it looks. ILM have produced, by far, the best looking CG animated film thus far. With Gore Verbinski at the helm and Roger Deakins lending his Cinematographic talents as an advisor on the production ILM have put out a film that could stand up to any modern 'real life' production from a visual standpoint. The textures are painstakingly detailed, the lighting is dramatic and realistic and the camera movements aid the story in such a way that its forgivable to forget that your watching what is essentially a cartoon. Even the Character designs are both interesting and memorable all the way from the main character down to the minor roles of 'Dirts' townfolk. Clearly ILM's history as a hollywood special effects house has taught them a fuck load about how films are made, something which Pixar are very close too understanding but aren't quite as savvy about at this moment in time. If your looking for a reason to watch Rango, this aspect of the film is impressive enough to warrant my recommendation. It's an early call, but I'd put good money on Rango being this years best looking CG animated movie.

     

Audibly Rango is a treat. Featuring a cast of many well known and respected actors including Johnny Depp, Isla Fisher, Ned Beatty, Alfred Molina, Stephen Root and Bill Nighy. Nighy in particular serves his character very well, pulling off both threatening and darkly comic like the true master that he is. Its a near perfect cast all things considered it is however a shame that they couldn't get Clint Eastwood to cameo in a role that was clearly meant for him, settling instead for Timothy Olyphantastic who is far from an acceptable replacement but lets not dwell on a slight blemish that barely rocks the foundation of Rango's solid cast. The cast are backed by a beautiful score brought to us by Hans Zimmer, a man who doesn't appear to have stopped working for the past six or seven years. This is all rather fantastic, but it doesn't add up to much if there is a lack of substance beneath it all.

As I eluded to back in the now world renowned third paragraph of this review, the script didn't really excite me much. Rango isn't and isn't trying to be a very original piece. I have no problems with a lack of originality provided that a film be entertaining. I myself have been critiqued for my explanations of why I found Avatar and Hangover Part 2 to be such catastrophic failures. The reason being that I mainly sight their lack of original thought as the reason for my destain when, in fact I disliked them mostly because not only were they unoriginal, but they also failed to entertain me, both bored me in actuality. I have similar issues with Rango. Rango is at its best when it dares to enter a world of surreal absurdism, the problem is it doesn't dare to do this very frequently and for me that is Rango's greatest downfall. An animated film can last 100 minutes and be entertaining throughout its entire run, but somehow Rango feels a little flabby. There are entire sections of the movie that could have been dropped in favour of advancing the story, but instead Rango lingers on these moments in order to depart a joke or two that, to be honest, could be left behind without being missed. Look out for a sequence held in an underground tunnel for an example of this.

Another issue I feel Rango has is within its tone. Rango is very dark for a 'kids' movie. There are a few scenes depicting and lingering on the death of a few minor characters and even one scene displaying a hanging of sorts. Now, to be fair, the hanging sequence is supposed to be a throw away joke, but for death to play such an important part in a film like Rango strikes me as a very odd choice. What confuses me even more is that these scenes are inserted between moments of expected humour, thus negating any relevance the deaths had in the first place. I won't look into this aspect any further seeing as I am not a child and do not know how they would react in these conditions, I just suspect that the younger members of the audience may find the overall feel of Rango a little threatening. Plus the stories main villain would have provoked tears from me as a runt, so parents may wish to check this out prior to unleashing it upon your kidlets.

So here we are, the be all and end all. Its the time in the review where I will pick a number between one and five in order to represent my feelings towards Rango. Once this has been done, the pointless and stupid critiquing of my critique will begin. I only hope that my readers have the sense and intelligence not to voice these critiques in the comment boxes bellow, but what am I thinking? We're talking about people who insist on writing 'first' if they are indeed the first to post any such comment. What a sad bunch of ingrates you really are...*sigh*.

Rango. It looks and sounds like bacon frying in a pan, but once its all cooked up it doesn't taste of anything and will leave you wishing you'd cooked up sausages.

Rango gets...

2.5 out of 5