| |
|
By Simon Jago
Creator of the highly succesful 'Pirates of the Caribbean' franchise, Gore Verbinski brings us his CGI creature caper Rango. Brought to life by familiar face Johnny Depp, Rango is an interesting take on the usual 'fish out of water' story or should I say chameleon out of terrarium story with a Western style twist. I was attracted to the film by its unusual style and it didn't disappoint.
PLOT SYNOPSIS
The film centres around a pet Chameleon named Rango, who is alone and lost in his small glass tank world. At a perfect moment of soul searching, an accident leaves Rango stranded in the desert and forced on a journey of self discovery.
Rango finds himself in the lawless wild west town of Dirt. He manages to win over the locals through some convincing acting and story telling, landing himself the position of Sheriff of the town. However, despite loving his new position, there's more in store for Rango than even his wild brain can imagine.
Rango has a beautiful style and an amazing attention to detail with regards to the designs for all the odd animals and creatures that populate the town of Dirt. There are some fantastic ideas brought together with strong acting, great direction and generally a well thought out vision of this wild west adaptation for animals. The film underplays its great cast by only advertising Johnny Depp as the lead role, but all of the characters are believable and brought to life by good performances.
As much as I enjoyed the film I do think that it is slightly confused with regards to its target market. It seems almost too dark and menacing at times to be a wholesome family movie, but then lacking in real grit to make it fully grasping for an audience of an adult nature. It was hard to judge because at times I desperately wanted Rango to shoot someone with the gun he kept waving about, but knew this satisfaction would never come because of its PG rating. I think the film could have stepped away from being a kid's film and actually worked on a more mature level with only minor alterations.
RATING
Rango is a thoroughly enjoyable film and it's nice to see not all kid's movies these days have to be dumbed down. The film takes the tired and worn out Western genre and gives it a new spin with great flair and excitement. Pirates of the Caribbean in the desert... and with animals... who wear clothes and shoot tiny guns. 3.5 stars out of 5.
|
|
|
