Rango

The film gets off to a great start, the action scenes are witty and brisk, and Zimmer's great music works wonders. I found the main idea and especially its development rather weak and far from fulfilling my expectations, but the pace is quite high, the director successfully and originally gives us a taste of several different genres, and the main character himself wins your sympathy from the beginning and becomes incredibly entertaining with his immediacy and a reasonable amount of goofiness. My only real regret is the boring and clichéd ending, where the screenwriter either didn't know what to do anymore, or tried to make Rango into something more than just a throwaway kids' show. As an animated flick, it’s above average, but as an adventure comedy, it will soon fade from my memory. 3.5* (07/27/2011)

It is my bitter fate to stay grounded and describe soberly what is wrong with the film, while others indulge in a flood of stars and use only superlatives in their reviews. However, I will start with some praise – visually, it is well-crafted, with excellent animation, and fans of the western genre will especially appreciate the game played with the viewer, as the script pays homage to all the important films and genre clichés of classic westerns and their modern variations. Some scenes are really great, like the battle over the water tank, which speeds up the pace by several notches, and the characters face an aerial attack by a squadron of bats armed with machine guns – a treat for action genre enthusiasts. However, I had a big problem with the uneven pace of this film, at certain moments it became quite tedious, which is related to the second problem: due to the numerous references to classic films and emotionally charged scenes, it lacks a cohesive storyline to a considerable extent. It is simply the kind of film where I appreciate many individual aspects, but overall it feels unfinished considering the expectations. Giving it less than 3 stars would be unfair considering its excellent ingredients, but my overall feeling is ambivalence, and I give it an overall impression of 60%. It is truly an animated film that older viewers will appreciate. My two children were bored at times. The more familiar you are with the references, the higher the chances that the film will resonate with you. Otherwise, I can understand the five-star ratings, although I do not share the same enthusiasm, as I feel that it all falls apart. (03/13/2011)

If the Spirit of the West spoke in the voice of the real Spirit of the West, Rango would be lacking absolutely nothing. The biggest advantage of this (mostly) adult cartoon is its director. Gore Verbinski has a habit of throwing ideas around and impressing with action scenes, but not forgetting to have a well-constructed story, humor and character portrayal. And just like in (especially the second) Pirates of the Caribbean, he succeeds here. In addition, the ILM computers turned out flawless, perhaps 99% realistic animation, Hans Zimmer wrote his best music since Sherlock Holmes, and each of the actors who dubbed the lizards, rodents, birds and others clearly had a great time doing it. Just like me. (06/19/2011)

An unusual animated film that is excellent despite or maybe precisely because of its unusualness. Maybe even this year’s best, since the Pixar movies bombed out. Verbinski professes his love for westerns and does it in style. The animation is on a high level and some (sunset) shots are feasts for the eyes. The babbling Johnny Depp plays a conflicted hero who is searching for himself with such vigor that sometimes you forget he's a chameleon. With dubbing, the quality necessarily declines. He’s simply inimitable. There are also amazing dream sequences... and The Spirit of the West! When it comes to music, Hans Zimmer quotes and quotes a lot: Ennio, Misirlou, and we even get to hear “Valkyries Riding into Battle" arranged for banjo. Mr. Timms? (06/30/2011)

For the passage where this was a not holds barred spaghetti western that in each camera angle and every tone nods to its roots, Verbinski can dig Leone up from his grave and shake him be the hand as equals. The only snag is that this constantly oscillates between surrealist animated adventure for adults, packed full of references to movies that are rarely nodded at (kicking off right at the beginning with Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, for instance), through ingenious, slapstick inspired situations in Pirates of the Caribbean style, to spaghetti western. And all of these passages separately are gems, but they don’t work together, getting in the way of each other, because each of these approaches alone are enough make (and deserve) a feature length movie of their own. So on one hand it resuscitates several dying genres (not just western or surrealist, but also intelligent, non-ridiculing parodies or pastiches and CGI animation works as such), on the other it rather wastes the potential. And you must watch it in the English language version, not so much for Depp as for Nighy and Olyphant, and the Czech subtitles are playful and inventive (although very loose) for a change OST score: 5/5 (03/11/2011)