Rango

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. (2011-03-13)

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 (2011-03-11)

Typical Verbinski. The ideas are pressurized to burst, in a matter of minutes it's able to pulverize Leone, Coppola and Bay together, and it just burps lightly. It's much more functional as a Western ensemble than as a film. The scattering of the individual parts is even surreally generous, so the resulting impression is somewhat restless. With the addition of Czech dubbing, I will have to take away the fifth star, which does not change the fact that it is probably the animated highlight of the season. (2011-03-01)

Rango is more about episodic gems than about its story. But these gems are an avalanche of fresh ideas, paying homage to famous westerns, Robert Rodriguez movies and even Pulp Fiction. The characters of bearded lizard hombres spitting in the dust who are rendered more vividly and with greater attention to detail than Clu in Tron: Legacy are a true feast for the eyes of genre enthusiasts. Hans Zimmer’s post-Sherlock music laced with Mexican motifs spices up the comical episodes and boosts the action ones that are shot and edited better than anything you’ve seen in the best action flicks. And there are significantly more jokes aimed at adults than at kids. (2011-03-08)

The film features excellent individual elements that stand out on their own (Clint), underlined by spectacular visuals (Deakins), playful music, and a horde of allusions, quotes, and parodies. Unfortunately, the result of the aforementioned is a rather incoherent patchwork, whose issue is not so much that it dabbles in multiple genres, but rather that it lacks the real wit that might have brought (paradoxically!) a bit of childishness in Verbinski's writing, the absence of which, on the other hand, I can quite understand after the Pirates trilogy. (2011-08-03)