Film Reviews

Rango

• Rating:
• Director: Gore Verbinski
• Starring: Bill Nighy
• Details: US/107mins PG

Credit to Gore Verbinksi; the director hasn't just moved away from the mainstream "Orlando Bloom forehead acting shenanigans" of Pirates of the Caribbean, he's knee-jerked firmly into quirky territory. A little too much so. Rango may be an admirable attempt at doing something different with animated fare - other than the charm-saturated efforts of Pixar and co - but it's never really engaging. The titular character is almost an existential lizard version of Hugh Grant; amusing at first, but soon his foppish behaviour becomes irritating.
Rango is a chameleon who thinks he's destined for more than just the boring existence he's been living all of his life. Deciding to up-sticks and head out into the big wild world, he manages to stumble across the ramshackle town of Dirt. After a run-in with the local wrong-sorts, he inadvertently becomes the town Sherriff, and his first job is to tackle the crippling water shortage that has stricken Dirt. But all is not what it seems; there may be a deeper conspiracy at work and Rango is stumbling towards it.
There's a texture to the animation here that nearly makes the whole thing feel disconcertingly real. When a human character does turn up, you really have to double-check to see that it's not an actor; each of the creature characters also have their own individual look to match their personalities. It's obvious a lot of attention and skill has gone into making this film look as unique as possible, but tonally, the script never nails a mood and it's only ever occasionally funny.
Johnny Depp does his upmost to inject some personality into Rango, and while he and the majority of the other reptiles feel moderately well rounded, there is not an ounce of likeability between them. It just feels like an animated, pseudo-Coen brothers production that never blends all of its elements properly.
Rango is ascetically impressive, but peculiar and a little too dark for younger kids. It may find a cult following down the line, but it's still hard to see who it's aimed at.

Review by Mike Sheridan