Rango: Watch At Your Own Risque

Johnny Depp --frankly, that's the only thing that drew us to this movie.  He did the Corpse Bride, Pirates of the Carribean, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory --how can Rango do wrong?

Well, it did.  For me.  A bit.  While the premise of 'Reinventing yourself' was original and solid, I felt that the execution had some bugs in it.  An old Western to me is, well, old.  A city boy lost in the country is old for me, too.  And I have issues with the script and a couple of scenes.  My prudish, maternal mind tells me that jokes about being ready to mate, having prostate problems, and a mom having an active, crossbreeding social life don't sit well in a kiddie movie.  Likewise, Rango flirting with the naked torso of a Barbie doll, and the bad dude snake licking the face of the damsel in distress.
But hey, that's just me.

I love the use of a chameleon (which Rango is) to perfectly illustrate the concept of self-reinvention though.  How else can you debunk the idea of 'blending in' but by making use of an individual known to do nothing but 'blend in'?  That was one eureka moment! The texture of the movie is incredible, too --from animal fur, feather, and scale.  The music is almost awesome.  And as usual, Johnny Depp (who Rango is) does the character justice.
So I might just be a tad too hard on the movie.  I could be secretly comparing it to Toy Story 3 which is very unfair.

At the end of the day, the boys DID like Rango  --what with all the chasing and gun-slinging action.  The film IS for them anyway.  So if I were to ignore that stupid 'mating-ready, prostate-problematic, crossbreeding mom, Barbie-fetishing, and face-licking' bit, maybe the movie IS kinda ok.  Not excellent, but ok. A good one-time watch, I suppose. 

Oh but I did like the bullet-strapping, machine gun-toting antagonist, Rattlesnake Jake!  If only he was given more exposure (over and above licking a lady lizard's face), I'd be a happier camper.