Movie Thoughts: Rango (2011)

 

• Released: February 14th, 2011
• Directed by: Gore Verbinski
• Running time: 1h 47min
• Rating 3.5/5

Synopsis

A chameleon with a flair for the dramatic pretends to be a hero in order to get of a western town's good graces, all the while unmasking a conspiracy concerning the town's water supply.

My Thoughts

I've been putting off watching this movie for literally well over a decade for a simple reason: I've always hated how it looks. I did as a kid when I first saw the advertisements and I still did prior to giving it a proper watch.

But now that I sat my lazy butt down and finally gave it a watch, it honestly wasn't so bad. Yes, visually this movie has a very ugly art style going in, but it's obviously done on purpose and it kind of works. Not to say I'm a huge fan of it or anything now, but I do appreciate it far more than before watching this movie. I do still wish some of the characters had a more distinct species (like with some you legit can't tell what their exact species are supposed to be, which is a bit off-putting), it overall does just add to the tone and atmosphere of this movie. 

The story and characters are honestly fine. It's nothing groundbreaking and does thread on old tropes, but for what it is I think it is solid. While I don't particularly like Rango as a main character, I still did care about him and the town to an extent and do want to see them succeed. I maybe wasn't super invested in this movie, but it did keep me engaged enough to keep going.

I was afraid for how they were going to do the liar-revealed trope (one of my least favorite tropes), but thankfully it's handled pretty well here and I like how it resolved.

So yeah, overall I wouldn't consider this a great film or one of my favorites, but I do respect it a lot now that I've seen it. Check it out for yourself if you haven't already.