The structure of this piece is that I'll look at the five films Johnny Depp had a leading role in since 2011, and analyze Depp's performance and the overall quality film itself. Let's go mateys!
Rango (2011): The fact that Rango got made is some sort of incredible accomplishment. It's a $130 million dollar film aimed at families full of swear words, booze, a background character that heavily resembles a prostitute and significant tribute to Clint Eastwood. Thankfully, the movies unconventionality is only outmatched by it's quality, as Gore Verbinskis film never out of powerful storytelling or compelling imagery. ILM's beautiful animation makes the town of Dirt one of the most wonderful looking creations in the history of CGI animation, every detail of the location just brimming with life.
Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011): How the mighty have fallen feels like an apt way to sum up this swashbuckling franchise. The first movie was a classic, filled with sequences stuffed with relentless fun, and even the second movie managed to keep things energetic and entertaining. The third movie though is where things went haywire. A overly convoluted plot at least had some sequences of fun spectacle, which this fourth movie is severely lacking. There's just no fun here, even with ravenous mermaids and zombies at it's disposal.
Johnny Depp really doesn't get to do anything particularly interesting in this installment. A couple of fun lines ("Did everyone see that? Because I Will NOT be doing it again!") can't make up for how dreadfully boring this movie is. At least Geoffrey Rush is around to deliver some moments of pure fun, with him and Depp's scenes being the movies best moments. The two have a dynamic full of vibrant life that the rest of the proceedings could have used more of.
Dark Shadows (2012): When Tim Burton and Johnny Depp tackled Willy Wonka and The Mad Hatter, piles of cash rained down from the heavens. When they tackled Barnabis Collins? Eh, not so much. This one was never gonna achieve the financial success of past endeavors from Burton and Depp, namely because Barnabis isn't as well known as the likes of Wonka. But the low quality of the film surely had a thing or two to do with it's low box office as well.
This films primarily dragged down by a tone that's confused as all out; the screenplay by Seth Graham-Smith is never sure if the story is a comedy, a horror movie or a mixture of the two. The cast isn't exactly aces either, with Michelle Pfieffer and Eva Green getting little of note to do. Johnny Depp may be the most disappointing aspect of the movie though; his voice for Barnabis already sounds similar to Jack Sparrow, and he never brings notable nuance to the character.
The Lone Ranger (2013): This is one of those movies that pains me in how it falls short of its potential. Director Gore Verbinski and Johnny Depp, who previously worked together on the first three Pirates of The Caribbean movies and Rango, returning to the western genre?? Shut up and take my money! But good God, this thing is a bloated mess, resembling the movies climactic trainwreck more than anything else. The film does feature some moments of balls-out absurdity (like cannibal rabbits) that populate Verbinki's best films, but those can't even begin to overcome the script that jam-packs too many uninvolving characters and events into one sloppy feature.
Armie Hammer may be playing the titular character, but it's Johnny Depp as Tonto who gets the lions share of screentime in both the marketing for this movie and within the film itself. Let me be frank here; casting Depp as a Native American character is already a shockingly offensive thing to do that starts the production on the wrong foot. It doesn't help that Depp doesn't do anything notable here; he once again channels Jack Sparrow here, piling on quirk after quirk (He wears a dead bird! He and the horse get along!) into it becomes some sort of unfunny parody of Depp's schtick. Hammer is OK as the lead, and Tom Wilkinson as a baddie offers some cool moments (even if he says a line directly from Rango that took me out of the movie). And man is that finale, set among numerous trains to the tune Hans Zimmers awesome score, a fun one to watch. But by then, it's too little too late; both Depp and the film have been too underwhelming for the climax to leave any notable impact.
Transcendence (2014): And we go from the chaotic failure of The Lone Ranger to the dull dud that is Transcendence. Wally Pfister's directorial debut is one of those things where I just marvel at how off-the-rails it is, The film has a kernel of an interesting idea (a dude is uploaded into a computer program, things go haywire from there), but the movie goes too big with it's story, giving Depp in computer form the ability to manipulate clouds, creating polluted water that turns people into zombie drones. Not helping matters is the inconsistent supporting cast, namely Paul Bettany (who also appeared in Depp's 2015 dud Mortdecai) as a colleague of Depp's character who is kidnapped, then become an ally to his kidnappers for some reason.
The thing that seals this films lackluster quality is Depp's performance as the films lead character Will Caster, which is so damn lacking in personality that it staggers the mind. A sharp contrast to the likes of Tonto, which are bogged down by a surplus of idiosyncrasies, Will is lacking sorely in any sort of compelling personality, ideology or menace to make the part work. Nothing in this role works, especially once the ending tries to give the movie a sentimental conclusion involving Will and his wife played by Rebecca Hall.
Looking over these roles, I do hope Depp returns to the kind of quality roles that marked the earlier parts of his career. Rango was only four years ago, but it feels like an eternity ago considering how much Dark Shadows and Transcendence have marked his recent career moves. His forthcoming 2015 film Black Mass sounds like a very promising project, and I do hope it's good. At his best, Depp provides exhilarating performances full of life and layers. At his worst though...it just gets unpleasant.
The thing that seals this films lackluster quality is Depp's performance as the films lead character Will Caster, which is so damn lacking in personality that it staggers the mind. A sharp contrast to the likes of Tonto, which are bogged down by a surplus of idiosyncrasies, Will is lacking sorely in any sort of compelling personality, ideology or menace to make the part work. Nothing in this role works, especially once the ending tries to give the movie a sentimental conclusion involving Will and his wife played by Rebecca Hall.
Looking over these roles, I do hope Depp returns to the kind of quality roles that marked the earlier parts of his career. Rango was only four years ago, but it feels like an eternity ago considering how much Dark Shadows and Transcendence have marked his recent career moves. His forthcoming 2015 film Black Mass sounds like a very promising project, and I do hope it's good. At his best, Depp provides exhilarating performances full of life and layers. At his worst though...it just gets unpleasant.
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