Consider this a minor bit of penance.
Finally Watched is an article series where I finally watch (hence the name) a movie I’ve always wanted to see but didn’t get the chance. I review why I wanted to see it and what I thought of it now that I finally succeeded in watching it. I still have a lot of those to review. However, there are two movies that came off the Finally Watched list partway watched because they turned out to be so bad I couldn’t finish them. One was M*A*S*H*, based on the novel by Richard Hooker & W.C. Heinz that did not live up to the show at all. While you can question if Hawkeye, Trapper, and Trapper’s TV replacement BJ were in the right on a case by case basis (I’m not sure the show did often enough but it still did at times), the movie version of Hawk and Trap really weren’t the best examples of human beings, as the movie became something closer to the sex romps of the period. You can read my attempt to review it for more.
The other was a movie that was part of my childhood because it was promoted in my Cheerios. I had the poster on my wall for a long time and the mailaway came with a certificate saying I was one of the good guys, a cheap badge, and a mask that never fit because eye masks didn’t work for me even before I started wearing glasses. I wasn’t even a big Lone Ranger fan. I knew of the show and maybe caught a rerun plus his and Tonto’s cameo on The Brady Kids (magic bird…long story), but a superhero cowboy? I found it interesting in concept anyway.
When I finally got to watch The Legend Of The Lone Ranger, I was something I shouldn’t be: bored. So bored I didn’t finish an hour of the movie and wrote about how and why I couldn’t get through the movie. In both cases, and I know I’m a rank amateur blog, it’s not very professional to do a partial review. So tonight is my penance as Shout Factory’s YouTube network has the full movie up. Perhaps you will have better luck than I did. In fact, while getting comments is probably my biggest challenge here at the Spotlight, I want you to tell me (please be honest) if you made it through the whole movie, what you thought of it, and whether or not I was justified in noping out before he even got the mask on. This is the movie that stopped Clayton Moore, the actor from the beloved TV series, to stop wearing the mask because the producers wanted this actor to be seen as the Lone Ranger, which is kind of insulting. I went over it in my semi-review. Let me know if you enjoyed.
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I commented on this one: “The comics were left-leaning but they weren’t woke. If you’re writing a story your worldview will naturally affect how you see the characters and thus how you tell the story. However, the heroes came off as heroes because they acted like heroes not because the story says they are. They weren’t afraid to make villains who were something other than white dudes. When the analog to some actual group was obvious you were allowed to call it out as a bad decision. If you have a gay black woman as your superhero, it was about her being a superhero, not what she was and how awesome she was just by existing. Writers weren’t afraid to have their gay black woman get help or struggle through with her unique skills because they were worried about sending a message that you aren’t awesome just by being you and ticking off this or that group. She was a superhero with superpowers or cool gadgets who fought the same normal supervillains and criminal organizations as everyone else. In other words, they were just a character who happened to be part of this or that cultural grouping.”
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Posted by ShadowWing Tronix on June 23, 2025 in Comic Spotlight and tagged 1990s comics, 90s comics, comics, Comics By Perch, commentary.
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