Yowzer. This is rated M for close-your-eyes-and-block-your-ears-until-it's-over.

I love the beginning. It's Knight Rider meets Mad Max and I'm totally on board. I love our introduction to Bart (I picture Jeff Bridges) and everything right up to Bart showing up at the scene of the "crime".

Then the problems begin, starting with how much they keep talking about Reid, what he did, getting him there, what they think is going to happen, what they're going to do, yada yada yada. After the fast pace of the beginning, just get to it already.

The violence ramps up to ultraviolence and it's purely gratuitous. You could easily tone it down and it would be just as effective. This is cringe-worthy levels of violence for the sake of it, and it turns your otherwise compelling antagonist into a mustache-twirling comic book villain.

Another problem is Reid proves to be just plain stupid. Not a great character trait for our main protagonist. KITT--I mean Tonto--steals the show, I'm totally on board for more of that, but Reid is either dangerously naive or oblivious to the world he lives in and I don't want to wait for him to get smart enough to be interesting.

Four kids? In that hellhole? With water so scarce? Are they rich? I don't buy it.

This has tremendous potential. The first half hooked me good. It went off the rails after that. I could see this as a show, even though I don't know exactly what each episode would look like after that ending.

How does a game of solitaire get ruined by a momentary distraction?

I kinda dig the update here. Reworking the Lone Ranger motifs in a futuristic setting is clever. But decapitating a dog? Hot damn. Even if you got it passed the censors, the audience would never go along with it. I’m not sure anyone expects or wants a Lone Ranger reboot to be this gritty

“Reid sucks at the hole in Troy’s head, drawing out what remaining blood he can.” — I’m really unclear why this part’s necessary, either for the script or for Reid. Just let him put the eyeball on the scanner and be done with it. Does it really have to be more gross than it already is?

Once it’s all said and done, I think the massacre of the family is far enough into darkness without having to include the decapitation of a dog and slitting a kids throat. The main problem with those first two scenes is they’re repetitive. Both serve the function of showing how brutal Bart is. But we only need that message once. Might not need it at all in the beginning since it’s clearly received with the murder of Reid’s family at the end.

Despite thinking this is too dark, it’s easy for me to see how this could work and end up being a clever reboot. Decent job with the concept. The execution over does it though.