You'd be forgiven for assuming Gore Verbinski's The Lone Ranger was still weeks away from its cinematic release, with animations Despicable Me 2 and Monster's University dominating the movie talk ahead of the weekend's box-office. Hell, people are still talking about World War Z and The Heat more than Johnny Depp's new movie.

Johnny DeppJohnny Depp [L] and Armie Hammer [R] Star In 'The Lone Ranger'

The Hollywood actor plays the Native American spirit warrior Tonto in Verbinski's re-telling of the classic story, with The Social Network's Armie Hammer the underwhelming choice as John Reid, aka, the Ranger. It's difficult to figure out why Disney's big-budget new movie has flown under the radar, though a flurry of tragic reviews and grumblings over the representation of Native Americans has severely dented public anticipation.

"A stone-faced Depp fails to generate even the stinky charm of his mascaraed Jack Sparrow, and in fact almost everyone here comes off badly," said J.R Jones in his review for the Chicago Reader. Ann Hornaday of the Washington Post said, "Despite its impressively staged set pieces, The Lone Ranger can't survive the epic train wreck resulting from its own tonal clashes, wherein mournful scenes of genocide and stolen immigrant labor are tastelessly juxtaposed with silly slapstick humor."

Watch the Lone Ranger trailer:

Though Verbinski and Disney can still recover with a big box-office (though that looks unlikely), Johnny Depp might have cause for concern. The multi-millionaire actor is still in huge demand and is clearly a hugely talented actor with plenty more to offer, though let's not beat around the bush - he's on a bad run. The Tourist, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, The Rum Diaries, Dark Shadows and now The Lone Ranger represent his last five major efforts (though there was a fun cameo in 21 Jump Street) - all five of those films ran into some pretty heavy handed reviews. 

Depp has an opportunity to stop the rot with action-drama Transcendence - the directorial debut of Dark Knight Rises cinematographer Wally Pfister. It also stars Kate Mara, Morgan Freeman and Rebecca Hall and follows two leading computer scientists working towards their goal of Technological Singularity as a radical organization fights to prevent them from creating a world where computers can transcend the abilities of the human brain. Ok, so it doesn't sound vintage Depp fare, though it's something, and it ain't another Pirates movie.  

Johnny DeppJohnny Depp As Tonto In Gore Verbinski's 'The Lone Ranger'

Disney executives will be wincing over the weekend - in the same way you would if someone was about to throw a tennis ball at your face while your eyes were closed - though let's for Depp's sake, the numbers aren't that bad. 

Johnny Depp The Lone RangerTonto and The Lone Ranger Look Over The Desert In Gore Verbinski's The Lone Ranger