Plot: A gunslinger with no memory has to help a town save their loved ones after they are abducted by aliens.

Review:

Oh "Cowboys & Aliens", how I wanted to love you, even if the title was too silly to take seriously. But then you just ended up being....okay. When I saw the teaser trailer for this movie, to say I was enthusiastic was an under-statement. The talent in front of the camera (Craig, Ford, Rockbell, Wilde) and behind the camera (Favreau, Spielberg, Howard) in itself was enough to grab my attention. But what sold me was simply the mood the film seemed to evoke. It felt like the perfect blend of western-alien-science fiction-horror. I NEEDED to see this movie. Sure, the title seemed too satirical, but what can you do? Unfortunately, my enthusiasm was dimmed by the films second trailer. Whereas the teaser seemed to be all about the suspense and mystery, the second trailer felt like Michael Bay had hijacked the production. After seeing "Transformers: Boring of the Moon", I was not in the mood to see any Bay-esque pictures. The lukewarm reception continued to drain my enthusiasm to the point where my expectations became low by the time I saw it.

Then something happened.

The first act of the movie was shockingly brilliant. Daniel Craig made for a believable outlaw, being menacing enough but also managing to be likable. Sure, this means he's overly sullen and maybe a little boring, but as his personality came out, he became more than endearing. Then Harrison Ford was introduced and he was even better. His gritty, vicious yet not completely detestable demeanor won me over and Ford was the films greatest achievement in terms of casting. The movie continued to impress me with its bang on casting and the suspense.......It was low key, leaving a lot to the imagination and it worked. When the space ships attacked, I felt a sense of wonder, excitement and a little fear. When the explosions began, the visual effects were phenomenal. They seemed real, not too clean or too shoddy. When the ground walker strikes off-screen, you feel just as on edge as the characters did. In short, I was totally into this movie.

Then it started to go downhill from there. FUCK!

It's not that the movie becomes bad or anything, it just ceases to really stand out. Most of the film comprises of a hokey love story between Jake (Daniel Craig) and Ella (Olivia Wilde) , bickering between Ford and....everyone and the gang encountering bandits, Apaches and aliens. This would all be good if everything didn't seem so.....redundant. The scenes with bandits and apaches play out the same, starting off with the new additions being hostile and then being wow'ed by alien powers, then becoming friends. The alien scenes got even worse, as they tend to just be "Blow shit up, capture people" during the flying saucer scenes, then to "Jump on people, stab them, get shot and stabbed to various levels of success" when it came to the walkers.. It just eventually started to get old and I began looking at my watch impatiently. Once again, these scenes aren't bad. They just cease leaving an impression. Luckily, in contrast to Bay, Favreau does keep a decent pace going overall and the action scenes are never incomprehensible. He directs with a steady hand for the most part, which might be part of the problem.

I do feel that Favreau could've done better. With "Iron Man" and "Iron Man 2", the man always seemed to shoot his action scenes creatively. He always put the camera in the right place for maximum effect, always zoomed in or out at the right time, cut at the right place, etc. Here, he just doesn't seem to know what to do to make the action scenes unique. He does a capable job and a few shots are cool, but perhaps because the 'western' scenario is so limited, there just wasn't anything he could do with it. Speaking of which, the western angle is a bit underused. I was hoping he would draw inspiration from Spaghetti Western filmmakers like Sergio Leone. If he did so, it would've added a much needed flavor to the film but he doesn't. The western angle is just the setting, not part of the style. On the flip side, the special effects are always phenomenal. The aliens look familiar, but also look unique. I never felt any of the special effects failed, and this heightened the action.

In terms of the script, it's harmless. The film has themes of unity and it has character development, but instead of feeling like they came from inspiration, the writer seems to just have them there because critics eat that shit up (except this time, they didn't). The character development sometimes flat out backfires. Example, Harrison Ford's character becomes nicer thanks to the character development, but I thought it took the texture  away from the character. Ford and Craig do great, but their roles become blander and blander the more 'good' they become. The story has Jake (Daniel Craig), former enemy Woodrow Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford) and a whole town teaming up to rescue abducted friends/relatives from marauding aliens. Their weapon is a bizarre bracelet attached to Jake's arm, but since his memory is gone, he has no idea how it got there. It's a simple enough premise only harmed by the concept that cowboys could defeat space invaders. But the script just seems largely uninspired. Competent, but uninspired. Oddly, there were way too many writers on this project, but "Cowboys & Aliens" doesn't have any of the symptoms of that. Usually, movies with too many writers suffer from having too many ideas that aren't developed enough for any to matter ("Green Lantern"). But this one seems pretty steady. Unfortunately, its not developed enough for anything to matter anyway.

In the long run, I did enjoy "Cowboys & Aliens". It starts off strong, has superb visual effects, has some decent suspense, at least TRIES to develop its characters and has a handful of frightening, intense and jaw dropping moments. But as a whole, nothing really stood out. As a western, it's just okay. As a sci-fi film, it's just okay. As a horror film, it's just okay. As an action film, it's just okay. As a movie........

It's just okay. Loved Paul Dano as Percy Dolarhyde though. That guy cracked me up.

Violence: PG-13 worthy.

Nudity: At one point, Wilde gets naked. She sure is hot, but there's nothing explicit.

Overall: "Cowboys & Aliens" is okay. It's worth watching if you really want to see it. It just wasn't remarkable enough. It would make a great rental though.

2.5/4 Stars