'Cowboys
& Aliens' is just about as goofy as it sounds, which is not an
entirely bad thing.
Daniel
Craig and Harrison Ford lead as two gunslingers who you'd normally
expect to be the arch rivals of the film, but the big subversion here
is that they end up teaming up against a bunch of gold-hungry aliens.
The
cast is excellent, and Craig and Ford are particularly fantastic.
Honestly, I would have preferred a straight western with the two of
them, because the sci-fi element was... not so good. The
director just couldn't juggle the different elements, and the tonal
shift between western and sci-fi is often jarring. I don't
particularly like the design of the alien tech, or the aliens
themselves, either. It's fine, but nothing new or very interesting,
and their motives are just terrible.
Watching
it, I couldn't help but try and imagine how the plot would have
played out if the aliens had never showed up. I feel like that would
have been a far more satisfying movie. Don't get me wrong though, I
enjoyed watching this one, and it held me attention - I just had to
get past the inherent silliness of the story. I really did enjoy the
leads though, and would recommend this to anyone wanting something
that you don't have to pay much attention to.
Cowboys & Aliens: 45.7