I just saw Cowboys and Aliens with Michelle and my brother- and father-in-law. It was an entertaining movie. Lively action, great effects, and the acting of Daniel Craig and especially Harrison Ford was excellent. Both clearly enjoyed their roles, chewed up every scene together, and helped make it an enjoyable ride.
But be warned, enjoyable entertainment does not mean that the movie isn’t seriously flawed. First of all, it suffers from that “written by committee” syndrome in which everything and the kitchen sink is thrown in to try and appeal to everyone. Dog? Check. Child? Check. Pretty girl? Check. None of them are necessary to move the story, but anything to hit the demographics, right? The girl (Olivia Wilde) is one of my favorite actresses to look at, without a doubt, but her part was a bit nonsensical. Hell, the reason the aliens were on earth was nonsensical. And once you find out why they’re on earth, it doesn’t seem that they’d really need to be as nasty to the locals as they are, but so it goes. And they look nasty, too. Right out of every “alien as monster” graphic novel (from which it was based) and movie.
But to end as I began, it was a fun ride. Not a perfect ride or a classic, but fun and worth seeing if the premise and the stars seem entertaining.
