Movie Review: Cowboys & Aliens

Via wikipedia: Cowboys & Aliens is a 2011 American science fiction Western film starring Daniel Craig (of James Bond fame), Harrison Ford (of Indiana Jones fame), and gorgeous Olivia Wilde. The film, directed by Jon Favreau, is based on the 2006 graphic novel of the same name created by Scott Mitchell Rosenberg.

Steven Spielberg is the executive producer, which lends a lot of credence to a hybrid action movie like this.

When I first saw the trailer, I couldn’t fathom how cowboys and aliens can cross path in a movie. They are two totally remote genres and do seem like the surefire recipe for box office failure.

[youtube url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXHhnT1tHNM”]

My curiosity was piqued and I have to see the movie when it’s released.

Thanks to the folks at United International Pictures, Rachel and I caught it at the preview screening at Great World City a few weeks back (this is a really late review).

Cowboys & Aliens was old-school action throughout, with a tight storyline, packed with many adrenaline pumping action scenes between cowboys and aliens (what else) and some native Americans too.

Daniel Craig and Harisson Ford were perfectly cast as the two alpha-male silver-back gorillas, slugging it out on the big screen to be the main lead, overshadowing the other.

To complete the formula for the perfect cast, there’s Olivia Wilde, the exotic beauty who don’t have much lines in the movie, but was tasked to just hang around the heroes as the female lead (to be fair though, her character did “token” save the day at the end of the movie).

In summary, I find Cowboys & Aliens reminiscence of those retro 80s action movies that I grew up with, a good example being the Indiana Jones series. The heroes were clear as day alpha-males; the baddies were fugly and one-dimensional; the females in the movie generally don’t have much lines.

I much enjoyed the movie. Rachel find it mediocre. Watch this movie with your soccer or beer buddies. 🙂

Cowboys & Aliens is now showing in Singapore cinemas.

Synopsis (via IMDB):

1873. Arizona Territory. A stranger (Daniel Craig), Jake Lonergan, with no memory of his past stumbles into the hard desert town of Absolution. The only hint to his history is a mysterious shackle that encircles one wrist. What he discovers is that the people of Absolution don’t welcome strangers, and nobody makes a move on its streets unless ordered to do so by the iron-fisted Colonel Woodrow Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford). Its a town that lives in fear.

But Absolution is about to experience fear it can scarcely comprehend as the desolate city is attacked by marauders from the sky. Screaming down with breathtaking velocity and blinding lights to abduct the helpless one by one, these monsters challenge everything the residents have ever known.

Now, the stranger they rejected is their only hope for salvation. As this gunslinger slowly starts to remember who he is and where he’s been, he realizes he holds a secret that could give the town a fighting chance against the alien force. With the help of the elusive traveler Ella (Olivia Wilde), he pulls together a posse comprised of former opponents, townsfolk, Dolarhyde and his boys, outlaws and Apache warriors – all in danger of annihilation. United against a common enemy, they will prepare for an epic showdown for survival.

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