Cowboys & Aliens: Back In Your Hole!

Finally, after much anticipation, Cowboys & Aliens has finally made its way into the box office. With big names like Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig backing up the combination of A-list and B-list cast, this movie dares to walk with a big stick; whether the film itself is capable of wielding said stick is for you to decide.



The film starts off just like the trailers portray it: a cowboy wakes up in the middle of nowhere, has no idea who he is, and has a mysterious metal wristband on his arm. After making his way into town and undergoing several different conflicts with, both, idiots with guns and the authority of the town he encounters his first alien attack, warding off the last ship in the region with this arm band laser gun. This process takes up about twenty to thirty minutes and feels a tad bit drawn out due to the large number of times I have seen the same parts played out via the actual trailer.



Luckily this is about where the trailer ends and the actual movie begins; the aliens who were considered to be mysterious throughout the entire buildup of the trailer have nothing on the actual movie, they do make their appearances. I will not say where and when or even why. I will, however, say think of a Bug's Life and Gears of War put together; it's as if they wanted to create the perfect "locust".


All the revelations throughout the movie are kept very brief and explained with practically no back story to back it up. The writers certainly didn't lose sleep over coming up with a script for this film and sometimes it is shown in the actors as well. Acting, for the most part, is well done but they can only be as great as what they have to work with and it falls short of atmosphere at times; I can't help but feel that the writers' children had some play in this movie keeping it short, to the point, and constantly moving for the next generation of A.D.D. viewers.


Also, due to the "amazing" writing, all the conflicts between the people are resolved within a matter of minutes depending on who has the itchiest trigger finger or the twitchiest fist. Yet the action sequences still manage to be spread pretty far out from each other as Daniel Craig and his posse keep running into trouble with several different groups along their travels.


That's what everyone really wants to know right? Everything about the action sequences? The humans move from fighting UFOs to fighting alien foot soldiers, with many inconstant numbers abound; it's as if the humans are on a multiplying respawn timer, thirty go into battle, you see twenty of them die and in the next scene fifty men enter the fray, despite the battle taking place in the middle of nowhere with no one else around to help the humans in trouble, hence why the situation is such a dire one. Not only that but the final action scene seems to wear out after a while and gets rather monotonous; "oh no he died", "I wish you were alive longer" *you saved my life nod*, everything from other actions movies is there, but with hardly the emotional depth to back it up, everyone seems faceless until a notable character dies.


The story has many plot-holes and many unexplained questions/answers (especially with one character), yet most people watch movies like this for the action scenes which don't fair too much out of the ordinary. I feel like I'm starting to see too much of the same thing just in different settings, then again, what am I to expect from a movie with more thought put into the idea of earning money rather than the actual idea myself. I actually feel kind of bad for this review; despite all of the drawbacks I have pointed out, it's still a very good mindless movie, just like the Transformers movies, and I would recommend you go see it. It may be a mixed bag of both good and bad but it's still entertaining to watch, even if you leave the theater feeling incomplete.

7/10

1 Response to "Cowboys & Aliens: Back In Your Hole!"

  1. Jack says:

    Brash Movie ! I had great expectation with this film but the movie was so bad that I slept in the middle of this film and will never expect to watch it again..

    Cowboys and Aliens Online

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