Cowboys and Aliens Movie Review (Spoilers)

Here is a movie that I have been anxiously waiting for to come out and now that I have seen it was it worth the wait and was the cool casting of Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig make this a must see movie of the summer.  Well after finally getting a chance to see it I'll have to say that Cowboys and Aliens

is a pretty good movie.  I have always been a fan of westerns most notably the movies of John Wayne and Clint Eastwood. So when I saw the trailer for this movie I was delighted to see two of my favorite genres merging together.   Even though it might look hokey in the trailers I thought this movie was pretty fun to watch and it was nice to see something different.  By different you  have a sci-fi movie that at it's heart is a western.  You have the gunfights, the shady character hero, the ruff and gruff rancher, Indians and you have a posse.  All of the ingredients for a western.   Then through in aliens and an alien device and now you have a story that is pretty interesting.

I liked how the movie didn't get bogged down with a lot of explanations and kept the action moving.  The flashback sequences were not long and you could get the sense of how Jake and Woodrow are connected.  You get a quick telling of how Jake gets that weapon on his arm and why he can't remember things like the death of his wife and being tortured by the aliens.  I also liked how the makers of this film stayed away from over using the technology and kept the Cowboys to using what they had in the late 1800's.  This was a good thing for the movie as to often you see movies overusing the new technology to help save the day.  Yes they do use the arm gun at the end to blow up the alien ship but it was not overused. 

I loved the pairing of Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig.  Being a James Bond and Star Wars/Indy fan this was a dream match up.  I thought the two actors were brilliant together and it seemed that they had worked together for years.  Plus they had a good script to work with and put them in an action film and then watch all the goodness.  It was good to see Harrison Ford in an action movie again..  He has been in to many dramas and comedy's lately.  So to see him kicking alien ass and playing the old wise tough guy was pretty good. 

There was one moment in the film that I thought was pretty lame.  When Olivia Wilde's character Ella had died and then was brought back to life when it was placed on the fire by the Indian Chief was a tad bit hokey.  I mean the yellow flashes of lights and sparks and explosions was right out of a Dr Who regeneration.  I did not care for how they did that as it would have been better if she came back to life without being thrown on the fire and less special effects.  Then when she explained that she was an alien everyone kind of took it in stride.  They kind of accepted it without much fanfare.  But I guess if you have just seen aliens and spaceships flying around then I guess you can except an alien woman coming back to life.  Plus how great is Olivia Wilde.  She has gotten the mysterious woman in a sci-fi movie down pat.  She was great in Tron but she was even better in Cowboys and Aliens.  She carried the mystery of  her character pretty good and in essence was the hero of the film. 

So Cowboys and Aliens was a good action film with a lot of good moments and a good amount of action scenes with a good amount of comedy to keep thing light.  I liked the overall story (based on a comic book of same name) and was happy to see something different this summer.

Grade B+