Cowboys and Aliens

A man with no memory of who he is finds himself in a small dried up mining town.  He quickly gets himself into trouble with the law and it is discovered that he is a wanted outlaw.  As he is about to be hauled off to the federal marshals office bright lights from the sky change everything for him and the towns folk.

I remember seeing previews for this movie and thinking this is either going to be absolutely genius or a complete flop there will be no in between.... so imagine my surprise when it turned out to be kind of middle of the roadish.

OK so here's the deal.  We have a movie about Cowboys of the old west fighting against Aliens from afar.  So I thought it would be all about how old fashion Cowboy and Indian ingenuity beats out Alien technology.  It's not.  It should have been, but it's not.  Our hero seems to come pre-armed with a piece of alien weaponry and that is the only way they are able to really make any progress with the aliens. Not only that, but there are a few bumps and hitches along the way that are totally unnecessary, they neither further the story nor glorify the old west just simply unload alien information.

Anyway in terms of film making it is very true to slick western cinema.  Not as humorous as expected but I suppose they tried to stay away from a Men in Black feel.  The problem with that is it almost comes off as a Western version of Predator.  I don't know.  Harrison Ford was fantastic.  Perhaps his best role since Indiana Jones.  It was a fun twist on a traditional western but again I wanted it to be more about how the west was won by Cowboys with six shooters, not Cowboys with light sabers.  Oh well.

** 1/2 Rentable


Rated PG-13 (for violence)