Cowboys And Aliens (2011) Movie Review

Cowboys and Aliens, a new movie directed by the same director of the Iron Man franchise is set to hit our local cinemas. Based on a comic book series, with reknowned actors Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford heading the cast, this movie brings much promise. Thanks to ChurpChurp, I had the opportunity to catch the premiere of Cowboys and Aliens over at TGV cinema, KLCC.

Movie Poster for Cowboys & Aliens

As per norm, we collected our movie tickets from the counter an hour before showtime. I was rather happy to see quite a number of familiar faces. Bloggers are such happy people I tell you.

The 3 beautiful Ms Ticket Issuers from Nuffnang and ChurpChurp

A rather cool looking premiere ticket

Fellow bloggers posing for a short group photo.

Coming back to the movie, Aliens And Cowboys shows us a movie that integrates old school dusty cowboys with high tech alien technology, and this unlikely combination is played off with style. Check out the short synopsis of this film below.

Jack Lonergan (Daniel Craig) wakes up in the desert with no memory of who he is or what he’s doing there. Upon arriving in a nearby town, Lonergan quickly gets into an altercation with local brat Percy Dolarhyde, son of notorious cattle-rancher Woodrow Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford​). As a result of the skirmish, it’s not long before the townspeople recognize Lonergan on a “Wanted” poster -- and call for his arrest. 

When Lonergan is subdued by the local sheriff (with much difficulty), he meets Ella Swenson (Olivia Wilde) who takes an interest in the cowboy and requests his help. Before Lonergan can concern himself with an escape plan, aliens swoop in and steal a number of key members of the community, and the rescue mission lands on the shoulders of Dolarhyde, Swenson, and subsequently Lonergan -- who hopes that tracking the aliens to their base will give him answers to his past.

The movie in my opinion had so much going for it, unfortunately a good director with great actors does not necessarily make an awesome movie. As with so many movies this year, its shortcomings were mostly on character development and smooth flow of the movie. Scenes which got us into the emotional mood was cut short while dull scenes were prolonged. An example would be a scene which has us seeing one of the cowboy town's preacher getting really sad over his wife's abduction, and suddenly it was cut short to show something else which was completely unrelated.

I would think Aliens and Cowboys still made an entertaining watch primarily because of Daniel Craig. He single handedly showed us why most of his movies sells. Even Harrison Ford's character didn't really stand out as much. Should you watch the movie? My stand is, go for it, catch it in the cinemas, expect a good 2 hour cowboy themed aliens movie but don't expect it to be awesome. I would give it a 6/10. Check out the movie trailer and some shots of the movie below.

I love these 2 guys