Cowboys and Aliens – Movie Review

Iron Man fame Jon Favreau is back with his latest venture Cowboys and Aliens. The Hollywood director has nicely blended the two genres like Western and Alien/Sci-Fi genres in the movie. It has two treats in one for this summer and Daniel Craig is the showman.

Cowboys and Aliens is an action-packed movie and the chemistry among Wilde, Craig and Ford is the major attraction of the film. The solid 3-D effects, smooth-flowing script written by nine writers and fantastic stunts are its other highlights. Its underderlying theme is that although the inhabitants of Earth may have our inter-species differences, we will come together when presented with a common threat.

In 1873, a spaceship arrives in Arizona for an unknown purpose. Stranger outlaw (Daniel Craig) wakes up in the desert with no memory and saunters onto Main Street. He meets cranky cattle barron Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford) and his bully son (Paul Dano). The stranger discovers that he is a wanted thief named Lonergan when thar lights arrive in the sky. Then he rounds up a team of Doc (Sam Rockwell), Meachum the preacher (Clancy Brown), Native American Nat (Adam Beach) and beautiful Ella (Olivia Wilde) to stave off the invading force in an old-time Wild West standoff.

As expected, Daniel Craig has shown great presence on screen. Harrison Ford and Craig suit up for the cowboys and their chemistry really works well. Olivia Wilde looks good in their company. Paul Dano, Sam Rockwell, Clancy Brown, Adam Beach and others have done a good job in their respective roles.

In technical front, the 3-D effects are solid throughout the film. The dilemma of killing fast-moving aliens with light weaponry is put front and center. The movie has a fair amount of strong one-liner jokes. Harry Gregson-Williams' music, Matthew Libatique's cinematography and Dan Lebental's editing are also praise worthy. Overall, Cowboys and Aliens is a must watch movie for this summer.

Producer: Brian Grazer, Ron Howard, Alex Kurtzman, Damon Lindelof, Roberto Orci

Director: Jon Favreau

Cast: Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, Olivia Wilde, Paul Dano, Sam Rockwell, Clancy Brown, Adam Beach

Music: Harry Gregson-Williams

Cinematography: Matthew Libatique