2011 Movie Reviews

Bland ‘Cowboys and Aliens’ suffers from too many creative minds in the kitchen — movie review

Sometimes, there can be too many cooks in the kitchen and ‘Cowboys and Aliens’ is proof of that.  On the surface, I was destined to love this movie.  Going in, I assumed this would end up being one of my favorites.  I knew Harry Potter would be great– I figured J.J. Abrams would deliver with Super 8— and I thought Cowboys and Aliens would really have to suck for me not to love it. Unfortunately…

cowboysaliens
Cowboys and Aliens finally gave fans what they want– Indiana Jones and James Bond, fighting aliens.

First of all, it’s written by Damon Lindelof (Lost, Star Trek); Robert Orci and Alex Kurtzman (Lost, Fringe)– granted, they were three of like… seven credited writers but more on that later.  Second it was directed by Jon Favreau, who directed both Iron Man and Iron Man 2.  I agree that only the first Iron Man was any good and I also didn’t like Elf or Zathura, but…Iron Man was pretty good….right?  Add master of sci-fi Steven Spielberg and the always reliable Ron Howard as producers and  you can’t go wrong.  I repeat.  You.  Can’t.  Go.  Wrong.

This movie has Harrison Ford.  He’s Han freakin’ Solo AND Indiana Jones.  It has Daniel Craig, who is arguably the best James Bond.  Round it out with new it-girl Olivia Wilde (Tron Legacy, House) and you can’t go wrong.  I say again– You.  Can’t.  Go.  Wrong.

Unfortunately, it does go wrong and it is so disappointing.  The movie is what it is.  It’s Cowboys and Aliens.  It’s based on a graphic novel.  You can’t go into a movie called Cowboys and Aliens and expect a deep thought provoking story.  It’s not a fair expectation.  So on the surface you have aliens raiding old west towns in search of gold…yeah.  But that’s not the problem.  Craig plays a mysterious gunman with a case of amnesia and the key to stopping the aliens.  But he’s not the problem, although maybe miscast.  The problem is it’s just kind of….boring.

Ford is cool and the FX are cool but it’s just kinda….blah.  You don’t really care about any of the characters and even while this a lot of exciting action– it’s still….just– boring.  Maybe it would have been better in the hands of a better director.  Ahem, Spielberg.  So, while this summer has had a few nice surprises, this may be the biggest.  I had high hopes but it really falls flat on its face and it’s a damn, damn shame.

Rating:  5/10