last night, i finally saw the movie i was most anticipating this entire summer: cowboys and aliens. yup, you read that correctly. cowboys and aliens. and let me tell you, it did not disappoint.
look, going into a movie titled cowboys and aliens, you need to immediately realize that you’re in on the joke. this is a movie that was made to somehow combine two classic movie genres: western and sci-fi. this isn’t going to be oscar gold — it’s pure entertainment.
at the same time, though, when you think about it, this is a movie that’s actually realistic on some level. obviously cowboys were real, and the wild west was real. and aliens? well whenever we watch some movie in which will smith is fighting them, we don’t seem to think it’s too far outside the realm of possibility. so why not see what would have happened if aliens had come to earth during the wild west? if you’re really being honest with yourself, you can’t say that this movie is implausible. and really, that’s the hidden beauty of cowboys and aliens. sure, the actors know that this movie is pure entertainment, but their characters play it straight because, damn, that’s the only way cowboys could play it if aliens started attacking them. and now that i think about it, the characters in cowboys and aliens never say the word “aliens” in the entire movie. they call them “demons” and “things” but not “aliens” because they would have had no clue what aliens are. see? realistic!
now, did this movie have its shortcomings? sure. it’s a little bit stereotypical bordering on racist when it comes to some of the stuff the indians do (like having magical chants and a mysterious potion that cures amnesia), and it was also surprisingly cheesy. the way some of the storylines were playing out, you already knew what was coming, and some of the relationships between the characters were a little bit overdramatic.
but these are just small complaints. i thoroughly enjoyed the movie and recommend it highly. giddy up.
and with september around the corner, it’s time to wind down the summer movie season. here is my 2011 summer movie power rankings list, in order from best to worst.
1. harry potter 7.2 - the boy who lived… come to die… and leave us with a pretty freaking good movie.
2. cowboys and aliens - damn straight it’s number two on my list.
3. super 8 - goonies meets ET meets coach taylor from friday night lights. a winning combination.
4. captain america - i liked captain america a lot, but this movie was made pretty much just so that they could set up the avengers movie next year.
5. x-men: first class - some people loved the crap out of this movie. come on. it was aiiiite.
6. transformers 3 - the more i think about it, the more i don’t like this movie. it’s better than the second one, but that’s not really saying much. also, i think shia labeouf is quickly climbing my list of most annoying actors on the face of the earth. all he does is complain and yell… and say “no” a lot.
