The film also suffers from a lack of an identifiable villain: there is one alien who receives a bit of attention, but remains too briefly seen to make the proper emotional impact.
![cowboys and aliens (2011) cowboys and aliens (2011)](https://is3-ssl.mzstatic.com/image/thumb/PYwDcnW7u23Yle-8eDgy1Q/1200x675.jpg)
They effectively act as generic monsters rather than intelligent antagonists. The aliens themselves almost entirely lack personality, and their design seems relatively unmemorable and ordinary. Of the two it is the science fiction side that feels poorly served. There is no denying that it is competently made, but at the same time it is difficult to understand why the film was green-lit for production in the first place.ĭespite the efforts of the cast and crew, the film’s two halves never quite gel together. At the same time it suffers a gaping chasm between the implied whimsy of its title and its straight-faced screenplay, and a rather unlikely premise that puts it in creative difficulty from the get-go. A summer 2011 tentpole for DreamWorks Pictures, it boasts a top-notch popular cast, a talented visual effects-oriented director, and a significant production budget befitting its peak season release date. In all honesty Cowboys & Aliens is a bit of a head-scratcher. When aliens begin abducting the townsfolk, the gunslinger teams up with a mysterious young woman (Olivia Wilde) and a battle-hardened cattle rancher (Harrison Ford) to rescue the humans and defeat the alien menace.
![cowboys and aliens (2011) cowboys and aliens (2011)](https://a.ltrbxd.com/resized/sm/upload/mb/7l/fp/dv/cowboys-aliens-10-1200-1200-675-675-crop-000000.jpg)
A gunslinger (Daniel Craig) with no memory of his past stumbles into the wild west town of Absolution.