It's not very often that I buy a film on disk which I haven't actually seen before but Cowboys & Aliens has now been added to that list. The title on its own is a big draw for a sci-fi fan like myself but then you look at all the talent behind the film and it gets even more impressive. First there's the cast, staring Daniel Craig, Harrison ford and Olivia Wilde supported by Sam Rockwell, Keith Carradine and Clancy Brown. That's a very good list. Then there's the writers, Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman & Damon Lindelof, between them they're responsible for Lost, Star Trek 11, Fringe, Transformers and Mission Impossible 3. Next there's the director Jon Favreau who is of course responsible for Iron Man 1 and 2. Finally on top of all that you've got Steven Spielberg in an executive producer role.I quite enjoyed the film. It was well made and looked and sounded great on Blu-ray. The cast all acted well. The special & visual effects were all good quality. Yet for some reason it just doesn't seem to live up to all that talent. It's like something was missing that could elevated it much higher, but I don't know what that is. I guess it could be a case of too many cooks. So instead we have an above average sci-fi film which is fun to watch at the time but won't have you thinking about it for days afterwards.
I'm not surprised you were expecting something special, after reading all those names - that is a list of huge talent. It just shows that even talent can't provide that special spark - it's almost as if a movie takes on a life of its own, and it will have that spark, or not have it, almost regardless of what people do. That magical 'something' that no-one can define, yet everyone is hoping to acheve.
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