Cowboys & Aliens

The trick to making a successful fantasy movie -- and every movie, for that matter -- is to make it easy for the audience to "suspend disbelief". Too many films try to be all things to all people, leaving one to wonder what the heck the flick is about in the first place, and why the producers didn't hire decent writers to link the various elements and subplots. "Cowboys & Aliens" doesn't have that problem. There are many elements to the plot, but they all work together and have a common theme. The writing, acting, directing, and production also work together to spin a fun, old-fashioned yarn about people in conflict with one another and with Something Else. The individual characters are entirely believable and, most importantly in a film about a fight with alien beings, entirely human as well, right down to their feet of clay. "I've seen good men do bad things, and bad men do good things," says one of the main characters. That is not the only bit of wisdom in the film but it's the real "plot". (The name of the town, "Absolution", is our first hint about the story and its moral.) Unlike some films, however, this one is neither preachy nor maudlin, and it's super FUN throughout while giving us a lot to think about. I'll see it again at least once more on the big screen. It's the first real summer blockbuster movie and it was worth the wait.