Leading up to its release this Friday, there’s been some antsy speculation about Cowboys and Aliens. What exactly is it?
We get the basic idea, you know, Cowboys and Aliens, okay, but it’s still a little hard to figure out what exactly this new sci-fi flick is from the trailers and the commercials.
There’s also been reports that the film’s presence at Comic-Con was crucial to build interest because as Deadline reports, tracking on the film has been “soft,” and it also followed Super 8 closely in that it didn’t reveal enough in the trailers.
Finally, the waiting game ended on Saturday when the film premiered, and according to the early reviews, it’s a winner. It’s also interesting to note that the reviews in Variety and Hollywood Reporter are often wildly divergent from each other, but both trade publications apparently liked the same things about the movie.
“It sounds kooky on paper,” writes the Reporter, “but on the screen, cowboys and aliens make beautiful, fun music together.”
And both reviewers were happy that the film spent a lot of time on character development, not to mention it treats the story seriously. “Even the slightest, tiniest touch of camp, and the whole thing would blow sky high,” the Reporter continues. “But it doesn’t.”
The Reporter states it’s 70% cowboys, 30% aliens, which they also considered a bold move because we haven’t had a big western in a long time, but the movie’s well done enough that the trade has predicted big box office success for young and older viewers who want both hi-tech and old school.
Variety wrote, “Director Jon Favreau and no fewer than six writers have risen to the challenge of crafting a full-bodied, roundly satisfying [film], positioning this to join the half dozen Westerns to crack the $100 million club….Beneath all the state-of-the-art special effects beats an old-fashioned heart, one that prizes both of the genres in play.”
You’d think with all the blockbuster talent involved in the film you couldn’t lose, with Spielberg, Ron Howard, the screenwriting team of Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci (Transformers, the 2009 Star Trek), and Faverau directing, who did a wonderful job with the first Iron Man, and thankfully according to these reports, Cowboys and Aliens looks to be a big winner this weekend.
