Cowboys and Aliens

It’s a happy and inspired marriage of genres. But the gimmick is the fusion, without bringing anything new to the individual genres themselves. In other words, aliens are still slimy and roach-like, cowboys are still tough and trigger happy, and Indians are still quiet and noble. It seems like it might be time to get some new aliens. Battle: Los Angeles, Super 8, and Falling Skies all have slimy, gross, roachy aliens. If they’re so much more advanced than we are, how come they’re not more evolutionarily advanced? Westerns and alien invasion movies are the quintessential Saturday matinee/b-movie genres. It makes sense that the filmmakers here would stick to the conventions of each genre, assuming that each one would compliment the other. But a hybrid should also be an improvement over the individual parts, and while this is a successful effort to fulfill all the Saturday matinee/b-movie requirements, there doesn’t seem to be much effort to improve on them. Then again, maybe I’m getting way too over-analytical. Maybe I should stop thinking, eat some popcorn, and behold Harrison Ford kill some aliens.