I was expecting big things from Cowboys & Aliens and with an all-star cast, this had 'Win' written all over it. Right? Not so fast. To say that I'm disappointed in this one is a huge understatement. I love Westerns and I love Sci-Fi. So what could go wrong with mixing the two? A lot apparently. I think the story is really unfocused and doesn't know what it wants to be. On top of that you have characters that don't know what they want to be, especially Colonel Woodrow Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford), who at the beginning of the film is suppose to be the big, bad villain that everyone fears. Somewhere along the way he becomes this big softy and almost compliant in taking orders from everyone else and this all comes without anything really forcing him to do so.

The movie looks great and I didn't really see any bad FX shots at all. But that's all this is. The story of Aliens sent to earth to mine for Gold is really a pretty lame and weak motivation. Woodrow summed it up best when he heard this himself, "what are they gonna buy with it"? It's ridiculous. I'm a huge fan of Harrison Ford, Daniel Craig and Olivia Wilde, but I found the smaller roles played by Clancy Brown, Sam Rockwell, Adam Beach, Walton Goggins and Keith Carradine to be far more interesting. Only problem is that they don't get a whole lot of screen time. Even Paul Dano had a juicy role that all but disappears from the screen when he get's taken away by the Aliens.

I can only recommend this as a Rent and in a way, I feel like I'm misleading people by doing so. I'm giving Cowboys & Aliens a veeeeeery generous 3 Star rating out of 5. If you want a good Western/Sci-Adventure, stick with the best....Firefly and the movie Serenity that continues the story of Firefly.