You may have seen a lot of movies about the extra-terrestrial and some with cowboys and Indians in the Wild West, but never before has a movie featured both aliens and the wild bunch. Jon Favreau’s Cowboys and Aliens is the first film that mixes the two genres and give you a couple of hours of quality entertainment!

The movie kicks off in typical spaghetti-western style, where the stranger (Daniel Craig) wakes up with no memory, wearing a mysterious device on his hand about which he knows nothing (just like everything else!). He rides into a nearby town of Absolution after bringing down a few bounty hunters and immediately makes his presence felt. He is found to be an outlaw Jake Lonergan and is arrested, but he is back in demand as soon as the aliens attack the town and abduct humans for experiments. Jake uses his bracelet to down one of the many alien spacecraft, and from then on, leaves on a journey to search for answers about his life.

Led by a ruthless cattle baron Colonel Woodrow Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford) and a mysterious traveller Ella Swenson (Olivia Wilde), the simple people of Absolution set out on a journey to save the world, and reclaim their lost one.

The movie belongs to Daniel Craig, who portrays the rugged cowboy with ease and regains his memory through a series of flashbacks as the movie progresses. The fans of his James Bond movies will find his new avatar refreshing and alluring. Same can be said of Harrison Ford who brings to the movie his charisma and long list of fans, including this scribe. Olivia Wilde once again delivers a powerful performance as one of the three leaders to revolt against the beings from another planet.

The idea of incorporating monsters in the Wild West was first used in Tremors IV: The Legend Begins in 2004, and was later incorporated in a comic by the name of Cowboys & Aliens in 2006. The comic was executed well into the movie, which is entertaining for all, whether you are 8 or 88.

C&A will keep you engrossed with its carefully planned sequences, including the climax where the humans show the aliens who the boss is! To know how primitive humans defy all odds to slay the superior beings, that too in 1873, you have to watch the movie and decide for yourself! One thing is certain; you will not be disappointed by the amalgamation of sci-fi and Westerns. I wasn’t!— S.F.