My ultra-short review: I thought it was a decent action movie, although it seemed "smaller" than I expected. I say this because I was anticipating a larger scope to the story, but once the few mysteries were revealed and they arrived at the obvious final setpiece, I settled back to enjoy the rest. This is only the second movie I've seen in a theater this year, so my opinion might be higher than if I had previously seen some more satisfying films.

It started off pretty strong to me. Daniel Craig fills the role of a cowboy very well. The action sequences are good, although sparse at times. Some of the emotional scenes felt forced or out of place, especially when secondary characters aren't well developed. Not a lot of humor to speak of, most of it coming from Dolarhyde's (Harrison Ford's) son Percy (Paul Dano). He played a convincing cocky young man. This film basically turns into your usual save and rescue/revenge mission, albeit with a fun setting. Olivia Wilde's character Ella Swenson adds some mystery to the tale, but in the end I didn't really feel too attached to her. There was of course some good camaraderie developed along the journey.

I don't remember much of Harry Gregson-Williams' score aside from the pleasing Jake Lonergan theme, but it suited the film well enough. Nice Western feel, with guitars and appropriate percussion. Actually, some of it reminded me just a little of Metal Gear infiltration music. I guess that's about it.

Good write-up, Tim!  Haven't had the chance to write up a proper review yet (this will likely be it), but most of your points are spot on.  I dug the straight, no-nonsense approach to the storytelling; the cowboy/western first half is certainly stronger than the aliens/sci-fi feel of the second, but unlike the reviews, I didn't feel the latter sunk the movie.  Tonally, it stays fairly consistent.  It does get a bit long in the tooth toward the end, and while I applaud the attempts to build camaraderie between the posse, they ultimately come off feeling manufactured and soulless.

Craig's Jake Lonergan is the very definition of badass in the film.  (Sorry, Ford, he just is.)  His take-no-bullshit scenes with Dano's Percy are particularly delightful, and I love that he can dish out just as much as he can take.  Wilde's Ella had a rank whiff of "WTF," but I like the fragmented approach in the telling of Jake's flashbacks and memory.  The aliens are brutal sons of bitches, and the final reveal where they portray..... Alice's death was a tough and uncomfortable watch.  Discovering what was causing her off-screen body spasms and eventual demise made for a haunting image.

There's definitely shades of Metal Gear in Gregson-Williams' work here -- specifically, the more spaghetti western/surf spy centric tracks from MGS3.  Both Lonergan's theme and the secondary theme designated for the posse are the major highlights, but their reprisals are too infrequent for what is otherwise a ho-hum soundtrack overall.  For my own listening pleasure, I had cut together a six minute suite consisting of the very best cues.

I said it before, but I've been enjoying this rekindling of the Western cinematic genre as of late.  While I feel that True Grit and Rango are the better movies, I'll give Cowboys & Aliens due credit for shaking up the formula a bit.  The film stumbles from time to time, but it works more often than not.  After the lackluster Iron Man 2, Jon Favreau's gotten his moxy back.

I walked out of this movie at the hour mark, right around the fire scene. First time I've ever done that in a theater.

Maybe I was tired, maybe I was distracted, but the movie just wasn't doing ANYTHING for me. It was just so ordinary, nothing interesting at all about it to me.

Well it really didn't deliver on expectations. I was also disappointed with it.