The Magnificent Seven (2016)

RATING: C+

Westerns may not necessarily be quite my favorite genre, but they do indeed have a certain charm to them. I've always enjoyed the set pieces, and it's difficult to not enjoy all the gunslinging and shootouts and fistfights and what not. Sadly, it's become a near extinct genre in today's Hollywood. This is one of the very few recent ones, and it's not even an original; it's a remake. Or, since the original Magnificent Seven from 1960 was a reimagining of Seven Samurai, it's a remake of a remake, I guess.

If you're not familiar with the storyline, that's probably fine; it's sort of changed over the various iterations. In this particular version, a band of seven random "gunslingers" (a couple of them are actually knife or arrow slingers) band up against an industrialist who's insanely corrupt and likes to showcase his evilness; considering that he threatens to pretty much destroy an entire town for the sake of gold mining, and shoots without a second thought a guy who stands up to him (and a bunch of other locals die, too).

Too bad the guy he shot had a wife (named Emma Cullen) who actually had a spine, unlike the other townsfolk. Hence, she is able to find and hire warrant officer Sam Chisolm (Denzel Washington), who rounds up several other guys, including Josh Faraday (Chris Pratt), Goodnight Robicheaux (Ethan Hawke), a Comanche warrior named Red Harvest, and other guys whose names you will likely never remember.

Truth be told, there's not a whole lot of character development at all; aside from Chisolm and Robicheaux, none of these people really have much of any backstory, and some of them (namely Red Harvest) even join the group completely inexplicably. Yes, the plot is a little thin around the edges. To add onto that, there's some scenes that drag on longer than they need to (I suppose that's nothing entirely new for the western genre, though).

There is some fun to be had here. The casting is pretty strong, particularly with Denzel Washington and Chris Pratt, the latter of whom continues to show his ability to be a great actor in literally any type of action/adventure-type movie. The dialogue has some fun moments. Though the film drags on at times, there's enough fun standoffs as well as a great climactic finish that makes it worthwhile. (A personal favorite of mine is an early standoff between Pratt and two outlaws he wronged.)

Ultimately, there may not be a whole lot of pay-off, but it's difficult to deny that's it mostly fun while it lasts. While there are some parts of the formula that are a little annoying, the film does showcase a lot of the fulfilling stuff from the western genre as well. It may not go down as a classic, but if you're a fan of the genre at all, it's probably worth checking out.