'The Magnificent Seven' (2016) Review

This 2016 take on The Magnificent Seven is a remake of The Magnificent Seven (1960), which is actually a remake of Seven Samurai in a western setting, and tells a familiar story of seven gunslingers tasked with defending an Old Western town from a gold digger and his army of cutthroat henchmen.

Antoine Fuqua steps up to the task of telling the story one more time as director and I feel Fuqua maintained a nice balance between paying homage to crucial moments from the 1960's adaptation and daring to modernize the film with a more representative diverse cast and blockbuster style action. Fuqua and his cinematographer Mauro Fiore frame some gorgeous shots of the devoid western landscape against the harsh sun that evoked classic western imagery.

The visual effects, stunt crew, and production design team all collaborated to set up some truly awesome and memorable action set pieces that will no doubt give you something to smile about. My one nitpick with these sequences is very minuscule in that these gun men can't seem to miss a single shot. They shoot, reload, shoot, and so on never failing to miss their mark, it's something that's evocative of most modern blockbusters, but in this case seemed a little too unrealistic. Where The Magnificent Seven falls a tad short of the 1960's version is in it's script.

The screenplay devised by Richard Wenk and Nic Pizzolatto does a great job of making the seven more unique likable characters, fleshing out their backstory, and interjecting some undercurrent symbolic Christ allegories to make the proceedings more interesting but some dialogue comes across as forced humor. I really must commend them on their creative character names because they all perfectly encompass the grit of the Old West. The duo keep a lot of their writing at surface level never quite fully exploring the bountiful areas to explore that a Western provides.

The Magnificent Seven also features the final compositions from James Horner, a brilliant film composer who only recently died in a plane crash. While Horner didn't get to complete the scoring, his longtime friend and collaborator Simon Franglen helped ensure Horner's works made it into the final cut and with the help of his music department  who finished out the score to be as James Horner-esque as possible. In addition, the music team don't ignore the Elmer Bernstein's classic themes, incorporating them into the film's final moments. The end result though was truly exceptional and brought to mind everything that should accompany a classic western; solemn tragedy, high riding adventure, and bristling energy.

The incredible cast assembled inject even more fun to the proceedings as it's clear the chemistry on set was genuine and that these actors were genuinely having a great time. Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt, Vincent D'Onofrio, Ethan Hawke, Byung-Hun Lee, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, and Martin Sensmeir make up the seven and though some cast members were more developed than others, everyone has their moment in the limelight.

Haley Bennett was a surprising standout playing a capable female character in Emma Cullen, a step up from her damsel-in-distress role earlier this year in Hardcore Henry. 

Peter Sarsgaard plays the greedy gold digger Bartholomew and comes across as the typical villain that wants to profit off others' misfortunes by stealing land to mine for gold. I feel it's worth noting that I saw The Magnificent Seven in IMAX and felt the enhanced sound and immense screen size made the viewing experience all the better so if you're willing to pay for the premium viewing experience you will get your money's worth.

While The Magnificent Seven doesn't venture out of the traditional Western sandbox, it succeeds on being a fun shoot 'em up that's definitely worth a watch. The Magnificent Seven is exactly what it's marketed to be, a wildly entertaining popcorn western with strong direction, a terrific cast having the time of their lives, and a legendary film composer's final rousing score.

Film Assessment: B+