Will plays James West, a US Army member. Kevin Kline is Artemus Gordon, a US Marshall. Together they are asked by the President to protect the country from the evil Dr. Loveless (Kenneth Branagh). Also in the mix is the sexiest woman in Hollywood, Salma Hayek who plays a relative of a kidnapped scientist. West and Gordon aren't a good mix, with West being the muscle and Gordon being the brains, but in the end they end up working well together and saving the planet. And Salma Hayek tags along for the ride.
There really wasn't anything special about Wild Wild West. The story line wasn't really original, the characters weren't really original, and the special effects actually looked kind of bad. They spend millions of dollars putting together a giant mechanical spider, yet a scene with Will and Kevin walking across the desert has to be blue screened, and blue screened badly? And please explain to me what Salma Hayek had to do with this film? Don't get me wrong, I obviously love her (and you get to see a little more of Salma than you might be used to), and she has never looked better in my opinion, but her character served no purpose. If you took her character out of the movie, nothing would change. I realize that in an action film geared towards a male demographic, you need to put a woman into the action, but at least make her have a point. Look at recent action releases like The Phantom Menace, The Matrix, and The Mummy. All three were action films geared primarily towards young males and all three had beautiful female leades, but the difference between those three movies and this one was that those females leads had important roles that played an integral part in the film. Sorry for the rant, but that's how I feel.
Smith was his usual enjoyable self. Too bad he didn't have a character that was interesting. Kline's Artemus Gordon was fun enough, but for a guy who was really into gadgets, we didn't get to see a whole lot of fun ones that I thought would have made the movie more fun. Branagh was, well interesting as the legless Loveless. Didn't really figure out where the character was from. He was supposed to be from the South, yet at times sounded like he was from England trying to do an American accent... wait a minute... The supporting cast was OK, and not very memorable. And of course Salma looked incredible.
Overall Wild Wild West was a mindless, sometimes humourous film. But when I left the theater I really couldn't remember any particular scenes (save one of Salma) and didn't have a good or bad feeling. Basically I felt nothing.
