The Magnificent Seven has lofty expectations to meet, being a remake of the classic 1960’s  western of the same name. To help with the task of retelling the legendary story, director Antoine Fuqua has enlisted the help of several hollywood A listers including Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt, and Ethan Hawke.

The story follows a band of seven misfit heroes who are hired by a small town to help defend it from an evil industrialist. That’s about it, and the narrative falls into 3 simple acts, each one effectively setting up the next ultimately leading to the final showdown. This leads to a unoriginal but ultimately safe telling of the story.

However, this isn’t to say that these phases of the story aren’t well done . The beginning introduces the villain and the heroes in mostly entertaining ways. The middle delivers some much needed character development, and the finale delivers several memorable action set pieces. This plus the outstanding chemistry of the cast leads to a very enjoyable viewing experience.

While the film is wholly enjoyable, it’s not without its faults. The most glaringly problem is that the actors never shake their movie star personas. Pratt and Washington share great chemistry, but it’s shared only because Pratt and Washington both are never able to get into character. The same can be said for the rest of the cast as they all play a common stereotype. The Asian guy is good with knives, the Mexican talks fast and shoots faster, and the mountain man talks funny. The second large flaw is that the main villain is an underdeveloped, one note bad guy. Essentially, this is a continuation of the stereotype flaw. However this deserves special note because it results in an unemotional conclusion.

While these flaws keep the movie from being truly magnificent, they don’t prevent it from being enjoyable. The cast’s interactions are fun to watch, and Fuqua clearly enjoyed paying tribute to some classic western tropes. Go in expecting a fun, loud shoot ‘em up and it’ll be hard to walk away disappointed.