Movie Review: ‘COWBOYS & ALIENS’

The western has come a long way since the days of John Wayne.  After “The Duke” seemed to lose his grit, audiences embraced a more brutal take on the western thanks to the Italian “spaghetti western.”  Recently, the genre has gone off into many unexpected territories such as the horror arena with films like The Burrowers and Dead Birds.  With the recent Jon Favreau blockbuster Cowboys & Aliens, the western has been invaded by aliens from space.  With a cast of well-known faces and a popular director at the helm, Cowboys & Aliens attempts to blend two unlikely ingredients to make a successful summer hit.  Keep reading to see if this is a horse you want to ride on into the sunset.

Disoriented and confused, Daniel Craig wakes up at the start of the film in the middle of the desert with a foggy memory and a pretty hi-tech looking bracelet.  It doesn’t take long before a group of men discover Craig and his strange device.  These men are quickly picking dirt and sand out of their mouth and rolling in pain after Craig shows them who’s boss around here.  I guess he is a guy you don’t want to mess with.  Our macho hero soon makes his way into a small town.  While trying to get his life back together, Craig, and unfortunately for him, the local sheriff, discover that he is a wanted man.  For what? (I bet we’re going to find out later).  One night when Colonel Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford) is transporting the imprisoned Craig, a weird aircraft attacks the town and kidnaps half of its population.  To earn his freedom, the Colonel takes Craig and the rest of the town’s men (and one conveniently left behind woman played by Olivia Wilde) to track down these strange alien invaders.  Along the journey, the group encounters bandits, indians, and lots of big and bulky aliens.

As Woody from Toy Story would say, “There’s a snake in my boot.”  Either that was the case the whole time I was watching this film or it really was that bitter of a film experience.  I went into Cowboys & Aliens with above average expectations.  Instead of kicking my horse to get a moving ,I felt like I needed my horse to kick me back to life after watching this film.  The best word to truly describe this film is dull.  This lifeless adventure seemed to go nowhere exciting and more importantly, nowhere where we the audience haven’t already been.  It’s a lifeless summer movie that is made worse by bored actors and a lazy script.  Let’s start with the actors.  With a stone-cold stare that I’m sure was supposed to be a nod to Clint Eastwood’s “Man with No Name,” Daniel Craig gives us a performance that looks like he’s going through the motions.  He never fully develops a character in between him taking out people like Jason Bourne.  Harrison Ford and Sam Rockwell are slightly better.  Ford growls a lot and Rockwell whines.  Though they both have moments of quasi-greatness, they are too few and far between.  The main reason why I want to put this film out too pasture and shoot it is the script.  Lazy doesn’t begin to describe it.  From the “mysterious” backstory of Daniel Craig to the entire character of Olivia Wilde, this script never fully fleshes out the many ideas and themes  it strives to include.  Add in a failed “father and son” relationship and a young boy wanting to become a man and you have way too much exposition unfolded in a very lazy way.  Did I mention the reason why the aliens are there in the first place?  It’s so ridiculous (and never fully thought out) that you might laugh.

Now, I know it seems that I’m being a little hard on the film.  In some ways I might be.  Just given a title like Cowboys & Aliens, I would hope to at least have fun with it.  Unfortunately, the bulky aliens and fast ships aren’t enough to save it.  I will say that the effects team did a phenomenal job blending these elements  into the western environment.  There are times, where I did find myself enjoying the film.  The opening scene is a knockout and elements of the big final battle make you want to throw your cowboy hat in the air and yell “yee-ha”.  The benefit of these two sequences is that they take place during the day.  The other two big action sequences take place at night and might be slightly more entertaining if they were a little brighter and were directed better.  Once again, I feel that Hollywood is under-lighting integral scenes.

Cowboys & Aliens could have been a really fun little film.  Utilizing a great concept, blending genres, and drafting an all-star cast, this film should have been a bulls-eye.  That’s the most troubling part of the film: It’s disappointing.  When you think about the fact that the film had five “screenplay writers” and three “screen story” writers, not to mention the source material from the comic book, you wonder why this film has such a problem drawing its audience in.  Considering that this could have been a unique blending of the western and sci-fi genres, I am disappointed to say that this film is no match for the other unique takes on the western that has come before this.