Westerns seem to be the popular
genre to make these days. Reinventions, retellings and reboots have all had
filmmakers trying to bring new life into the most popular cinema genre from
American history. Great stars have been born from the Western, such as John
Wayne and Clint Eastwood and the aim of the movie industry is to once again
capture lightning in a bottle. Recently the huge success of the classic Western
remake, True Grit, gave Jeff Bridges his second Oscar nomination in a row after
winning last year for Crazy Heart and Quentin Tarantino is preparing to make
his own Western for the film loving audiences that go to see his movies, called
Django Unchained. However Tarantino and the Coen Brothers are not the only ones
looking to breathe new life into the genre. Steven Spielberg, no less has had
his eye on a little project that he hoped to have given the Western genre a new
spin, by adding aliens.
As well as Spielberg getting an
executive producer credit, Ron Howard is on board as producer and Jon Favreau
(Iron Man, Iron Man 2) is directing. Three big names on such a project would
bring a lot of curiosity to a film-loving audience and many who are interested
in both the Western and Science-Fiction genre so surely this production is onto
a winner.
Cowboys and Aliens is about, well, cowboys and aliens. Jake
Lonergan (Daniel Craig; forthcoming projects The Adventures of Tintin: The
Secret of The Unicorn and the US remake of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo)
wakes up with no memory of what has happened to him. All he has are little
flashes of strange, cryptic pieces and a metal wristband that he cannot remove.
After an impressive fight scene, showing his prowess as a man, Jake wanders
into the nearest town and observes his surroundings. After setting up the
scene; the old time preacher with a steady aim and a steady hand (Clancy Brown;
best known for his roles in Starship Troopers and Highlander), the innkeeper,
Doc (Sam Rockwell; Iron Man 2, Conviction) with the beautiful wife (Ana de la
Reguera; Cop Out, Nacho Libre) and the local villain (Harrison Ford;
Morning Glory, Extraordinary Measures) with the wayward son (Paul Dano; Knight
and Day, Taking Woodstock), the story changes pace somewhat when the small
Western town is attacked, by the aforementioned aliens.
The search then commences as various members of the town are
kidnapped and an unlikely posse are put together.
The unique selling point of the movie, besides the mash-up
of genres is its two major stars; Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford. One being the
latest action movie star who brings in fans from small boys to grown women and
is a box office winner, and the other is a long time veteran of the action
family adventure movie and will bring in the movie buffs as well as an older
audience and they work very well together.
Daniel Craig is clearly being compared as the new Harrison
Ford and that's certainly no false accolade. Debatably, one may say that Craig
brings a little more acting weight to the leading man role but in his later
years Ford has certainly settled into a particular type of role and revels in
it. As seen in Morning Glory, where he played a grizzled, grouchy former news
anchor, here he plays a grizzled, grouchy former Colonel turned cattle rancher.
As in his most famous roles as Han Solo and Indiana Jones, you'd never mess
with him and as his career has progressed Ford is starting to use that 'don't
mess with me' stare and attitude that Clint Eastwood patented, making him the
die-hard elder statesman in Hollywood and he's doing it well.
Besides the cast of mismatched men, a woman is brought into
the mix, Ella (Olivia Wilde; Tron: Legacy, TV series House) as an almost more
mysterious character than Jake. The cast play off each other well, particularly
whoever Craig is partnered with at the time, albeit with varying screen time
for them. Craig and Ford's time is scarce but together when it counts and Sam
Rockwell is woefully underused but it seems the Western aspect is very
carefully crafted to really give the feel for the genre and that's what counts.
The problem is the aliens. As soon as this world is brought in it shatters the
illusion of the world way back West and it almost feel like an afterthought in
a well structured story. The reasons for the alien invasion are vague, as are
many of the other plot points in the movie and that's a shame because for what
Cowboys and Aliens promised in scale it lacked in finesse.
Not really being the blockbuster it was meant to be, Cowboys
and Aliens feels like the big disappointment of the summer, for all the fun of
seeing Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford as cowboys the lack of a direction for
the movie lets it fall flat. There are a few too many clichés on the alien
plotline that make the audience care less about that and more about the cowboys
and too much of that seems borrowed from other, more successful movies. At the
end of the day, when the cast rides off into the sunset, maybe if they do come
back maybe it would be better if they came back without the aliens.
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