A 2011 summer of Blockbusters (Super 8 and Captain America to name a couple) is unfortunately let down by the laser slinging, Sci-Fi Western, Cowboys and Aliens. Definitely a bit of a shock considering the action heavyweights behind the operation: director Jon Favreau (Iron Man) and producers Ron Howard (The Da Vinci Code) and Steven Spielberg.
Cowboys and Aliens suffers a major identity crisis bordering on the schizophrenic, at once wanting to be romantic, then desiring a place in the kick ass hall of fame with its action, but ultimately achieving neither.
It’s not that the film’s action sequences are poorly constructed. On the contrary, the contests between spaceship and horse, rifle and lasers, are always interesting creating some explosive moments. Jake Lonergan’s (Daniel Craig) bracelet weapon is a swish gadget and is used to perfection swatting down the flying drones with ease. The problem with the action is that it becomes too repetitive. There are only so many times you can watch an alien air strike in the Wild West before is becomes predictable.
And then Cowboys and Aliens tries to do the whole romance thing in the form of dazzling girl from “beyond the stars”, Ella Swenson (Olivia Wilde). Are her and Lonergan in love? Are they not? Is she even human? These questions taint an already underdeveloped love plot and despite a kiss between the two out of the blue, the relationship feels incomplete.
No matter how ridiculous the title may seem, the concept of Cowboys and Aliens is, to put it simply, cool. Think lovechild of Dirty Harry and District 9. But a cool concept isn’t enough, especially when the plot itself loses the plot. Aliens come to the Wild West. Fine. They look like giant cockroaches crossed with Transformer qualities. Who are we to judge? But to come to merely obtain some gold, with no real explanation of apocalyptic intention, is just plain stupid. But I guess the recession is affecting everyone, regardless off intergalactic origin. Combine this with plot holes as big as moon craters, and Cowboys and Aliens is floating somewhere in space with no solid grounding.
The saving graces of the film are the two cowboys Lonergan and Woodrow Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford). Both are rough and rugged with a heart of steel, or so it seems, because past the tough exterior lies some wonderful emotional moments from the pair. Ford tells the tale of his troubled childhood and his moment of weakness, and Craig exposes his longing for his girlfriend who was abducted by the aliens. Of course, it wouldn’t be a Daniel Craig film without him exposing his torso, which he does, generously.
Craig and Ford work well as separate entities, but when they come together in Cowboys and Aliens, the pairing is spot on. It is a battle of two massive egos forced to work together, which leads to some of the few, but very welcome light hearted moments. A chance for a little laugh, then back to blowing stuff up.
An exciting and fresh idea, Cowboys and Aliens has a little something to offer in the way of entertainment, but with some more thought and tact, the film could have been up there as one of the major players of the 2011 summer movie scene.