Starring: Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, and Olivia Wilde
Directed by: Jon Favreau
Screenplay by: Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman
The time: late 1800s. The place: the Wild West (somewhere in New Mexico). The event: an alien invasion? Interesting.
We meet our eventual hero (Daniel Craig) just waking up from some traumatic experience, an event which we never see. He has some sort of bracelet around his left wrist. Initially, he doesn't even know his name. He stumbles into a small town and everyone recognizes him as Jake Lonergan, one of the region's most wanted men. As he is being arrested, aliens attack the small town and begin taking people away. What do the aliens want? Turns out they want to mine for gold and will stop anyone who gets in their way. Lonergan's goal is to get the aliens to return the hostages and then leave. The key to accomplishing this goal is the bracelet on Lonergan's arm. It's a powerful weapon he can use against the aliens to defeat them. Lonergan, the white people, and the Native Americans are going to have to band together in order to defeat the aliens. Will they do it?
There's a lack in character development in this film. We know almost nothing of Jake Lonergan. In the course of the movie, we learn how the bracelet was put on his arm, but we don't see the event that triggered his amnesia. What also bothers me is that some characters, like Woodrow Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford) are developed with irrelevant details. For example, we learn that he was a Colonel in the army during the Civil War. We also find out that Lonergan's wife was taken by the aliens. My question is, do these details have anything to do with the overall plot of the film? I don't see it.
Another aspect the film lacks is connection among the characters. They are all disconnected from other characters, especially Lonergan, probably because he doesn't remember anything. There is little communication among the group that fights the aliens about how they are going to kill all of them, just talk that they will somehow kill them.
However, there is one interesting connection between characters that is unique to this film. In many westerns, the Native Americans are considered to be the enemy and are not friendly with the white people, and the white people are not friendly with the Native Americans. This is the only western I have seen where the two groups not only get along as friends, but need each other in order to effectively win a battle against the aliens. The drawback, there still is no strategy for effectively winning this battle.
It seems as though the main point of destroying the aliens becomes lost in the film. Throughout the film, people are constantly abducted. Wouldn't the people fighting the aliens want to get their loved ones back before they get back all the gold that the aliens are stealing? When they first see the vessel that houses the aliens, it seems that the main point shifts from getting the people back to making sure the aliens can't get the gold.
While the film has its flaws and its points of originality, it's a rather strange film. Favreau takes a big leap of faith with audiences with Cowboys & Aliens because it is a mash up between two genres, western and sci-fi. Two genres that shouldn't go together. Cowboys & Aliens makes for a better western than a sci-fi flick.
Cowboys & Aliens is invading movie theaters with a C.
Directed by: Jon Favreau
Screenplay by: Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman
The time: late 1800s. The place: the Wild West (somewhere in New Mexico). The event: an alien invasion? Interesting.
We meet our eventual hero (Daniel Craig) just waking up from some traumatic experience, an event which we never see. He has some sort of bracelet around his left wrist. Initially, he doesn't even know his name. He stumbles into a small town and everyone recognizes him as Jake Lonergan, one of the region's most wanted men. As he is being arrested, aliens attack the small town and begin taking people away. What do the aliens want? Turns out they want to mine for gold and will stop anyone who gets in their way. Lonergan's goal is to get the aliens to return the hostages and then leave. The key to accomplishing this goal is the bracelet on Lonergan's arm. It's a powerful weapon he can use against the aliens to defeat them. Lonergan, the white people, and the Native Americans are going to have to band together in order to defeat the aliens. Will they do it?
There's a lack in character development in this film. We know almost nothing of Jake Lonergan. In the course of the movie, we learn how the bracelet was put on his arm, but we don't see the event that triggered his amnesia. What also bothers me is that some characters, like Woodrow Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford) are developed with irrelevant details. For example, we learn that he was a Colonel in the army during the Civil War. We also find out that Lonergan's wife was taken by the aliens. My question is, do these details have anything to do with the overall plot of the film? I don't see it.
Another aspect the film lacks is connection among the characters. They are all disconnected from other characters, especially Lonergan, probably because he doesn't remember anything. There is little communication among the group that fights the aliens about how they are going to kill all of them, just talk that they will somehow kill them.
However, there is one interesting connection between characters that is unique to this film. In many westerns, the Native Americans are considered to be the enemy and are not friendly with the white people, and the white people are not friendly with the Native Americans. This is the only western I have seen where the two groups not only get along as friends, but need each other in order to effectively win a battle against the aliens. The drawback, there still is no strategy for effectively winning this battle.
It seems as though the main point of destroying the aliens becomes lost in the film. Throughout the film, people are constantly abducted. Wouldn't the people fighting the aliens want to get their loved ones back before they get back all the gold that the aliens are stealing? When they first see the vessel that houses the aliens, it seems that the main point shifts from getting the people back to making sure the aliens can't get the gold.
While the film has its flaws and its points of originality, it's a rather strange film. Favreau takes a big leap of faith with audiences with Cowboys & Aliens because it is a mash up between two genres, western and sci-fi. Two genres that shouldn't go together. Cowboys & Aliens makes for a better western than a sci-fi flick.
Cowboys & Aliens is invading movie theaters with a C.
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