And yet, for some strange reason, "Cowboys and Aliens" isn't quite as awesome as one would automatically assume it would be. It's directed by the guy who did "Iron Man," it's got James Bond, it's got Han Solo, it's got cowboys and it's got aliens, yet as a cinematic experience it is frustratingly underwhelming, as well as, dare I say it, pretty boring. Instead of "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" meeting "War of the Worlds," it's more a case of "Battle: Los Angeles" meeting "Wild Wild West." This movie doesn't sound very awesome anymore now, does it?
The film, which is based on the graphic novel by Scott Mitchell Rosenberg, opens with a craggy-faced man (Daniel Craig, "Casino Royale") waking up in the middle of the New Mexico desert. He doesn't know how he got there, he doesn't know where he is, and he doesn't know his own name. All he knows is that he can speak English and is very skilful in the art of kicking cowboy butt. He's basically the Jason Bourne of the wild west.
Strapped to this amnesiac man's wrist is a mysterious bracelet that is very out-of-place for the 19th Century setting, what with its flashing lights and the bleeping and blooping sounds emitting from its golden surface. He doesn't know what it is, and it won't come off. After stealing some clothes, a gun and a horse, he rides down to the nearest rootin' tootin' town and almost immediately starts some trouble. Not long after grumpy-face Colonel Woodrow Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford, "Morning Glory") recognises him as the wanted gold thief Jake Lonergan, some strange lights appear in the night sky. Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, I'm afraid it's a bunch of hot-headed aliens who appear to have accidentally flown into the wrong movie set.
The town is attacked by the mysterious UFOs, with buildings set ablaze as screaming citizens are snatched up by the invading spacecrafts, including Dolarhyde's annoying asshole of a son (Paul Dano, "There Will Be Blood"). The whole town is spooked, with a few quick to assume that they were just visited by some demons from hell. No, dummy, they're totes aliens, obvs. Duh!
Setting aside their differences, Lonergan and Dolarhyde ride off with the rest of the town (including perdy lady Ella Swenson, played by Olivia Wilde of "TRON: Legacy" fame) to find their kidnapped friends and families and try and pick a fight with these mean green mothers from outer space. What could possibly go wrong?
As it stands, "Cowboys and Aliens" is probably the best of its kind that I have seen, its kind being the unique genre of "Western-mixed-up-with-other-genre(s)". However, the problem with this is that there are only two other movies that I can instantly think of that fit inside this area of cinema. The first is "Wild Wild West" and the second is "Jonah Hex." You may be relieved to know that "Cowboys and Aliens" is much, much better than both of these movies combined and multiplied several times over. On the other hand, you could still say that for a wide plethora of pretty rubbish films.
The most interesting thing about Jon Favreau's Western/sci-fi mash-up is probably that it takes its subject seriously, which is unexpected given, well, its subject. It's stern about the unavoidably silly concept, its actors keeping straight faces throughout the entirety of the film's length, with a ridiculously low amount of humour or comic relief thrown in. There's nothing wrong with this (I suppose you could say it's quite respectable for it to do so), but a side-effect of this decision is that the film is not very fun.
Yes siree, a film with the ambitiously bonkers title of "Cowboys and Aliens" is lacking in the fun department. This is mainly the first half hour or so, before the aliens first show up, during which I found myself tempted to check my watch an abnormal number of times. And even when the plot including the menacing extraterrestrials kicks in, the movie strains to be as interesting as one feels it should be; both the Western and sci-fi elements are a little too generic even when combined, the script supplying an annoyingly small amount of inspired surprises or truly enthralling moments to hold our interest.
And the slightest hint of a spark between Craig and Ford is regrettably not enough to keep the movie's hooves clip-clopping away. They both appear to be giving it a good go (Ford seems to be kinda sorta giving a shit, and Englishman Craig pulls off a rather decent American accent), but they, along with the rest of the talented cast, are let down by a script that's trying too hard to be crammed full of witty one-liners instead of, y'know, actually being good.
Sure, it's got an attention-grabbing concept, gorgeous cinematography by Matthew Libatique, and there are some cool moments scattered throughout its runtime, but "Cowboys and Aliens" still falls flat. I dunno, maybe it works better on the pages of a comic book than it does in a theatrically-released live-action format. 'Cause you've gotta admit it is a teeny bit silly.
5/10
No comments:
Post a Comment