|
For many long decades, people have scanned the horizons and wondered if humans were alone in the universe or if there were other creatures just waiting to communicate with us. Yet, fear always sets in and our imaginations turn to galactic invasions and enslavement at the hands of aliens. Why? Well, it makes for a damn good story. Hollywood, time and time again, always revisits the alien invasion story and maybe – after one too many Independence Day-like movies – our boredom with the subject has grown and it takes a bit more thought to get us into another invasion-themed narrative. Well, what if the idea of an alien invasion took place during the Old West? And what if that story starred Indiana Jones and James Bond and the babe from Tron: Legacy? I’ll bet that would fire up your idle imaginations again…
…right? Right. Well, prepare yourself and set your geek-factor guns on stun.
Adding a bit of badass sci-fi wizardry to the western genre, Cowboys & Aliens rockets across the screen and straight into the stratosphere with highly-charged moments of stylized action and dry humor. The film is a hard-boiled western as gritty as the scorched earth where the action takes place, yet combines an alien invasion to throw off audience expectations and boldly amps up the violence and the scares. The film is directed by Jon Favreau (Iron Man) and displays the same type of confident swagger that have become staples in his filmography, yet it’s a film – because of its scope - that probably could have benefited with one more pass through the editing booth.
The film opens with a bit of a mystery as Jake Lonergan (Daniel Craig) awakens on the dry Arizona ground with a strange mechanical device attached to his wrist (just go with it). The year is 1873 and such mechanisms shouldn’t exist. We know this. He knows this. Lonergan can’t get it off, but that is the least of his problems. His memory is vacant – brief flashes of what happened to him plague his thoughts – and a posse is forming to take him in. It’s only when he walks into town and gets into a minor altercation with the son of Colonel Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford) that he finds out he is actually a wanted criminal.
Before being sent off to federal prison, Lonergan and the town’s residents are attacked by a stealthy group of UFO’s and only the mechanical device strapped to his wrist and controlled by his impulses seems to be able to take them down. All bets are off when the town realizes they all have a common enemy – hell-bent on stealing their friends and family – in the sky. Aided by the mysterious Ella (Olivia Wilde), a bartender named Doc (Sam Rockwell), a young boy (Noah Ringer) and the town preacher (Clancy Brown), Lonergan and Dolarhyde join forces and wage a war against all manner of cowboy, indian, and alien.
With characteristically Steve McQueen cool, Craig embraces the mythic American hero of the Old West and delivers a two-fisted performance of male bravado. Gruff and crotchety at the beginning of the film, Ford’s arc is more of a performance piece that certainly redeems the haze that surrounded Indiana Jones & the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. While age is certainly showing for both of these leading men, their cool is as timeless as the roles they play and seeing them together on the silver screen is one of the insanely cool parts of Cowboys & Aliens.
Another is that the film plays like a straight-up and old-fashioned western. Full of whiskey-soaked attitude and tough guy moments, Cowboys & Aliens takes its time with the whole sci-fi part of its identity which might make heads spin when they finally see a spaceship hovering above a saloon. The aliens – looking very cockroachian and a tad too Alien-esque for their own good – are frightening and handled with a ballsy approach as they are both scary and muli-hand disturbing. They want gold. And slaves. They also burn people. In fact, one tortured victim’s death is detailed so graphically you get the details of her skin melting to ash. Just don’t expect to spend much time with them; they are the bad guys in the western formula. You won’t get to know them. You won’t want to.
The script is credited to six different writers and they do attempt to do each character justice via the script. Maybe too much so as the film – especially noticeable as it nears its ending – attempts to be less ambiguous than it need be. Some viewers may tire of the characters’ many happy endings and some may understand that character is always at the heart of the western genre and accept it. And others may not be able to get past the whole genre mesh-up and be done with the film after the first attack. While the pacing never completely goes off the rails, I certainly can see the point of view from those who feel cheated by the nasty little side-straddling hiccups along the way to the final showdown between the rugged cowboys & their pesky aliens.
The observant eye might depict two vastly different genres that appeal to two different types of crowds but the two-fisted strength in Cowboys & Aliens is in the rollicking good time that it, bullet after bullet after laser after laser fired, absolutely delivers. It’s a high concept piece and it pays off nicely…even if that mechanical device strapped to Lonergan’s wrist is more of a McGuffin and less of a real mystery.
Relax, people, it’s only summer…and it’s almost over. You'll get that Oscar season soon enough...
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for intense sequences of western and sci-fi action and violence, some partial nudity and a brief crude reference.
