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Cowboys & Aliens is an outrageous and unprecedented melding of the western and science fiction genres that has all the ingredients for a first rate popcorn movie except for one thing...a story that makes sense.
The 2011 film opens with us encountering Jake Lonergan (Daniel Craig), a cowboy who wakes up in an 1873 Arizona desert with no memory of who he is, a serious wound on his side, and a futuristic looking weapon attached to one of his wrists. Jake travels to a nearby western hamlet called Absolution where it is revealed he is a wanted man on multiple charges. En route to facing a federal Marshall, the town is attacked by a group of alien space ships that snatch up several citizens in the town, but Jake is somehow able to fend them off with his wrist weapon. Jake then teams up with a group of Absolution citizens, led by a military colonel/cattle baron (Harrison Ford), whose son (Paul Dano) was abducted by the aliens. Throw into the mix a mysterious prostitute (Olivia Wilde) who claims a vague connection to Jake and her own agenda regarding these bizarre events.
The story also involves a woman from Jake's past whose death he feels responsible for and a large cache of gold and a large gang of criminal cowboys who apparently were led by Jake who are torn by Jake's alleged reappearance in their gang, though Jake seems to have no recall of his association with them.
If this sounds confusing, it's because it is...this story is a valiant attempt at trying something off the cinematic beaten path, but there is WAY too much left unexplained. We're never sure if Jake is really from the 1870's west or from the future, where the gold came from and if it is real gold as we see it morph into an explosive device that blows a roof off a building or why a group of futuristic space aliens want control of an 1870's western town. I kept watching and waiting for that one scene or moment in the film that would pull everything together for me, but that moment never came, not even after the bloody and terrifying final act where the wild west and outer space have their final showdown.
As confusing as I found the story to be, I kept watching. I found this film absolutely riveting and could not take my eyes off the screen. Steven Spielberg and Jon Favreau served as executive producers of this film and Favreau also took on the mammoth directorial responsibility involved in the mounting of such an elaborate story, though Spielberg's touch is all over this...this is the kind of fantasy/adventure that Spielberg likes to produce and I'm sure he had Favreau's ear throughout production.
This film is expensively mounted with a great deal of care and detail and the casting works for the most part. Daniel Craig is the most durable action hero since John McClane and Harrison Ford shows he still has the chops to command the screen. Olivia Wilde makes the most of her most substantial screen role and there is also a solid supporting turn from Sam Rockwell as a saloon owner whose wife was also abducted by the aliens. There is some entertainment value to be gleaned from this film, as long as you don't think about it or try to figure it out.
Cowboys & Aliens is an outrageous and unprecedented melding of the western and science fiction genres that has all the ingredients for a first rate popcorn movie except for one thing...a story that makes sense.
The 2011 film opens with us encountering Jake Lonergan (Daniel Craig), a cowboy who wakes up in an 1873 Arizona desert with no memory of who he is, a serious wound on his side, and a futuristic looking weapon attached to one of his wrists. Jake travels to a nearby western hamlet called Absolution where it is revealed he is a wanted man on multiple charges. En route to facing a federal Marshall, the town is attacked by a group of alien space ships that snatch up several citizens in the town, but Jake is somehow able to fend them off with his wrist weapon. Jake then teams up with a group of Absolution citizens, led by a military colonel/cattle baron (Harrison Ford), whose son (Paul Dano) was abducted by the aliens. Throw into the mix a mysterious prostitute (Olivia Wilde) who claims a vague connection to Jake and her own agenda regarding these bizarre events.
The story also involves a woman from Jake's past whose death he feels responsible for and a large cache of gold and a large gang of criminal cowboys who apparently were led by Jake who are torn by Jake's alleged reappearance in their gang, though Jake seems to have no recall of his association with them.
If this sounds confusing, it's because it is...this story is a valiant attempt at trying something off the cinematic beaten path, but there is WAY too much left unexplained. We're never sure if Jake is really from the 1870's west or from the future, where the gold came from and if it is real gold as we see it morph into an explosive device that blows a roof off a building or why a group of futuristic space aliens want control of an 1870's western town. I kept watching and waiting for that one scene or moment in the film that would pull everything together for me, but that moment never came, not even after the bloody and terrifying final act where the wild west and outer space have their final showdown.
As confusing as I found the story to be, I kept watching. I found this film absolutely riveting and could not take my eyes off the screen. Steven Spielberg and Jon Favreau served as executive producers of this film and Favreau also took on the mammoth directorial responsibility involved in the mounting of such an elaborate story, though Spielberg's touch is all over this...this is the kind of fantasy/adventure that Spielberg likes to produce and I'm sure he had Favreau's ear throughout production.
This film is expensively mounted with a great deal of care and detail and the casting works for the most part. Daniel Craig is the most durable action hero since John McClane and Harrison Ford shows he still has the chops to command the screen. Olivia Wilde makes the most of her most substantial screen role and there is also a solid supporting turn from Sam Rockwell as a saloon owner whose wife was also abducted by the aliens. There is some entertainment value to be gleaned from this film, as long as you don't think about it or try to figure it out.