Cowboys and Aliens

It’s been a big season for popcorn blockbusters. Now Cowboys and Aliens is muscling in- throwing it’s weight around and waving that multi genre mash up title in the faces of other box office contenders.  It’s also got the benefit of being directed by John Favreau whose past projects include the wonderful Iron Man, plus heavy weight producers Ron Howard and Steven Spielberg backing it up. I remember hearing about this film a while back, when the first teaser trailers started doing the rounds. ‘Oh my god!’ I thought. ‘It’s Indiana Jones vs James Bond….. with aliens! Weeeeeeeee!’

What could go wrong?

Well, a few things, but we’ll get to that in a moment.

Cowboys and Aliens is pretty firmly grounded in the world of Arizona circa 1873. Daniel Craig, bringing great physicality (and lovely eyes) to his role, wakes up in the desert with a nice new metal bracelet on his wrist and not much else; he can’t remember a thing.  He makes his way into town and is about to start the process of figuring out just who the hell he is, when a few complications arise. One is Woodrow Dollarmyte, Harrison Ford in gruff mode, who seems to know the stranger’s identity but wants him dead. The other is… well, the afore mentioned Aliens. They proceed to attack the town and kidnap some of the locals. From then on the movie shifts up a gear, as the remaining ragtag townsfolk set out on a mission (now read in Southern Accent) to get back their kin.

Cowboys and Aliens looks great, the scenery is equal parts forbidding and stunning, and there’s some great creative steps taken with the Alien spacecraft. What keeps it ticking along are the many mysteries at it’s core. Just who is Craig’s stranger with the bracelet (known as ‘Jake’) and what’s with the Aliens?  But some viewers might find it frustrating that by the dusty climax, some questions aren’t fully answered.

The main issue, is that the film plays very straight with an outlandish concept. I’m not sure if I was just expecting more of that Iron Man wry humour, but there’s not a lot of laughs here to break up the action. Daniel Craig as the leading man doesn’t do much more than look tough or brooding and occasionally hit someone, but boy does he do it well! He’s a presence on screen, matched by a tough talking Harrison Ford. The conflict between the two leads isn’t explored enough, and it’s a missed opportunity. What I would have given to see these two actors really get stuck into each other!  It’s an avenue which could have been explored to up the stakes and the chemistry. Ford’s main interactions then are with members of the town who see him as a father figure, touchingly played by Adam Beach and Noah Ringer. Olivia Wilde offers nice support as another mystery stranger in town, but she’s let down by a weaker plot thread.

There are some really great tense moments as the Aliens take shoot em’ up action to a whole new level, but the resulting film doesn’t really push the boundaries enough to live up to it’s megawatt title, and probably not enough to knock Rise of the Planet of the Apes off it’s ‘Hit of the American Summer’ pedestal. It does however entertain, and there’s enough in there to keep you wanting more.  I just wish it had given that bit more to me.

3/5