Cowboys and Aliens (2011)

Jon Favreau is the elected representative of the people's republic of coolness. In more recent years he has been just tearing up Hollywood with an excellent eye for action, that so few directors of today really have. I don't have to tell you Iron Man was awesome. Everyone knows that. However I feel a lot of people have overlooked some of his other movies as the gems that they are. Primarily I'm talking about Zathura. Yes, I saw the previews and rolled my eyes. Oh great, it's exactly Jumanji in space. That's so lame, or so I thought. The shocking truth I got when I finally caved and watched it, was that it was actually way more fun that Jumanji. I kid you not. It had great action and a great feeling of high energy fun all the way through it. So, after seeing a movie that I honestly didn't see having much potential for anything, being so good, I figured I'd better give Cowboys and Aliens a shot. The question is does this movie function with such a crazy concept?

Let me say right now, that the title of this movie, is the most accurate title since Snakes on a Plane. Coincidentally, there are cowboys in this movie. Surprisingly, there are also at times aliens. It poses the question, how would a bunch of cowboys survive if aliens started abducting their loved ones from their town, and answers it with a rather lazy Macguffin.


Our main character Jake Lonergan, is played well by Daniel Craig pulling off a smooth western accent, as a badass cowboy. He wakes up in the desert with no memory of anything and a bizarre metal bracelet wrapped around his wrist. Immediately, I have a connection with him because this happens to me every Sunday night. He finds his way to a nearby town, and when people start getting abducted, it's up to him, and the villages people to go and get their loved ones back from those darn aliens.

It's at this point in the movie where I found myself enjoying certain things. My favorite thing about this movie was the supporting cast. Clancy Brown and Sam Rockwell are amazing and bring a great deal of heart to this movie. They give you characters to care for and make this outlandish situation have some gravity. Paul Dano is around too, and that's always great. His acting is a great example of getting a lot of story across through acting and not telling so much. You can understand pretty quickly on why he's a little bastard, especially when you meet his father.

Sadly, here's where I'm gonna piss some people off. Harrison Ford just doesn't do a very good job. Don't get me wrong. He has a few good moments, but he has way more bad ones. It's a matter of him walking around talking in a gravelly voice, looking like he just ate some bad Taco Bell (if such a thing exists) all the time. He doesn't even seem like he's trying. We also have Olivia Wilde as 'really hot girl who needs to be in this movie to keep us from leaving the theatre to take a bathroom break'. She does EXACTLY what she's supposed to. She's stunning, and thankfully, not a terrible actress, like so many today who seem to ride on their looks.


Alas, there is that goddamn MacGuffin canon that is attached to Daniel Craig's arm. It reminds me of the old Spider-man cartoon from the sixties. Remember how before every commercial break something bad would happen and it would leave Spidey at a cliffhanger, only to come back and just have him shoot a web to make something bizarre that totally fixes everything? The MacGuffin canon is TOTALLY that.

"Oh no, these aliens are invincible to our bullets!"
"Here let me kill them easily with my awesome sci fi weapon."
"Woah! You've just entered the bone zone!"

This is pretty much what it all comes down to. At first they make him out to be a badass, but by the end of it he's the least badass character because he never actually has to do anything cool. He just has to point his WMD at things and kill them. I feel like a lot of creativity was wasted because of this thing. Also, it's been brought to my attention that this movie was based on a comic book that did not have the bracelet at all. Sounds to me like studio intervention.

Overall, this movie is a pretty feel good movie and has some moments of greatness, but it's sadly forgettable. If you want to see a movie you haven't seen yet at the theatres and this is the only thing that fits the bill, go for it. It's fine for a single watch, but in a few years time I doubt I'll remember this movie even exists. Still not a black mark on Jon Favreau, but I really wish it was more.


By the way, if I can encourage you to see this movie for one reason, it's to see the new trailer for the Battleship movie. Yeah that Battleship! Words just can't describe it!