Rating of
2.5/4
Saddle Up!
MovieMike - wrote on 12/22/11
Not since the series, ‘The Wild, Wild West’ (Robert Conrad) of the late 60’s has there been a solid Hollywood attempt to mix the standard cowboy western with something approaching science fiction. ‘Cowboys & Aliens’ makes a solid effort with this cross-genre action picture. Played as a straight up western from the start, the film manages to stay true to those roots throughout most of the story.
Directed by Jon Favreau (‘Iron Man’, ‘Iron Man 2’), ‘Cowboys & Aliens’ has the look and feel of a stock western movie, complete with enigmatic drifter, an overbearing cattle baron, and a puppet sheriff. Writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman (both with previous writing credits for TV’s sci-fi series, ‘Fringe’) crafted a script that quickly lays out the main characters and keeps things moving right along throughout the 118 minutes of screen time. Once the aliens swoop in and begin plucking townspeople off the street, the story takes on the feel of the classic western, ‘The Searchers’.
Actor Daniel Craig steps away from his successful run as the latest incarnation of James Bond for a moment and shows some range with his portrayal here of an enigmatic drifter who seems to have no recollection of his past but is sporting a mysterious bracelet he can’t manage to remove. His opening scene quickly establishes the fact that he’s not one to be fooled with, despite his mental confusion. Playing opposite this role is Harrison Ford, as Woodrow Dolarhyde, a tough-as-nails cattle rancher with a mean streak that’s a mile wide. The two main characters clash early on but are forced to form an uneasy alliance once the aliens make their presence known.
‘Cowboys & Aliens’ has a pretty large cast, but the main players include Hollywood veterans Keith Carradine as the sheriff and Clancy Brown as the preacher. Sam Rockwell (“Iron Man 2’, ‘The Green Mile’) does a great turn as the pessimistic saloon owner and part-time doctor. The film does live up to the previews, and there are only a few moments where the action slows to a crawl. Favreau manages to slip in a few light moments, but wisely avoids out-and-out comedy that would make ‘Cowboys & Aliens’ feel campy.
There have been numerous science fiction movies that borrowed heavily from westerns for a plot line (‘Star Wars’, ‘Avatar’, ‘Outland’, etc) so it seemed fitting that someone would finally try and do the reverse of this. The one refreshing thing for me is that this movie didn’t scream sequel as it wrapped up, but I’m willing to bet that there will be more attempts combine these two movie genres in the near future. I did enjoy this film, despite a few misfiring plot elements and some logic issues – but hey, it’s just entertainment, right? Saddle up!
