Chris Kavan's Movie Review of Cowboys & Aliens

A Mashup Mishap
Chris Kavan - wrote on 08/01/11

Another in a long line of 2011 films that has "mediocre" written all over it. This one, however, burns me a little more because I had such high hopes for it. Jon Favreau directing - Harrison Ford, Daniel Craig and the new "it" girl Olivia Wilde. The trailers intrigued me - what could go wrong?

For once the critics (at least the few I skimmed) got this one right: as a mashup of western and sci-fi films, it falls short on both counts. In fact, I would say this is a straight-up action movie that happens to contain elements of westerns and sci-fi, but nothing more. Just because you where hats and ride around on horses, does not a western make. You can throw in all the aliens you want too, but it never has that sci-fi feel of say District 9 or Aliens.

One problem I had is it never felt like "the old west" if you will. When faced with metallic flying spaceships with superior firepower, the townspeople seem pretty laid-back about the whole thing. Sure, there are talks about them being "demons" but in the end, no one seems very surprised about the ships or the actual aliens for that matter. Hell, even today I bet people would be more freaked out at something like this happening, and we have loads of technology. In this film people seem to have very little problem with the whole flying machines abducting people routine.

There are two other problems with the film. The first is the score, which never lent itself to the western genre at all (think Ennio Morricone ) but felt more like a bombastic action film and totally took me out of the element quite a few times. Other than the bar fiddle / piano music, it never quite felt right.

Yet the biggest problem with the film was teaming up Craig and Ford. I can't say for certain, but I think Craig could be up for fewest lines spoken by an actor in a leading role. Plus there is no contrast with Ford. Both play unemotional stone-faced "cowboys" if you will. Did either of them crack a smile the entire film? Maybe a couple times, but for the most part they frowned and spoke curtly and that's it.

Not only that, but the film pretty much wasted every other supporting role. Sam Rockwell was an afterthought and Clancy Brown checked out too early. Paul Dano was a great contract with Craig, but he was also taken out of the picture early on. Wilde was a non-factor as for the most part she was there to look good wet and to make Craig feel some semblance of feeling. In fact, out of the supporting cast, I felt the best characters were Adam Beach as Ford's adopted son and Noah Ringer as the youngest member of the posse looking to save his granpaw from the aliens. Still, given a pretty stellar supporting cast, I couldn't help feel most were wasted with not nearly enough screen time or development to really care about them.

I have to admit the film still looks good. At least the setting has the old west flavor from the rolling plains to a canyon showdown. A nice visit to an out-of-place riverboat is also a nice touch. The effects still look nice. The aliens themselves are a pretty good design - not quite like anything else out there, but not so bizarre it makes you roll your eyes. The extra set of arms is an especially interesting feature. At least in the visual and location market, they got things rights.

I would say this is more of a rental than a must-see theater-worthy film. Unless you are really chomping the bit for some action, you can wait. Plus, at nearly two hours, it's a bit over-long as well. There just isn't enough good to balance out the standard fare for me to heartily endorse it.