COWBOYS & ALIENS Movie Review. Of COWBOYS, ALIENS, and then SOME.

 

COWBOYS & ALIENS Press Preview

A game of metaphors, anyone?

All you have to do is to conjure a posse of cowboys.

Then you align them with a horde of ferocious aliens.

Finally you ensnare them and watch as they battle it out in a grim battlefield.

You witness mayhem, the drama unfolding with the shrill snapping of human flesh amid gunsmoke.

There you are …. you have what the title implies – COWBOYS & ALIENS, a genre blending project.

This film has an awkward title, an odd pairing of subject matter.

We have the retro cowboys (year 1875) versus the techno age aliens, these two unlikely nouns exemplifies a rare hybridized mix, and if anything, connotes a goofy western based on a comic book by SCOTT MITCHELL ROSENBERG.

Film director JOHN FAVREAU lets his hair down and goes bonkers with COWBOYS & ALIENS by adopting and mashing together two genres (Westerns and Alien-Invasion films).

Let’s dwell on the film synopsis:

Lead actor DANIEL CRAIG plays Jake Lonergan, a man who wakes from a mysterious slumber in the desert.

He has a futuristic-looking device on his forearm and is clueless as to what it is and who he is.

He then heads from the barren desert to the nearby town of Absolution, Arizona where he discovers peace loving people.

Not long after, a young spoiled brat Percy Dolarhyde (PAUL DANO) rides into town, guns ablaze, rattling about his big-shot daddy (HARRISON FORD) and how no one should mess with him, otherwise his father will move their lucrative cattle business to another destination. Money wields power, so everyone heeds Percy’s warnings.

All except Jake, who intends to teach this kid a lesson.

But alien ships zoom in quickly and kidnap several of the town’s residents, including Percy, Sheriff Taggart and Doc’s wife.

The remaining group of survivors decides to band together to track down the aliens.

COWBOYS & ALIENS ensures an entertaining cross-breed Western with stunning visual effects that will serve to overwhelm without going overboard for an over-kill.

Both CRAIG and FORD share an affable onscreen chemistry and  pitch in commendable performances. CRAIG’s good-guy role is juxtaposed against the controlling mean-guy played by FORD.

A dose of mysticism is brought in by OLIVIA WILDE’s character. She plays Ella Swenson, an enigmatic cowgirl with piercing green eyes that harbor a dark past.

Expect nothing except to be entertained, then COWBOYS & ALIENS will work very nicely which is the premise of the movie.

But once you adorn your thinking cap and go ga-ga on your film analysis, you will find numerous plot holes that make little or no sense.

Cast aside your skepticism to fully absorb and experience the film.

It really ain’t bad at all.