Ah yes, the secret love child of two of the greatest film genres of all time. You all knew that eventually the studios would be desperate enough to try this, but does this film really live up to the standard of either of these genres? Let’s review Cowboys & Aliens.
The Negative
Let me answer my own intro question right off the bat here: it doesn’t, at least for the Science Fiction half of this film. The aliens never live up to the hype that this movie provides for them. Their true motives are kind of silly (they’ve come to our planet for the gold rush), their actions are extremely contradictory (they capture humans in order to study our weaknesses, but rush right out into the final fight without any weapons because they underestimate our abilities even though we have been kicking their butt the entire film), their biology with their use of this biology is baffling (they have a dense protective shell –like bullet-proof armor for skin, yet most of their deaths are caused by how often they try to grad people with their inner arms that also expose their vital organs), and they are by far the most intelligent incoherent species I have ever witnessed (none of them ever talk throughout the entire film, resorting to grunts and growls that make them seem more like mindless monsters than a highly advance alien species that crossed the stars).
Sorry to do that all in one sentence but the aliens really bothered me in this film. It was a cheap stereo typical alien monster with little to no thought really put into the design of these creatures and what they can do. Remember Predators (species not the movie). Within the Predator film series we have only ever had brief glimpses at the species and what they can do overall, the predators have never really spoken that much with their films being mostly horror based. In every brief glimpse of the Predators we get, they have never wasted a moment to showcase them more, be it technology, their home world, their religious beliefs, their motives. The reason I am comparing these Aliens so much to the Predators is because they are the Predators done wrong. We are given poorly execute explanations of the aliens throughout the entire movie, but with each new explanation these aliens just keep coming off as sillier and sillier. I feel like the War of the Worlds aliens had better explained motives than these guys.
As a final minor complaint, Olivia Wilde’s character is acted incredibly flat and also falls within the bad alien stereotype. Her character never really fit the mood of the film and a lot of the story exposition was just blurted out through her over time. Her character’s ultimate fate didn’t really faze me as I never really understood or like her character in the long run. I think that there was a good story for her character but it was just poorly executed.
The Positive
The Western half of this fusion film is what makes up entirely for the lacking Sci-Fi half. Which is good because it also makes up a much bigger section of the film. Daniel Craig is amazing in this film. I was truly surprised to find that a British actor could pull off a better old west accent than some of his cohorts. Harrison Ford also gives an amazing performance as the sort of anti-hero Colonel. I have seen Harrison Ford play heroes for years and it was interesting to see him in a much more villainess role than his usual fare. It’s these two actors that truly help convince you that this is all taking place within the old west.
What truly keeps the film going is the townspeople. It’s just a shame that some of them didn’t get names and what ones did never really get said again. Most of these characters were named after their job (Doc, Preacher, Colonel) I’m sure these characters had names, but were truly unimportant to remember. In any case, it is the townspeople that keep the humor going and the mood lively. I found myself very invested in some of these characters and was wondering what was going to become of them. The scene where they aliens kidnap half the town does have a lot of weight to it because the film actually does a fair job of building these characters up a bit. We only get brief moments into each of their lives but you can tell that they are a community that is going to band together to save their loved ones.
The lone moments we have with Daniel Craig’s character were some of the best in the film. We were on this journey with him to try and piece together what happened to him. We have some slight knowledge of what kind of man he was before but it’s not the kind of man we want to be now. It’s a new lease on life and we have to decide what were going to do with it. Daniel Craig’s character is the one that is leading us into this world and is one of my favorite things about this film. He knows just about as much as we do and he acts upon his instincts to do what is right.
In Conclusion
While not being one of the best fusions of Sci-Fi and Western genres, cough *Firefly* cough, it was still very enjoyable. The film stumbles in sections and the aliens do not work at all, but I think it could have worse. It could have been Priest. I think this movie is works better as a western than a Sci-fi because the film is a Western but with Sci-Fi elements shoved in. It wasn’t a true fusion of the two genres and that is where it falters. 3.5 out of 5
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