Sunday, August 7, 2011

Cowboys & Aliens (2011)

Call me crazy, but I always get a kick out of movies that come right out and tell you everything you need to know right in the title. Snakes on a Plane had, get this, snakes on a plane. Zack and Miri Make a Porno saw the titular characters do exactly that, and the Harold & Kumar movies — ...Go To White Castle and ...Escape From Guantanamo Bay — had Harold and Kumar go to White Castle and escape from Guantanamo Bay.

And this brings us to the release of Cowboys & Aliens. There's cowboys, there's aliens, and that's pretty much it. It's actually based on a comic book, a graphic novel published by Platinum Studios in 2006. Created by Scott Michael Rosenberg and written by Fred Van Lente and Andrew Foley, I actually hadn't ever heard of it until about two or three weeks ago. But since this is a movie review site, let's stick with the Cowboys & Aliens movie. And you know what? The movie is pretty great.

Welcome to New Mexico, circa the 1870s. As the movie begins, a man (Daniel Craig) awakens in the desert with no idea how he got there. He cannot remember the past few days, or even his own name. All he does know is that he's got a strange metal cuff strapped to his wrist. The man heads for the nearby town of Absolution, where the local sheriff (Keith Carradine) recognizes him as the wanted outlaw Jake Lonergan. The sheriff tries arresting him, only succeeding when Jake is knocked out by a mysterious woman named Ella (Olivia Wilde).

The sheriff takes Jake into custody and prepares to hand him over to federal marshals, only to be interrupted by Colonel Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford), a wealthy cattleman who practically owns the entire town. Jake and his gang robbed Colonel Dolarhyde's stagecoach, and demands that Jake be turned over to him so that he can claim the bounty. But before things can get settled, alien spaceships attack the town and start abducting people. The ships are only repelled by what I can only describe as a ray gun that emerges from Jake's cuff. Jake and Colonel Dolarhyde round up a posse of survivors and, teaming with Jake's gang and a local Apache tribe, try to hunt down the aliens and rescue those they've kidnapped.

Cowboys & Aliens is not a perfect movie. But its cast and crew do such a great job putting it together that any flaws it had can be overlooked easily. It's a damn fine flick, one that revels in its ludicrous concept yet admirably avoids drifting into camp territory. You would think a movie about cowboys in the Old West fighting malicious beings from another planet would be treated as some kind of B-movie parody like Snakes on a Plane. But Cowboys & Aliens is a serious flick and is better for it.

Jon Favreau is our director here, and whoever made the call to hire him made a great choice. No stranger to effects-heavy summer blockbusters, Favreau manages to delicately balance both the Western and science fiction genres. You'd think that those two genres wouldn't really gel all that well, but he pulls it off without making it seem forced. Favreau actually makes you come away with the impression that Westerns and sci-fi were meant to go together all along.

But it helps that Favreau has some fantastic elements at his disposal. Take, for example, the cinematography. Handled by Matthew Libatique, who had previously collaborated with Favreau on the Iron Man movies, the cinematography is very, very good. It perfectly establishes the necessary tone, while effortlessly evoking the style of both of the genres that the movie dips into. And the special effects and CGI are also top notch, feeling believable and seamlessly blending in with what's actually there in front of the camera.

Unfortunately, I thought the script — credited to Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman, Damon Lindelof, Mark Fergus, and Hawk Ostby — was where the movie's flaws started to seep in. I have no problem with the fact that the comic book's story being watered down to the point that it's basically "cowboys and Indians vs. generic alien invaders" and not much else, but that's all there is. The story is about as basic as you can get, and the characters are one-dimensional. The whole script is just like how I described the aliens: generic. I mean, I can't say I thought the writing was overwhelmingly bad, but it was just there. And that helps nobody.

At least the cast tries making up for it. While I thought the supporting cast — primarily Clancy Brown and Sam Rockwell — contribute fine performances, they were all overshadowed by the three leads. Playing the mysterious Jake Lonergan is James Bond himself, Daniel Craig. Craig is great in the role, though it doesn't require much of him outside of being an enigmatic tough guy. I can say the exact same thing about Harrison Ford, who only has to be a grizzled Civil War veteran with a short fuse. Both Ford and Craig are likable in their roles, playing them wholeheartedly. But thanks to the writing, they're playing characters who aren't much more than how I described them.

Olivia Wilde actually gets the worst of it. Her character is so flat that if it were a swimming pool, Wilde would have cracked her skull open if she dove in headfirst. She's charismatic and is obviously trying her hardest, but the role isn't much. Wilde does everything she can to overcome that, however. Her performance is quite good, her presence making a weak character seem a lot better.

The 2011 summer blockbuster season has seen its share of bland, less than stellar movies. And I know this review started to take a turn where it sounded like I was being overly negative. But I actually really liked Cowboys & Aliens. In spite of its flaws, it's a fun flick that is entertaining from the first frame to the last. I'm actually surprised that it's gotten so much competition from The Smurfs this weekend and last; because why would you want to see some awful-looking (and badly reviewed) movie when you could see James Bond and Indiana Jones fight aliens for two hours? So yeah, I liked Cowboys & Aliens, but I'm still waiting for the sequel, Cavemen & Astronauts.

Final Rating: ***½

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