Cowboys & Aliens

OVERVIEW

It’s cowboys versus aliens… versus James Bond… versus Indiana Jones. Directed by Jon Favreau, coming off hot from his Iron Man films, with a massive budget, cool premise, and stacked cast. Except it’s not nearly as fun as it sounds.

We are in 1873, and Jake Lonergan (Daniel Craig) wakes up in the desert with a futuristic bracelet stuck to his wrist and no recollection of who he is. The only things he seems to remember are how to speak English and how to be a jerk with a heart of gold (personality traits always survive amnesia in Hollywood blockbusters). He soon finds himself in trouble and locked up in the small town of Absolution, alongside Percy Dolarhyde (Paul Dano), the spoiled son of the feared cattle baron Woodrow Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford). That night, Woodrow arrives in town demanding his son’s release, only to be interrupted by strange lights appearing in the sky as mysterious flying machines descend upon Absolution and begin abducting its residents. Jake, Woodrow, and a few other residents then organize a party to rescue their acquaintances and loved ones from this extraordinary, mysterious threat.

BACKGROUND

The arduous journey the characters must take is almost as long as the one the film took to finally reach theatres. Originally conceived in 1997 by Scott Mitchell Rosenberg, the former president of Malibu Comics (the publisher behind Men in Black), the premise immediately attracted the interest of DreamWorks and Universal, which purchased the rights and hired Steve Oedekerk (Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls) to write and direct. His overly comedic approach was rejected, however, and the project spent the next decade passing through numerous writers and unsuccessful attempts to get it made. Things finally started moving when Jon Favreau joined as director in 2009, following the success of Iron Man, with Steven Spielberg and Ron Howard also involved as producers. Robert Downey Jr. was originally attached to star but dropped out due to scheduling conflicts, making way for Daniel Craig, with Harrison Ford joining shortly afterward. Favreau was determined to approach the absurd premise as a serious Western, drawing inspiration from classics such as The Searchers (1956) and traditional alien invasion films. With a massive $163 million budget, extensive practical sets, and cinematography shot on 35mm film, Cowboys & Aliens finally reached theatres in July 2011, fourteen years after its conception, backed by an aggressive marketing campaign that emphasized its star power and clash of genres, all presented in a dark and serious tone. Audiences weren’t particularly excited about it, and following underwhelming reviews, the film went on to gross a disappointing $175 million worldwide. The failure contributed to a difficult period in Favreau’s directing career, eventually leading him to make the much smaller Chef (2014), while Cowboys & Aliens itself has largely faded from popular memory.

THE REVIEW

It is a shame that, looking back, many were quick to blame the film’s failure on the Western genre, claiming it was simply too dated for modern audiences. While that certainly may have played a part in its poor box office performance (the film was released during a summer when the MCU was beginning to take shape, after all), the Western elements are clearly the film’s highlights. In fact, Cowboys & Aliens only becomes increasingly generic and indistinguishable from other blockbusters of the period once it introduces its science fiction elements.

The film doesn’t start perfectly, but Favreau does a good job introducing the characters and establishing the setting before the sudden alien invasion. The sets, costumes, music, and especially the cinematography are all worthy of the genre, even if closer to modern takes on Westerns like the 3:10 to Yuma remake than the true classics. We get the dusty town, the saloon, the shootouts, and a particularly entertaining introduction to Harrison Ford’s feared cattle baron. Ford looks perfectly at home in the genre, and his first scene in particular makes us wish he’d done more traditional Westerns. Unfortunately, the film immediately signals that something extraordinary is going on with Jake’s futuristic bracelet. It would have been fantastic if the film had played it straight for much longer before finally springing the alien invasion on us. Still, that doesn’t take away from a promising first act that suggests a far better film than what we eventually get.

Like so many films built around a confrontation between two recognizable forces, Cowboys & Aliens fails to establish a convincing balance between them. We need to believe that both sides have a fighting chance, even if one is considerably more powerful than the other. The aliens look and behave exactly like the creatures from a conventional science fiction blockbuster of the period because, heaven forbid, cowboys and aliens should ever be remotely evenly matched. They are enormous, technologically advanced, and practically unstoppable, leaving the cowboys with very few believable ways to fight back. Either the aliens attack and effortlessly slaughter everyone around them, or the humans catch them by surprise and somehow manage to kill them, with very little actual struggle in between. Jake’s bracelet conveniently provides the only weapon capable of consistently challenging the creatures. The result is a series of rather unimaginative confrontations that rarely take advantage of the Western setting or the enormous differences between the two sides. There is little sense that the cowboys are learning how to deal with this extraordinary threat, or that their particular skills and knowledge of the frontier make much of a difference.

The other major problem is the screenplay’s structure, which passed through the hands of at least twelve writers over its lengthy development. It follows the familiar Western trope of a long journey across the frontier, with our heroes encountering an Apache tribe, Jake’s former gang, and an abandoned riverboat between lengthy stretches of traveling and quiet conversations. It recalls films such as The Searchers (1956) or True Grit (1969), but fails to recognize that this kind of drama needs compelling characters and meaningful development to sustain it. The characters here are extremely bland, with arcs better suited to a more spectacle-driven blockbuster. One needs to learn how to shoot. Another needs to learn compassion. Jake needs to remember who he was, while Olivia Wilde’s Ella is there mostly as a plot device and ornament. The actors have little to work with, and Daniel Craig in particular hardly tries, playing his stoic, joyless character with so little charisma that one wonders if he resents the paycheck (one wishes he and Sam Rockwell had swapped roles).

The script tries to make something of former enemies having to cooperate against a common threat, but the character arcs are too thin for any of it to land. The parallel between human greed and the aliens’ pursuit of gold could have added another layer to the conflict, but that, too, goes nowhere. With so little to reveal about these characters, the long journey only makes their limitations more apparent. It all turns into a repetitive, bloated affair, and you start wishing an alien would suddenly show up and kill them all, or at least offer a change of pace. Unfortunately, whenever one does, we’re reminded why that might be a bad idea.

(Obs: this review is for the extended edition, which runs 17 minutes longer with more character interaction, which improves upon the theatrical release, making the characters more cohesive yet still not quite interesting).

FINAL THOUGHTS

Cowboys & Aliens squanders the creative possibilities of its fertile premise, offering unimaginative confrontations between its titular opponents and a bloated, repetitive journey populated by bland characters. Its promising first act gradually gives way to an increasingly generic and joyless blockbuster, much like its protagonist.

At a glance

2/5

“LACKS IMAGINATION”

Where to watch

🎟️Rent or buy at Apple TV Store, YouTube, Amazon Video

Where to watch

Mercado Play

Trailer

Play trailer

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