Very similar to the planning and schedule of CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER, the American public can now be treated to COWBOYS AND ALIENS. I've specially noted this film since, like CAPTAIN AMERICA, it represents finality; COWBOYS AND ALIENS was slotted to be the last predicted boffo box-office draw that this "glorious" summer movie season has featured before entering the dumping grounds of August. Unless, of course, humanity seeks entertainment through blue creatures from Belgium.
Sadly, also like CAPTAIN AMERICA, COWBOYS AND ALIENS doesn't completely live up to the standards placed upon its shoulders. A big genre director, a plethora of great actors, and a can't miss comic book property, largely to its publisher's deliberate and disreputable marketing strategies, should have combined together to form an amusing and action-packed film. Instead, its major limitations in the script department hold back the reins.
Daniel Craig plays the head of the cowboys, a man with no name or even memory. After awaking in the desert with an open stomach wound and a mysterious collar around his wrist, he brutally kills some bounty-hunting thugs before walking into the nearest town. Trouble comes to him after injuring a baron's loose cannon son and learning that he is Jake Lonergan, a dangerous outlaw wanted by the authorities. Before he can receive a trip to Santa Fe or the wrath of the baron (Harrison Ford), flying alien drones enter the town and sweep off with most of the townsfolk. Differences are put aside as the humans follow after the "demons" to rescue their loved ones and defeat the foreign invaders.
What makes the story interesting to behold, despite it coming from five separate screenwriters, is its seemingly deliberate attempt to retain the old-fashioned principles and morals of the 1950's science fiction B-movies. Spoilers are in effect: Former social classifications such as race are implemented into the film's proceedings and played seriously. The outsiders and the in-betweeners, such as the two characters who are in a way mixed breed, are forced to continue wandering through life or sacrifice themselves for the lives of others respectively. Once the dust has cleared, everyone is placed back into their own civilizations and social classes. This scripted element could have been very infuriating for the sensibilities of today's audiences but it strangely feels right. It couples with the overall film's technique of looking and feeling like something released as a movie serial or a second-billed feature at a drive-in. However, giving a big budget to something designed to be weightless leaves a lot of money and talent wasted.
Except for Craig and Ford, the rest of the cast are given flimsy, two-dimensional roles. Even when they try to make it worth the effort, such as Sam Rockwell as the defeated and depressed bartender named Doc, the mismanaged screenplay punishes them for no real reason. Very often, a character would finally receive some additional characterization only for the next scene has them being killed off. While the likables become expendable, we are supposed to cheer on the undesirables such as Noah Ringer's blank-slated kid, whose sole acting talent is puffed up cheeks. Outside the characters, the story has some gaping plot holes and sheer acts of coincidences. Again, going for and achieving a 50's style is applaudable but it can't solve the glaring problems, especially how everyone keeps forgetting that guns hardly work against the aliens compared to explosives.
Behind the camera, Jon Favreau works wonders with most of the actors and his returning cinematographer Matthew Libatique. Except for an odd scene where the color scheme is heavily saturated for no reason, the framing is often striking and worthy of being second-unit work for a John Ford film. Except this isn't a film by John Ford, more likely to be one from Bert I. Gordon. Still, the entertaining battle scenes and acting performances do at least make the popcorn go down smoothly.
FINAL REVIEW: 3 / 5
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