Cowboys & Aliens

Although one of my favorite movies of all time is a Western, I tend not to like them as a genre. Tombstone ranked as my favorite film for the longest, but not because it was a Western, but because of the supremely awesome acting of everyone involved, and they just happened to be telling a fact based story that was set in the Old West era of America. Val Kilmer's performance as Doc Holliday is reason enough to watch the film, and all else on hand do a fine job as well, I'm surprised that it didn't garner any awards. But no other film of that particular genre has interested me, in fact, I'm not really all that big on "period pieces" as a whole. On the other hand, I dig a really good alien flick, whether it be of the invasion type like Independence Day, or something a little more subtle like Enemy Mine. There have been Westerns produced that have sci-fi elements, like Wild, Wild West, but that was a horrible movie, and on paper, the idea of bringing a Western and an Alien flick together sounds pretty ridiculous. Cowboys & Aliens wasn't on my radar at all, I had heard about it, mainly from my movie muse, Totally Mental Mommy, but hadn't watched any trailers for it, and might have given it a chance once it hit DVD. Yet the opportunity arose to see it in theatres and I said, "What the hell."

Like I said, the idea of a Western and Alien flick mash-up seemed pretty ridiculous to me on the outset, I figured it was going to go the route of cheese-ball, even though it had some significant Hollywood muscle attached to it, both in front of and behind the camera. Like any typical male, I hate to admit that I am wrong, but I enjoyed being wrong this time. The trailer lays out the story pretty straight-forward, Jake Lonergan (Daniel Craig) wakes up in the desert, with no memory and a strange, metallic device attached to his wrist. He eventually makes his way into the nearest town, where it is discovered that he is actually a wanted fugitive, for various crimes. The town sheriff, played by David Carradine, locks Lonergan up and summons U.S. Marshals to come collect him, and another prisoner, Percy Dolarhyde (Paul Dano), who is son of the local cattle baron Colonel Woodrow Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford), known in the area not only for his war efforts, but also for being a rather stern individual. Dolarhyde rides into town, demanding that his son and Lonergan be turned over to him, since it turns out that Lonergan had just robbed Dolarhyde of some gold. A stand-off ensues, and as tensions mount, strange lights appear in the sky. As the townsfolk watch in awe, the metallic device attached to Lonergan's wrist lights up and begins to beep. The approaching lights turn out to be flying craft, and they promptly start blowing up the town. Naturally, the townsfolk lose their collective marbles, so to speak.

"Hey Mel, wanna lose our marbles?"   "Way ahead of you, buddy!"             

During the attack several people are taken by the aliens, including the Sheriff and Percy Dolarhyde. Lonergan manages to use the device strapped to his wrist to bring one of the ships down, but its pilot escapes into the night. They discover the pilot was wounded in the crash and Dolarhyde's right-hand man, an Indian named Nat Colorado (Adam Beach) says they can track it. A posse is formed in the morning and rides out to find the alien pilot, and hopefully the rest of the towns-folk, while Lonergan rides out to a cabin and has a flashback that reveals him returning to the cabin with Dolarhyde's gold, right before the aliens attack and capture him and a woman he was with in the cabin. He then re-joins the rest of the posse, and as per my "no spoilers" rule, I leave it there to stop from revealing any more crucial plot points. I will say that the rest of the movie manages to keep you entertained and has a few good little plot twists along the way.

"I see what you did there."

Now, here comes the rub, I can't rate this movie higher than I'm going to, because it has one huge, glaring flaw: besides the name Cowboys & Aliens being the title, this film has absolutely nothing to do with the comic book that it is based on, and if you know me, that's a big no-no for a movie adaptation. While what was presented was a great movie with faithful elements of both Westerns and Alien movies, the story in the pages would have been interesting to see on-screen. All the actors put on good performances, I especially liked Ford's portrayal of the hard-ass Dolarhyde, and the special effects were top notch. The reason the aliens are there is a little flimsy, but the rest of the plot stands up pretty well. You also don't have to worry about a heavy-handed love story getting dropped into the middle of the action, there are romantic elements, but they aren't strong enough to effect the pace of the film. I say check it out at least in theatres at a matinee price, or some sort of discounted showing, it's worth seeing on the big screen, but not at full price.

7 out of 10 Fists.