Cowboys and Aliens Review

Overall Rating B

I know this movie looks ridiculous, and you may not think it's worth your time. I beg to differ. Let me first, list off some of the people involved in the making of this movie. Jon Favreau, Steven Spielberg, Ron Howard, Alex  Kurtzman, Robert Orci, DAMON LINDELOF, Harrison Ford, Daniel Craig, Sam Rockwell, Olivia Wilde. If at least some of those names don't get you super excited, then you can't call yourself a movie fan, and most definitely not a science fiction fan. This group comes together and creates an exciting, moving, and fun filled SciFi-Western.

The idea of a Western with Science Fiction qualities is not a new idea. Joss Whedon's Firefly showed how well the two genres really go together. What is new in this movie though, is that it's a Science Fiction movie about an alien attack, that just happens to take place in late 1800s America. I won't give it away, but we do learn a lot about the aliens, and why they are interested in Earth. I feel this attack could have happened at anytime in human history, and the filmmakers simply thought it would be cool if it was Alien advanced technology vs. Cowboys on horse back with revolvers. Turned out they were right, it is very cool, and makes for some excellent panoramic shots of the old west.

As people know, the movie was directed by Jon Favreau(Iron Man), but you may not know that it was written by Orci and Kurtzman, the two that brought us Star Trek, and Fringe. It also was written by Damon Lindelof who was the show runner on a little show called Lost. Usually when you have a ton of different writers work on the same movie, there are a lot of problems. Here though, these writers have worked together in the past so the collaboration clearly focused on making this the best movie they could make. The script isn't Oscar worthy, but it's not cheesy either. The dialogue is more Western than it is SciFi, and when you have this group of actors speaking these lines it works perfectly.

Daniel Craig plays a stranger who arrives in a small town in New Mexico(that I was hoping was named Roswell) with a strange metal bracelet on his arm. He has no memory of who he is, or how he got there. In town he meets an assortment of people. This was fun for two reasons. The pure Western feel was in full effect as the Science Fiction aspect hadn't begun yet, and everyone you saw was a great actor. Sam Rockwell, Keith Carradine, Clancy Brown, Paul Dano, and of course Olivia Wilde. We are told about a vicious cattle driver named Woodrow Dolarhyde. Yes, I do think it's funny that the man who makes his money off of cattle is named Dolarhyde. When we meet him, it's an epic reveal of Harrison Ford. While he's the villain at the start of the movie, he does open up later and shows real character development. He keeps his gritty attitude the whole time though, which was golden.

Olivia Wilde plays Ella Swenson, who appears to know Craig at the beginning of the movie, and her role in the film is far more than a love interest. I love that Olivia Wilde's roles in movies have not simply been "hot girl in trouble, needs big strong man". She's been bad ass in everything, and I adore it. There is one scene where they are solely playing up her looks, but Daniel Craig takes his shirt off like 10 times so I guess it's even.  Sam Rockwell is one of my favorite actors alive, and I know he'll him an Oscar some day. In this, he plays a bartender/doctor. He's also the town weakling, but with a hot wife. Some how, this all makes sense during the movie and you never really question it. I honestly think it's because the script is good, and Rockwell's acting is as always, amazing.

So, I've written this far, and haven't really mentioned the Aliens much at all. It's been all Cowboys. How are the Aliens? Well...I liked the aliens in this movie than the one in Super 8. Super 8 is the better film, but in this movie the way they behave towards humans seems more logical. I also like the look of the alien more. We do get a lot of information on who they are, what they want, and their future plans. Usually I would be against this, but in this movie we did need to know certain facts. The special effects are very good. This movie is NOT in 3D, nor in IMAX. I do think it would have benefited from IMAX due to the western panoramas, but it worked great.

The scenes though that stand out are between the actors of course. These are great actors, and for the vast majority of the movie are just behaving regularly. Whether, they were afraid of a coming attack, confused about recent events, or planning for battle they behaved the exact same they would if it was any threat. They've all seen death, and know violence because that was the time they lived in. Like anyone, in any time though they want to protect the ones they love, and just try to survive. That is what this movie is about. During alien raids various characters lose members of their family, or other love ones, and this joint loss forces them to join together, pushing aside personal issues, and fight this new common threat. They plan to fight it even though it looks nearly impossible.

See this movie. It's exciting, uplifting, funny, and crushing at times. If you're a fan of movies in general, I see no reason why this one will not make you happy that someone, some where decided to make a movie about Cowboys and Aliens.