Today, such lowbrow genres enjoy the most extravagant budgets, and Favreau leverages his resources for maximum impact. Ironically, Hollywood never would have lavished this much money on a cowboy or alien picture in the pre-Spielberg era. In between, the script cobbles together a bumpy second act, tossing off serial-style cliffhangers - cut off by bandits! surrounded by Indians! - en route to the big showdown promised by the film’s title. Echoes of “Rio Bravo” and “3:10 to Yuma” resonate through the first act, while the finale uses neato dragonfly-shaped UFOs and truly menacing monster design to update tropes from corny 1950s alien-invasion movies. While “Cowboys & Aliens” offers little in the way of sociological insight (except perhaps giving the white man a taste of his own resource-stealing medicine), it’s still a ripping good ride.īeneath all the state-of-the-art special effects beats an old-fashioned heart, one that prizes both of the genres in play. So there’s a certain karmic beauty in the fact that sci-fi should be the reason to dust off the oater, if only just this once. Historically speaking, sci-fi killed the Western genre: Instead of looking back, Hollywood projected its themes of frontier survivalism and fear of the other forward, into the equally lawless realms of outer space. Thirty years ago, Ford could have easily tackled the lead role in such an adventure here, he goes against type, bringing an intriguing emotional dimension to a character who would traditionally ride under a black hat. She not only appears out of place among her grizzled co-stars but also embodies the film’s biggest risk, an outlandish trial-by-fire twist that breaks the rules of both horse and space operas. Olivia Wilde, who plays his equally enigmatic love interest, works in the opposite direction, however. Shot to look Clint Eastwood-tall, Craig offsets much of the pic’s potential hamminess through the same brute mix of ruthlessness and sensitivity he brought to the recent 007 pics. The sheer uselessness of spears, arrows and bullets marks a running joke in a lopsided intergalactic battle that unites sworn enemies - cowboys and indians, lawmen and outlaws - in a common cause. The first breakthrough concerns his bracelet, which reveals itself to be some sort of turbo-charged blaster cannon, pretty much the only weapon strong enough to fight back with when the aliens attack. Besides, it’s more fun to unpack Jake’s past as he does, in a fit of flashbacks and seat-of-his-pants epiphanies. The youth carelessly provokes Craig’s character, whose unflinching response indicates the kind of hero we’re dealing with.Įver so gradually, further clues emerge, revealing the amnesia-stricken Jake Lonergan as a wanted man and … well, anything else said about his origins would constitute a spoiler. Back in town, a dirtheap fittingly named Absolution, Paul Dano plays the tyrannical son of local cattle baron Woodrow Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford). He reaches for a bloody wound at his side and discovers a strange manacle cuffed to his wrist and a lovely stranger’s tintype photograph lying in the dust at his feet - and so begins the mystery of how this loner will come to save humankind from a battalion of unidentified, unfriendly and most unwelcome flying objects.Īfter the muddled “Iron Man 2,” this feels like a return to a more patient, more coherent storytelling style for Favreau, who finds imaginative ways to introduce each character before bringing on the alien mayhem. “ Cowboys & Aliens” begins like a 19th-century Bourne movie, with Daniel Craig playing a stone-cold killer who wakes up in the middle of the New Mexico desert, his memory a blank. (Besides, what was “ Raiders of the Lost Ark,” if not a prototype for such a B-movie mash-up?) Abrams and Michael Bay), Favreau has emerged the most immediate heir to the master’s heartfelt showmanship. Still, of all the directors to work in exec producer Steven Spielberg’s shadow (including J.J. A quick tour through Favreau’s credits reveals a helmer who has managed to spin hearty entertainment from ever more anemic sources - first a bedtime story (“Zathura”), then a comicbook series (“Iron Man”), and now a mere illustration, intended to be the cover of a then-unpublished graphic novel.
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