Cowboys & Aliens - (July 29th, 2011): PG-13
Distributor: Universal Pictures
Opening Weekend Box-Office: #1 with $36,431,290
Domestic Box-Office Gross to-date: $56,369,000
Gross Revenue: $56,369,000
Production Budget: $163 million
Director: Jon Favreau
As an actor, Jon Favreau has had a respectable career in Hollywood, but after his directorial work in both 2003’s Elf and the Iron Man films, his popularity and demand hit the stratosphere. Set to helm the thoroughly unique Cowboys & Aliens, Jon Favreau would be working with Daniel Craig, who was critically-praised for bringing new life to the James Bond franchise, and Harrison Ford, the Hollywood legend behind Indiana Jones, Han Solo, and a number of other noteworthy characters. Now, even though these two actors are infamously private and notoriously disinclined to grant promotional interviews, buzz for Cowboys & Aliens was still spreading like wildfire. Set to premiere at Comic-Con and featuring the increasingly popular and intoxicating beautiful Olivia Wilde (of television-series House fame), the expected level of quality in Cowboys & Aliens was still surrounded by question marks. Critics were calling it bold, daring, and unique, so I found myself increasingly excited for this potential summer surprise hit.
Based on the 2006 graphic novel of the same name, Cowboys & Aliens opens in 1873, where an unnamed loner (Daniel Craig) awakens in the New Mexico Territory with no memory of his past and a strange metal bracelet bonded to his wrist. Stumbling into town and meeting the kindly barkeep, Doc (Sam Rockwell), the helpful preacher Meachem (Clancy Brown) and a mysterious woman who hints at his past named Ella (Olivia Wilde), the loner is identified as notorious outlaw Jake Lonergan. Though he tries to maintain a low profile, Jake almost immediately runs afoul of Colonel Woodrow Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford), a cattleman who not only controls the town, but who was also recently robbed by Jake’s gang and thirsts for revenge. As Jake is being taken into custody, his bracelet begins to glow and spaceships appear to destroy the town and kidnap the townspeople, the most notable being Dolarhyde’s own son. When it is revealed that Jake’s bracelet transforms into a powerful weapon, Dolarhyde allows him to join a posse (which includes Doc, Ella, and Meachem) that ultimately sets out to save the townspeople and fight the “demons.” Trying to piece together his past, Jake forms a bond with Ella and works with Dolarhyde to confront and ultimately defeat a new threat, the likes of which the Wild West has never seen.
It should come as no surprise that the best part of Cowboys & Aliens is watching Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig together, with Ford channeling the gruff and no-nonsense demeanor that fans have come to love and Craig establishing a whole new definition for not-to-be-messed-with badass. Unfortunately, the personalities of these beloved actors completely overshadow the characters they are supposed to be playing; audiences are not watching two cowboys with established back-stories or evolving emotional depth, they are simply watching Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford…and for some audiences, that will be enough. This lack of character development may be okay for two Hollywood heavyweights, but it plagues almost every other character, especially newcomer Olivia Wilde, who, though nice to look at, is not given the chance to connect with the audience, as she does little more beyond staring into the camera with wide-eyed wonder. In fact, the one character with any kind of distinct personality, Meacham the preacher, runs into an ill-tempered alien a little too quickly in the story. For as novel as it was to see some of these actors together for the first time, you would think that the writers would go out of their way to establish an exciting and engaging story, but such was not the case, and this shortcoming almost destroys all the appeal this hopeful blockbuster had in the first place.
By having aliens invade the Wild West and battle cowboys with no sense of the larger universe or other worlds beyond the spiritual (they label the aliens as nothing more than “demons”), this Western/Sci-Fi hybrid would obviously stretch the bounds of logic but still have considerable creative freedom…too bad it was all squandered. The plot itself is overly complicated and glosses over some very-much-needed clarifications, deciding instead to introduce an anticlimactic twist with Olivia Wilde’s character for the sole purpose of keeping the story on life-support for another half-hour before an equally-disappointing ending. The weak story itself is also not helped by the uneven pacing between the action sequences and expository scenes, as every time the action starts to pick up and draw in viewer attention, the momentum ends up falling flat within minutes. I accept that Westerns can be a little slow and still offer some cool elements, but how in the hell can anyone make a battle between cowboys and shiny-CGI aliens filled with explosions and spaceships actually boring? Jon Favreau tried to pay homage to two distinct genres in Cowboys & Aliens, but unfortunately, each got little more than lip-service in this mediocre and largely disappointing action flick.
For further indication of the poor quality of Cowboys & Aliens, just look at its box office performance: even though it took in $36 million and earned the top spot its opening weekend, it almost lost out to The Smurfs in a race that was dead-even for most of the weekend. The film has been projected to earn as much as $95 million total in the United States and Canada and $140 million once it is released overseas, but with this kind of sub-par performance so far, I doubt expectations will ultimately be met. With a $163 million production budget, Paramount definitely gambled big with Cowboys & Aliens, and it’s sad that the project couldn’t be saved by Daniel Craig or Harrison Ford. If you really want to see Indy and 007 kick ass together, then I can’t stop you from going to the theater, but if you are expecting anything truly special, you are in for a disappointment. Blending genres can be tricky, but to see the results of this experiment, you can definitely wait for Netflix or Redbox.
Overall Recommendation: Low
