In a summer that is packed to the rafters with blockbusting wizards, robots and tiny blue pain in the arses, where does a film with a title as unambiguous as 'Cowboys & Aliens' fit in to this? Well for my second movie review in a row, said movie just doesn't quite get there.
Daniel Craig (Layer Cake, Munich and some franchise where he plays a spy, I think) plays Jake Lonergan, a man who wakes up in the middle of the desert with no recollection of who or where the hell he is. Jake's in a bit of a pickle, as he gets set upon by some bandits, and he's not wearing much and has got some odd looking jewellrey attatched to his wrist. To say that this is not Jake's day is somewhat of an understatement. Anyways after some quick fisticuffs he hotfoots into the nearest town where he discovers he's actually a bit of a bastard that robbed and shot people. Lots.
Well he is a cowboy...
Anyway, nightfall arrives and he's about to be taken away for some hang time when low and behold, aliens attack! Hell breaks loose as the aliens in their spaceships begin abducting the townsfolk by lassoing them to their ships. The irony-spewing bastards. Amid the chaos, Jake notices his funky new bracelet starts lighting up and is not a bracelet afterall, but is actually an alien weapon (obviously) and promptly shoots down one of the ships. The townsfolk realise they need Jake afterall and set about getting the abducted townsfolk back.
The problem with Cowboys and Aliens is that it can't seem to decide what film it wants to be. For the first 30 minutes or so, it's an out and out western, and is damn near flawless. But when the aliens arrive it turns into sci-fi action fare for the rest of the film. Considering that this is a near-two hour film, the sci-fi outweighs the western element a lot. Being two genres is fine by all means, but when your film is called COWBOYS & Aliens, you have to blend the two genres together, and this just doesn't quite pull it off.
However it's not all bad. Daniel Craig is on superb form as badass cowboy Lonergan, brooding and shooting and being heroic in an anti-hero sort of way. Harrison Ford does perma-pissed off to perfection as a pissed off father who's son has been nicked by the aliens. Olivia Wilde does well too as a tough-edged cowgirl. Oh and Sam Rockwell is in it. 'Nough said (the man's class). Final mention too to Walton Goggins, purely because he needs more recognition than he gets (but that's another article).
To surmise Cowboys & Aliens is an okay film, just don't expect the earth. Hell, it's better than Green Lantern.
6/10
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