Cinema review: Cowboys & Aliens

Cowboys vs aliens.

What a missed occasion. The real problem is not that this is not a serious quality movie of course; with that title we all knew it was a glorified b movie. The problem is that it is too long and also kinda boring which, for a movie like this, is a terrible thing.

The main fault lies in the screenplay. Too many cooks, five, have tried for a decade to make this work. I know that the top title inform us that this is an adaptation of a graphic novel with the same title but this is not really true.

A guy called Scott Mitchell Rosenberg created the concept, Cowboys vs aliens, in 1997 and sold the right to the movie when the comic was still in development stage and in end the whole comic part was just a way to establish copyright and get the ball rolling.

Only when Spielberg joked that an idea like this one could make a good movie then things really started to coalesce and the production went on.

Structurally “Cowboys & Aliens” is a western so it starts a disparate group going from point A to point B while meeting various challenges on the road. The alien bit is tackled mainly at the end. This is not bad per se, I honestly would have preferred an “anything goes attitude” with aliens popping everywhere and a crazier atmosphere but that’s just me, a somber affair can work. The problem lies in the fact this picture fails to deliver even as a western.

There is not enough characterization, most of the times the plot meander aimlessly and overall the movie is missing the epic quality of western classic like “Unforgiven”. By the way if you think I’m being disingenuous by comparing “Cowboys & Aliens” to “Unforgiven” the producers actually started doing it so it’s fair game.

The aliens have a very classic design that call back to the “Creature from the black lagoon” but alas their plot is totally unbelievable and stupid. We understand that they must underestimate the humans, if not there is no way we can win against such a technological advanced race, but their overall actions and motivation are beyond silliness.

The best part of the movie is a curmudgeon Harrison Ford. I really love his new on screen persona, it is basically the same character from “Morning Glory”, and I can’t wait to see more roles like this one. He also got all the best lines and literally steals the show under Daniel Craig nose.

Olivia Wilde part is practically useless and doesn’t amount to more than the usual token female role, with the obligatory non sequitur kissing scene. I got nothing against her but she doesn’t have the charm to elevate this kind of stuff, she normally has such an icy demeanor, maybe she could go the Kate Beckingsale route and start slicing monsters?

Brownie points for bringing back the Kurgan from “Highlander”, Seeing Clancy Brown in a major role is wonderful and I hope that this is the start of many things to come for him.

Anyway an easily skippable experience.