For a movie which seemingly grew out of a play on words, Cowboys and Aliens makes surprisingly entertaining viewing with sturdy special effects, so long as one snuggles down with popcorn and the expectation of a bit of frivolous diversion.
The Plot Unfolds
The opening scene finds us as clueless as the dusty, half-clothed cowboy who picks himself up from the dirt wearing a strange – one might say "alien" – device on his wrist and no memory of his own name or past. Almost immediately confronted by vicious, scalp-toting horsemen who set upon him for very little reason – as was apparently wont back in the day – he defends himself adequately, and, leaving their corpses for the scavengers, takes himself to the nearest town, which turns out to be Absolution, a typical western set-up, complete with inadequate law enforcement, big shot local landowner and son duo, and pretty girl hanging out in the bar who seems to know more about our hero than he does.
Nothing too much out of the ordinary for a cowboy flick up to this point, except for that naggingly alien armband.
Sure enough, come the night, with our mystery man now identified as Jake Lonergan, a wanted man, having passed the day seriously getting up the nose of the nepotistic Colonel Dolarhyde, the aliens terrifyingly – and completely co-incidentally – attack the very town the stranger has wandered into, and carry off much of its citizenry. (As it happens, the alien wristband becomes very much alive and handy at this point.) Chasing an unaccountably ground-based monster, a band of townspeople form a posse to track it and recover their kidnapped kin, in the process of which near misses, wild chases and rescues are successfully pulled off, resurrections occur, old alliances are reforged and new ones made, and the truth is revealed, as unappetizing as some of that turns out to be.
A Rather Jolly Show
A smorgasbord of ideas and genres, Cowboys and Aliens is what it sets out to be – a fun, almost Disney-like wild ride which endears itself to the light-hearted viewer by not taking itself too seriously.
Daniel Craig does his stony-faced best as the steely gunslinger Jake Lonergan, the inimitable Harrison Ford plays Colonel Woodrow Dolarhyde – a role which doesn’t really match up to his talents – the tyrannical big cheese who undergoes an unlikely but disarming change of attitude, and Olivia Wilde of House and Tron:Legacy fame plays the enigmatic Ella.
All in all, jolly viewing with a dash of the repugnant, a visual snack complemented well by a serving of good humour.
Bronwyn Azor - I've always loved the empty pages of a blank book; ripe for thoughts to be downloaded onto. Now I'm living my dream, but filling virtual ...
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