If you thought James Bond and Indiana Jones should team up in the American West to fight extraterrestrial monsters.... Well, let's just say that nobody (except fans of the graphic novel) saw this one coming. And frankly, nobody has said much about it since it premiered. A big factor of that, no doubt, lies with the too-familiar sci-fi plot; the Western elements of the narrative -- though predictable --feel more engaging simply because the Western film is all but dead.
For a film that could be all concept and no content, director Jon Favreau keeps his movie rolling. His kinetic energy gracefully avoids too many gimmicks while still playing off a few too many clichés of both sci-fi flicks and (the long-deceased genre of) Westerns. Dialogue is sparse and banal, but the quiet moments are weirdly absorbing. Harrison Ford delivers a solid performance that slightly departs from his typical work; that's something we don't see much of. Daniel Craig, though, leads with particular intelligence, and his moody presence onscreen is electrifying (mostly because he looks great in chaps).
The narrative is anything but original: Amnesiac man wakes up with mad skills and a secret, makes enemies with townspeople, befriends an exotic woman who assists him, rallies the townspeople in defense of outsiders, and finally defeats said "aliens". And yet, a mash-up of the rustic frontier and futuristic aliens is such an ingenious idea that we don't know entirely how to approach the film. In fact, it's so low-brow that I think most of us are just angry that we didn't think of it first. I'm jumping the gun now, though: I want to see Pirates & Fairies next.
Funky editing, lazy camerawork, and a focus on spectacle make this film dull for me. But I don't hate it; I hardly even dislike it. I think my odd fascination with it -- apart from its conceptual awesomeness -- is that it is so incredibly serious. This film could have easily been a pulpy mess, a campy charade, or a sci-fi dud. Instead, we have a straight action film that keeps punching when its intrigue has run out. Wisely, Favreau stops his cast (and himself) from ever winking at the camera or going too overboard with the weirdness; if they even hinted at meta, the film would have utterly failed. As it is, it is not smart or well-crafted, but it is thoroughly entertaining.
IMDb: Cowboys & Aliens
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