Cowboys and Aliens

After seeing this movie one thing is for certain. Either the graphic novel that inspired this god awful movie truly sucks or John Favreau sucks as a director. He hit it out of the ballpark with Elf and Iron Man but fell off with Iron Man 2 and this movie makes it official, he is not as good a director as he let on. Cowboys and Aliens was a movie that just screamed potential blockbuster. It had a great premise, great cast, good director, and Steven Speilberg as executive director, the blockbuster ingredients were in the pot and the stew was cooking. Just seems someone forgot to lower the flame and put the lid on the pot.

Now when I said one of the ingredients in this weak ass movie was a great cast, I meant it. Harrison Ford, Sam Rockwell, Adam Beach, the beautiful Olivia Wilde, Clancy Brown, Paul Dano, Keith Carradine, and the mediocre Daniel Craig round out the key components of the cast. Harrison Ford plays Woodrow Dolarhyde who is a cattle baron and Daniel Craig plays Jake Lonergan, leader of an inept gang and a petty thief. These two men are mortal enemies but before the movie tells you that, it gives you Jake waking up in the middle of the desert with no idea who he is and wearing an odd bracelet on his wrist. After defeating three armed gunmen on horseback (to prove just what a bad ass Jake is) he rides into the town of Absolution. He then beats up Dolarhyde's drunk son Percy as well as the sheriff and his crew.

Just when Percy and Jake are about to be hauled of to a real jail in the wagon, Percy's dad and his posse shows up because Woodrow wants his son back and is willing to shed blood to make that happen. Suddenly there are floating lights in the sky and before any bullets fly these lights wreak havoc on the city of Absolution as well as harvest some of it's people. All hell breaks out on the ground and every one runs for cover and that's when Jakes bracelet comes to life and he blasts his way out of the jail wagon and then stands in the middle of the road and takes down one of those flying machines. The alien flying the machine kills some towns people and escapes. Fortunately Woodrow has an Indian in his employ who can track the alien and they all set off after it including Olivia Wilde and Emmett, a 10 year old child who wants to get his grandfather who's been "harvested" by the aliens.

This movie is weak and if I had to rate it on a 1 to 10 scale it barely gets a five. I found myself not giving a damn about any of the characters and I didn't care if they succeeded or failed in the posse's attempt to free the towns people who had been taken. They tried to turn the bad ass into a compassionate and caring hero when he was a psychopath earlier in the film. They want you to cheer and pull for Dolarhyde's character who's an evil asshole. You don't get emotionally invested in any of these characters in any way so there's a visceral disconnect. If the graphic novel was written this way I have no idea why the filmmakers didn't make a significant change in the story line because it damn sure needed it.

When I saw that the score was done by Harry Gregson-Williams I was interested in hearing what he could do. I was a fan of his score for Gone Baby Gone, Seraphim Falls, Man on Fire, and The Town. This time out however Harry missed the mark. Not to say the music wasn't good, it was just forgettable but when the entire movies emotional marks are tied to the score it's an almost impossible task to achieve. It's unfair to put that kind of pressure on a composer but Favreau seemed to have no problem with doing that. That's why I am convinced John isn't as a good of a director as Hollywood wants you to think he is because if all the blame of a good or bad movie falls at the feet of the director then he should have done better than this. I recommend you skip this movie but if you don't then I'll see you at the theater.