Cowboys and Aliens Review

Two genres unite! The slick, unexpecting style of cowboy and western films merges with the oddball, phenomenal nature of the sci-fi genre in this summer's blacksheep of summer blockbusters, Cowboys and Aliens. This film brings together James Bond, Han Solo, and Quorra from TRON: Legacy in an epic struggle against some of the most terrifying, the most deleterious, the most cunning of intergalactic demons ever to enter our atmosphere. Where's ET and A.L.F. when you need them? Cowboys and Aliens is far, far from the other comic book flicks we have seen this treacherous summer of ticket sales, far from those films in a good way. It is surely something different, something unique and stunning, stunning in a much different way than Captain America, Thor, and even Transformers, but I really, really enjoyed it down to it's final moments. I know a lot of people have come to despise this film like Battlefield Earth and Batman and Robin, but I for one, think this film had a lot going for it, had a lot of visually "eye popping" attention grabbers and special effects that were far beyond silicon material. The spacecrafts, the gunships, even the aliens themselves looked like something straight out of War of the Worlds, now if only they could get a CGI animated Orson Welles in this film and the circle would be complete. And this is one of the films where Harrison Ford was at his finest. Even if he is over 69 years of age, he still has that Harrison Ford essence to him that makes him, well, Harrison Ford. I couldn't help but see Han Solo, Indiana Jones, Rick Deckard, and Dr. Richard Kimble in his character, for the character he played in the film, Woodrow Dolarhyde, carried so many of those characters' distinctive trademarks, and Ford even pulled off that classic Ford smirk quite a few times, which I always think of as a plus. But oh, my friends, we are only at the beginning of talking about how incredibly remarkable this film was, for it wasn't the best film ever made, but it was far fro atrociously awful, and I just loved the overall feeling to the film, the overall appearance of the film, making it one of the most thrilling, the most dazzling motion pictures of the entire summer.



Now we can really bite into this cake further without adding a little frosting first. Cowboys and Aliens was based off of a 2006 graphic novel of the same name, a graphic novel written by Scott Mitchell Rosenberg, Fred Van and Andrew Foley. The story of the novel was quite different from what you saw in other acclaimed graphic novels like Watchmen or V For Vendetta, although the artwork by Dennis Calero and Luciano Lima is off the hinges. It is exotic, but exotic in a good sense, and has a cartoony, yet comic book appropriate style to it, giving us unique character designs and locations that really fit in well with the story being told. I think it's a great series of comics, and I highly recommend it to someone looking for something different, yet interesting and exciting, because in today's world that is usually dominated by things like Marvel, DC and Manga, there are surely a lot of outlandish, out of this world stories that people love to read, love to obsess over and read over and over again when they get the chance. Cowboys and Aliens is certainly something I could read over and over again, because it clashes together two genres I really love, western and science fiction, and the novel blends these two genres together flawlessly, just as the recently releashed movie does as well. And so I went into the movie not knowing what was going to be placed before me. Was I going to get a generic, low budget, wooden flick with special effects straight out of Santa Claus Conquers The Martians or was I going to get a cutting edge, suspensive thriller filled with so many possibilites? Well, to be honest, I got neither. I GOT SOMETHING EVEN BETTER THAN THOSE TWO COMBINED! Because Cowboys and Aliens left me with a feeling not knowing what to think of it, that's the whole beauty of the entire thing. It left me wondering as to which category of film this actually falls under, what place it serves on the Best Film of All Time-O Meter and what impact it will leave on an audience 500 years from now. For Cowboys and Aliens had so much to offer and so much that really stuck out in my cranium, things that still vividly linger inside my head to this very day. It could very well be one of my favorite John Favreau film because of that. That's right, I actually think it's up there with some of his other films like Iron Man and Iron Man 2, for as it did leave me with quite a mixed impact, it still had the overall feeling, the zing of a comic book movie thriller, and that is exactly what I look for in films of this genre, things that make me feel like I was sucked into a comic book or reading a comic book moving straight off the panels. And Cowboys and Aliens is also a great example of how perfectly a graphic novel can be handled on the big screen, for it had all the elements that made the original good, all the elements that made blockbusters like Watchmen and 300 so popular at the time of their release. It's too bad others don't see what I see, because I actually thought this film was better than those two films, honestly.

The opening of the film has you asking yourself hundreds of questions. It's almost like that feeling you had with Super 8 where something strange, unlikely occurs, and even though you don't see them, you know something "alien" is going on. But that doesn't mean this film hasn't got that Fistful of Dollars, The Good The Bad and the Ugly Feeling to It. Even in the first few minutes of the film, we are given some high quality action scenes straight out of those classic western films, cowboys beating the daylights out of one another and pointing guns at one another. Even a girl gets involved in the chaos, knocking the main character, Jake Lonergan, to his feet. Daniel Craig, who has been known these past few years as one of the many incarnations of James Bond, steps away from the Connery shoes and plays a relentless cowboy of destruction. His acting is pretty much what you would expect from Daniel Craig, although I must admit he had his golden moments, particularly towards the end of the film where he and several other prepared to take out the aliens and their command ship. The actions scenes Craig was involved in where also top notch, Craig delivering some Bond like stuntwork and kicking alien butt with some pretty shabby pieces of weaponry. Olivia Wilde was also quite good as the female lead, Ella Swenson, a girl that's not like most female characters in comic book movies. She is a tough warrior, fighting prominently alongside her companions, although there are times where it ultimately costs her. She is wounded quite a few times throughout the film, although towards the end of the film, she ultimately sacrifices herself to stop the alien race that is threatening the village, and Wilde gives it all her best, similar to the way she did as Quorra in TRON: Legacy, tough, but often getting overpowered by her enemies, loosing an arm but having it regenerated moments later. I think all the actors in the film were spewing their heart and soul, taking their respective roles quite seriously, but no one, repeat no one, spews their heart and soul quite like Harrison Ford. Need I say more?

He played some of the most iconic, influential movie characters of all time, and it seems like all of these roles were reflected in Ford's portrayal of Woodrow Dolarhyde. He fights so dirty, yet so classically, giving us sarcastic and serious dialogue we all love from Mr. Ford, and like he did in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, he took part in some badass action sequences. I like Ford's style, he proves that you don't need to be a lean man in his 30s to kick extra terrestrial behind, putting his best foot forward and delivering that Ford fighting style he always delivers, for he can be charming, yet so dirty and slick, and he always knows how to take out enemies in exciting, resourceful ways. Just look what he did in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, he took out the entire bridge when he was outnumbered by Thuggee swordsmen! And if that's not badass, then I don't know what is! And since this is a Favreau film, we can some top notch action scenes as well as some top notch comedy and humor. That's common in his recent films like Elf and of course, the Iron Man series, but the humor in Cowboys and Aliens really went well with the story in my opinion, just like the humor in Iron Man really went well with the story. It got a laugh from me quite a few times, and it really lit a light of hope in some of the film's more darker, grittier scenes. I especially liked the humor given off my Ford and even Daniel Craig had a few funny lines, proven that all the main characters in action films can be intimidated, yet lighthearted and funny at times. By the way, did anyone see the Jimmy Kimmel Show the other night. Harrison Ford was a guest star. He was in his dressing room when all of a sudden, Chewbacca came to pay him a visit, Ford humorously stating "I'M DONE WITH THAT STAR WARS CRAP AND I'M DONE WITH YOU! I'M IN COWBOYS AND ALIENS