Director Jon Favreau
It’s not too grand a statement to suggest that had we been told in the past that Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig would be collaborating on screen for the first time ever, perhaps the last thing to enter our thoughts would be Cowboys & Aliens. It’s the kind of daft, cheesy, and - excuse the pun - rather alienating title that Ford made his career on back in the 1980s, but Craig looks about as out of place in as an Ewok in Deadwood. Therein lies the central dilemma of Jon Favreau’s Science-Fiction-Western hybrid: with its absurd premise, it should be more fun. But how fun can a film be with two of the grumpiest people on the face of the planet (I’ve never met them, but they give that impression) as its leads?
The plot is based on the graphic novel of the same name created by Scott Mitchell Rosenberg, and follows Craig’s amnesiac, who awakens in the desert with a strange metal bracelet attached to his wrist. No sooner does he make it to town does he find himself at odds with Ford’s brutal local cattleman, Colonel Dolarhyde, but both men are forced to put their differences aside when strange flying crafts attack the town, kidnapping many of its inhabitants. The enemies must join forces in an effort to save the townsfolk.
Cowboys & Aliens isn’t as much of a riot as it needs to be. It is sporadically enjoyable, but nowhere near enough. Things pick up considerably whenever Ford is on screen. As the grizzled, bitter old Dolarhyde, he is back to his unsmiling, unfriendly best. As he’s aged, Ford’s characters have become less the wise-cracking smartarses like Han Solo or even Indy, and he has channelled his inner-grump to great comic effect. In these ridiculous surroundings, his incredibly serious, unbelievably bad tempered demeanour works as a perfect foil, something which he obviously learned from working with the great Sean Connery in Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade. However, although he excels, Ford’s role in Cowboys & Aliens is actually rather limited. This is the Daniel Craig show. There’s nothing wrong with making the younger man your protagonist; obviously it follows standard narrative structure. And Craig’s Jake Lonergan is an intriguing little rogue, thanks mainly to his Jason Bourne-like problems and similar bad-assery. The only problem is, Cowboys & Aliens, as the title suggests, is about as serious as a bath of custard, and Craig’s comic timing is somewhat lacking. What is required here is painfully obvious because the master craftsmen of Star Wars and Indiana Jones fame is standing just a few feet away: that blend of cocky, self-assured brashness flecked with ridiculousness, and an ability to take a darn good kicking. Craig can take a beating, we’ve seen that in Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace, but he is still playing the same hard case, thus making him a rather tedious hero.
The rest of the cast are actually surprisingly entertaining. Olivia Wilde is the perfect choice to play the alien friend of our motley crew. With her eyes so far apart, I nicknamed them Land’s End and John o’Groats. Well, that’s a bit harsh, but her sexiness is a very weird kind of sexiness, kind of the same way Angelina Jolie starts to resemble a cat if you look at her long enough. Noah Ringer continues the recent trend of True Grit and Super 8, of child actors who are tolerable. However, for such a captivating actor, Sam Rockwell is rather wasted as bartender Doc; perhaps Favreau persuaded him to sign on whilst they were filming Iron Man 2.
The interesting blend of Sci-Fi and Western genre conventions works well. We can all look back on Will Smith’s disastrous attempt at doing something similar in Barry Sonnenfield’s Wild Wild West back in 1999 and shudder, but there are no such problems here. Whilst the dizzying heights of Joss Whedon’s sensational Serenity are never in danger, Favreau has taken everything cliché from these genres and spliced them together; the result of which isn’t all that clunky considering the overall plot requires no real originality from either end. Matthew Libatique’s cinematography looks fine and dandy for the wide open shots of the Arizona Territory, but it’s when the film veers towards Horror that it really comes to life. In the standout scene, young Emmett searches for his dog in the bowels of a strange, land-locked ship, amidst darkness, thunder, lightning and rain. It is gorgeously atmospheric and suitably creepy given that it’s the first time we actually encounter one of the aliens in the flesh. It is reminiscent of the chilling tension Favreau was able to create in Zathura, which was even more child-friendly then this, but, in the great tradition of Doctor Who, that just makes it more fun to scare the bleeders shitless. Blood isn’t scary, folks; tension is.
An idiot would describe Cowboys & Aliens as hit-and-miss, so I will too. It leaves a satisfactory taste in your mouth because, well let’s face it, how much were you actually expecting? Jon Favreau is a director of fun; there can be no doubt about that. His movies lack pretensions above their station and appeal to a variety of demographics, which is pleasant to see. But Cowboys & Aliens could have been much better. I’m not a Daniel Craig hater by any means, but I don’t think he was the wisest choice of lead here. We’ve seen James Bond in space one already, and we all know how Moonraker turned out, don’t we?
*** ¼ / *****
Waking up after a night out in Glasgow can be a strange experience.
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