There’s no rule that says science-fiction has to be smart or particularly compelling, and it looks like Jon Favreau took that lack of limitation as an invitation to make an utterly silly Sci-Fi Western. Though fun all the way through, Cowboys & Aliens demands that you not think too hard (or at all) about what you’re watching. For those who want nothing more than a rollicking good time with Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, and Olivia Wilde riding across the west heading for a showdown with a horde of aliens then this is perfect popcorn munching goodness. However if you expect your Sci-Fi to make sense or that your Westerns have some deeper insight into the wills of men in a more savage time then you’re going to be sorely disappointed in both the cowboys and the aliens.
Jake (Craig) wakes up in the middle of the desert with a metallic device on his wrist and no memory of how he got there or why his face is on a wanted poster in the nearest town. Arrested by Sheriff Taggart (Keith Carradine), Jake sits in a cell with Percy Dolarhyde (Paul Dano), the son of rich cattle rancher Woodrow Dolarhyde (Ford), just as mysterious ships descend upon the sleepy little town to lay waste and abduct everyone but Jake, Woodrow, Preacher Meachum (Clancy Brown), the Doc (Sam Rockwell), and the beautiful but mysterious Ella (Wilde). The survivors take it upon themselves to rescue the kidnapped loved ones and set out following the tracks of a wounded alien that Jake shot out of the sky with his wrist doodad. Along the way, Jake begins to remember his past and gets flashes of how he came to have alien technology strapped to him.
It’s a story riddled with plotholes everywhere you turn, and the only way you can keep from throwing up your hands in exasperation at all the film’s flaws is if you’ve decided you just don’t care. Whether you’re asking how Jake managed to escape from the aliens as well as he did at the start of the film or why a bunch of hardened cowboys would think it feasible to launch an attack on a bunch of aliens which they know are barely affected by the very bullets they’re armed with, the questions just stack up with no end in sight. Olivia Wilde’s character creates a large number of issues in how writers Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman, and Damon Lindelof chose to explain away a few plot twists, but that’s nothing compared to how they fail to explain how she knows what she knows in order to defeat the invaders. But again, if you intend to enjoy Cowboys & Aliens, you have to ignore all this. If this sounds like the writers are asking for you to suspend more sense than just disbelief, you’re right, and if that troubles you, stay away.
Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford command the majority of the audience’s attention with the former reminding us why he’s one of today’s better action stars and the latter dialing in to his gravely, Indiana Jones persona with a slightly harder edge. While each has a story packed with the appropriate amount of emotional heft to give them enough dimension as a character, Cowboys & Aliens never makes them meaningful and so even as they’re given closure it’s hard to care. Then there are the lazily written side stories, as is the case with that of the Sheriff’s grandson (Noah Ringer) who goes from a boy to a man on the journey. Ringer’s acting hasn’t improved much from The Last Airbender, but what’s most irritating about his presence in the film is his character’s uselessness. His so-called transition to manhood is the difference between dropping a knife when confronted by an alien or having the courage to stab an alien. Nevermind that the important information he had about the aliens’ abdomens could have been of great use to the cowboys if only he’d spoken up.
All of these shortcomings aside, what Cowboys & Aliens is really all about are the premise and the eye candy. Favreau has constructed a few good battle sequences here, and the whole film is paced with such speed that it’s easy to not think about everything above, which as we’ve discussed already, is vital to your enjoyment. If you go in hoping for nothing more than the mindless fun the title promises then you’ll leave happy, hope for anything more and Cowboys & Aliens will rank as one of the lesser thrill rides of the summer.
"Cowboys & Aliens" opens July 29, 2011 and is rated PG13. Action, Sci-Fi, Western. Directed by Jon Favreau. Written by Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman & Damon Lindelof and Mark Fergus & Hawk Ostby. Starring Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, Noah Ringer, Olivia Wilde, Sam Rockwell.
