Cowboys & Aliens (2011)

Cowboys & Aliens starts off pretty well, we see gunslinger Jake Lonergan (Daniel Craig) wake up in the middle of the desert, beaten, with no memory of how he got there. On his wrist is a new steel bracelet that wouldn't look out of place in a James Bond movie (it's a alien weapon, just in case you were wondering) and that's pretty much as good as it gets. It looks very nice and very pricey, with Indiana Jones teaming up with James Bond to shoot some Aliens western style. But even Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig can't save this film from being a big disappointment.

Director Jon Favreau did a great job at bringing Iron Man to the big screen and was tasked to work with what seems like a dozen producers and writers (Steven Spielberg, Damon Lindelof, Robert Orci, Ron Howard to name a few) and I think this affected the making of the movie. You know, too many cooks and all that. Jon Favreau's movies always showed a bit of cleverness and charisma but C & A hardly has any. Jon brought in cinematographer Matthew Libatique (Black Swan) to make sure the western/Sci-fi mash up looks great, and it certainly does.

Daniel Craig makes a great cowboy, giving a performance that is nothing like James Bond but Favreau originally wanted to cast Robert Downey Jr as the main cowboy and I can't help feeling he would of put a bit more life into the movie. Harrison Ford plays a wealthy cattle baron who you just know is going to have a softer side come in the end of the movie. Finally we have Olivia Wilde who plays a woman who isn't all she seems. Also along for the ride are Sam Rockwell and Paul Dano who give decent supporting roles. There's certainly no denying that C & A has a very talented cast.

The problem is the screenplay doesn't take any chances. For starters its a fairly basic story with most of characters being a cliche of western films which I know is the point, but when the aliens are so, well, underwhelming it becomes a very boring film very quickly. The action scenes are mildly thrilling but don't stand up to the likes of Transformers, Thor and Super 8. Also the reason why people are abducted isn't really explained. They capture humans to apparently learn how to kill us but when it takes just a bite to the neck whats the point of all that probing?

There's also not one character that audience can really connect to. Daniel Craig is supposed to be that guy but the script never allows us to see him behind all that gun slinging and staring into the distance.
Cowboys & Aliens should've been fun, it even has a fun title, but that's where the fun ends. The film is far to serious and the characters have no life in them. It should've been a wild and exciting ride with colourful characters and great action scenes with huge aliens. Instead we a get a lifeless film with half decent action and characters the audience couldn't really care less about.

With all the talent behind Cowboys & Aliens this should of been great. It turns out to be the biggest disappointment of the summer.