Cowboys and Aliens

I tell you what, when I buy a ticket for a Steven Spielberg/Jon Favreau film, I suffer from the worst, highest expectations. It has to be awesome, right? It has to knock my socks off and make me want to go see it again, right? RIGHT? Well...this film shows me two things: one -I must address my magical thinking that creates such ridiculously high expectations (my shrink and I are hard work at that one) and two - even the greatest movie-making combo sometimes fall short of the "awesome" level and end up in the "quite good" one.

Set in a small, frontier town of New Mexico, Cowboys and Aliens tells a typical story of cowboys (good guys, bad guys and everything in between) and the not so typical story of the appearance of aliens who are snatching up the humans for who knows what purpose. Putting (many) differences and violence aside, the cowboys (and some Indians) band together to try to fight the aliens and save their kin who were snatched away. The cowboy alliance, who are desperately under-armed against alien technology, do have a couple things going from them. First, they have Daniel Craig. Suffering from amnesia, he is our unlikely hero who has his own unique weapon against the invaders. And secondly, there's also someone among the cowboy group who has a unique perspective and talent. Armed with guns, horses and terrible hygiene (more on that later), they attempt to not only survive the alien invaders, but perhaps even eradicate them.

I enjoyed the film, I didn't wish for my money back but it didn't knock my socks off. If you like cowboy films or alien films, I think this is a good choice for you.  Here are a few other observations that came to mind while watching Cowboys and Aliens:

Not so hot Daniel Craig

Daniel Craig is "sexy-ugly" (emphasis on ugly)!
I'd be so curious to know if anyone else watching this movie secretly wondered, "Wait, has Daniel Craig always looked like this? Has he always been this...ugly?" I know what you're thinking and I loved him in Casino Royale too. But he looks gaunt, quite slight (though very well cut; he works out a lot) and frankly kinda unattractive. However, when he's walking around the desert kicking ass like he does in this film, he exudes sexy! In the next film of his I watch, it'll be interesting to see what I think of him then.

Aliens are scary
If you think about it, Director Jon Favreau had a challenge on this film. How do you create awesome action scenes when you're pitting aliens with superb technology against cowboys with...colts and sticks of dynamite? Did he overcome this challenge? Well in my mind he did (only just) by making the aliens so awful to look at and watch. Instead of ass-kicking action scenes where lots of stuff blows up, I felt regularly terrified for these mere mortals who are trying any which way to make a decent stand against the gruesome invaders.

Couldn't find pics of aliens online so their ship will have to do

Can you say grubby?

Good god, get these people some soap on a rope!
Ohhhhh the grime. Like any true cowboy film, these are folks with some real hygiene challenges. The caked on dirt, blood and sweat (and other things I hasten to add) are quite vile to see. Thank goodness movie theater technology doesn't include odor-emissions (unless you're sat next to a 14 year old boy) because just seeing the levels of dirt was quite disgusting! Of all the characters, there's one who never looks dirty...Olivia Wilde's character. She always looks as clean and fresh as newly washed linen.

All in all, I enjoyed this film. I liked the casting (heavy hitters like Harrison Ford & Sam Rockwell do well with what they're given), the special effects did the trick (see scary aliens above) and most of all, I appreciated the originality of the premise. having said all of that, you'd probably be just as well waiting to rent it on DVD.

Harrison Ford & Sam Rockwell

What do you think, have you seen it? Did it bowl you over or just moderately entertain you?