Cowboys & Aliens

I am afraid that the length and content of the script did not exceed the title of the film, which promised a great adventure, and in combination with the talented creative team, ideal popcorn entertainment. The first approximately 15 minutes are divine, Craig is the ultimate tough guy, the canvas shirts smell of sweat, and everyone is carrying their guns low. Then Ford enters the scene, showcasing the most ridiculous toughness in the history of the Wild West, and everything is crowned by an absolutely asexual outfit à la Olivia Wilde's nightgown. The plot takes place in a total of 3 larger locations (with the majority of them being the wasteland of New Mexico), a larger amount of ILM fantasizing, so you can also search for it under a microscope, which raises the question: where did the 163 million from the budget go? From the beginning of the second third, it's perpetually echoing boredom, which this commercial failure fully deserves. The worst blockbuster from approximately 2-3 years ago. (27/01/2012)

Anyone want a screenwriter? Because Hollywood seems to have a surplus of them. Otherwise, I can't explain why Cowboys & Aliens was written by five people. And why their typewriters produced such a simple result. Nevermind. As you might have guessed, the story is the biggest (and actually the only) weakness of this film. I didn't mind that a bunch of cowboys went on the trail of a UFO just out of the blue, all convinced that "it was going where the machines went". It sounds naive, but that's just how every other thing was handled in the Wild West: Find a clue and follow it. I was more sorry about how the screenwriters botched the dialogue. They did give the tough Craig and the likeable grumpy Ford a few lines, but otherwise most of the dialogue felt heavily used. What I liked, on the other hand, was the effort not to make Cowboys & Aliens into a comedy or even a parody (I guess not enough time has passed since Wild Wild West and the filmmakers are still scared), but a full-fledged sci-fi movie. In this, I think, they succeeded, because the result is more reminiscent of The Valley of Gwangi than the aforementioned Wild Wild West. The dinosaurs may have been replaced by aliens, but no matter what situations the characters get into, you still get the feeling that you're watching a (slightly different) western that is sympathetically lightened by humor here and there and where the action is just right. The special effects are an entirely separate chapter. ILM is simply ILM, and so the alien craft look absolutely superb and irresistibly mechanical, behaving realistically like jet fighters of today, leaving a smoke trail behind them and their engine making a sensational "insect" sound. I was also pleased with the "fish-turtle" look of the aliens and the beautiful (really beautiful, I haven't seen one of those in a long time) final explosion. I also give points to Harry Gregson-Williams, who found a nice listenable compromise between western and sci-fi music, and of course to the director, without whose sense of action (the night raid on the city, the air attack in the desert, the ending) and other (the overnight stay in the boat, the meeting with Jake's gang) scenes it wouldn't have been the same. Four pure stars. (08/12/2011)

I don't quite know if there's a more tragic screenplay that sometimes becomes unnecessarily entangled in its simple stupidity, or (again) a desperately flimsy Jon Favreau, who created something resembling a television production without a single ballbusting scene, in which several megastars have accidentally become involved. Although the introduction looks quite hopeful, the rest of the film is full of endless desperate awkwardness, which is ridiculous but in no way entertaining. I wonder what the crew spent the $160 million on. Probably fiery water and windy women. You can see it in Cowboys and Aliens - and this could and should have been really good. But the film would have had to be made by someone who at least has the general ability to drop genre clichés and not just mechanically imitate them (and badly!). (10/08/2011)

Wow! There really isn’t even a pinch of humour. Something like Cowboys and Aliens could never be good this way, even with the greatest genius behind the camera. To make with a serious face a film where a group of cowboys and Indians avert an invasion of aliens that have come to earth to mine gold (oops, spoiler) is mental. If it at least looked good, but no, not even that, it’s just two hours of grey and boredom. Not even the aliens are good! (20/11/2011)

What initially appears to be an unconventional B-movie, full of juicy visuals (you can see the signature the director of Iron Man), gradually turns into a pile of clichés and a dull display of various forms and quality of visual effects. It's been a long time since I've seen something so conceptually and dramaturgically mishandled, like the ending of this film. Cliché upon cliché – a final battle and a classic catharsis the likes I've seen a million times before. Perhaps nobody expected much from this film, judging by the title, and they won't get much either. I don't understand the insane budget. (01/01/2012)