Cowboys and Aliens is one of those frustrating films to review. First and foremost there's nothing fundamentally wrong with the film it’s. In fact it’s miles ahead of some of the schlock we’ve had passing for a blockbuster this year (not exactly the brightest day for The Green Lantern). From the offset the film drops you right into the old west with Jake Lonergan (Daniel Craig at his leathery best) who wakes with no memory and a hunk of iron on his wrist. You’re invited to share in his confusion and empathise with his predicament as Jake struggles to get his bearings and free himself from his strange new accessory. And the second a couple of eager bounty hunters stumble upon him you realise just as Jake does that just because a bull is startled doesn’t mean it ain’t deadly.
Needless to say it’s a great opening and the film stays on form throughout introducing a variety of western staples, the preacher, the barkeep, the sheriff and the corrupt man in charge Woodrow Dollarhyde (Harrison Ford). Yet none of them ever feel like mere staples of a genre. Jon Faverau has painstakingly recreated the Old West but never allows it to fall to the ridiculous conventions Hollywood used to indulge in. Add this to the rough, down-to-earth performances of a talented cast and the world of Cowboys and Aliens feels real and brutal, giving the film a true emotional resonance when the aliens arrive.
The aliens themselves however are pretty generic. Big hulking trolls that certainly startle but never horrify, you could easily see them in middle-earth or minding the door at the Green Park Tavern. Their technology is suitably huge and greasy for the old west and truth be told the mothership is an impressive sight, though you will find yourself smirking a little at the dragonfly design of the smaller ships.
So why is the film difficult to review despite having so much going for it? Well because it never really does anything with the positive elements to create a true summer blockbuster experience. Jake’s amnesia sets up the man with no name aspect very well but little, if anything, is ever made of it. The film sticks with the adventure and leaves the mystery in the dust meaning that the revelation has neither a significant impact nor any relevance to Jake’s journey from outlaw to hero. Meaning that while the film excites, it fails to uplift.
