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Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig star in Cowboys & Aliens, set and shot in New Mexico.

Jul 29, 2011 By Chris Tinkham Web Exclusive

The film rights to the 2006 graphic novel, Cowboys & Aliens, were bought before its creator, Scott Mitchell Rosenberg, and his Platinum Studios had even finished it. Flash forward to 2011, and the much-anticipated, big-budget sci-fi/adventure film arrives saddled with five producers, six executive producers, five screenplay writers, and three “screen story” writers. Eight writers and eleven producers is never a good sign for a film, even when Steven Spielberg and Ron Howard are among them, as is the case with Cowboys & Aliens. Directed by Jon Favreau, Cowboys & Aliens is a classic example of how buying into a concept, rather than story and characters, will get you nothing more than spectacle.

The film, set in the Territory of New Mexico a decade after the Civil War, opens with Jake Lonergan (Daniel Craig) waking up in the middle of nowhere with no memory, wounded in the abdomen, and his wrist clamped by a metallic contraption. When he rides into the ramshackle town of Absolution, he’s identified as a wanted man with several crimes to his name. Among those offensives, he’s charged with stealing gold from Woodrow Dollarhide (Harrison Ford), a Civil War colonel and cattle rancher who runs Absolution like a mob boss but whose money keeps the town running. Another enigmatic stranger to the town, Ella (Olivia Wilde), seems intent on helping Jake but won’t reveal why. On the night when the colonel and Jake finally meet, a fleet of illuminated flying vehicles invades the town to snatch folks into the sky with lassos. One of the kidnap victims is the colonel’s son, Percy (Paul Dano).

During the invasion, Jake discovers that his wrist clamp operates as a shooter capable of defending himself against the intruders. It also triggers fragments of memories that might explain its connection to the alien attackers, one of which has revealed itself to the townsfolk and escaped into the night. The colonel rounds up a posse to track the creature, puts his conflict with Jake aside for the time being, and together they ride off prepared for battle, in hope of finding a way to save their own.

When the cowboys and aliens finally do engage in a climactic showdown against the striking backdrop of New Mexico’s canyons, the film is a satisfying crossbreed of action and sci-fi. However, much of the lead-up to that point either feels clumsy or falls flat. Despite a formidable cast, the heroes come across as third-generation facsimiles of other film characters. The writers had little interest in building a mythology around Absolution, nor in establishing its relationship with Colonel Dollarhide. The backstories of Jake and Ella are shrouded and only incrementally revealed, so their involvement in the rescue is uncertain at first. It’s also unclear what kind of danger the abductees are in, or whether they’re alive. The most fleshed out among them is the goofy Percy, who, until he’s kidnapped, is admonished by the colonel. Consequently, there’s not much heart or emotion in this mission.

The plot too is ill-constructed. Why are the aliens on Earth? A fair enough reason is given, but why are they attacking and abducting humans? A flimsy explanation is given. And, oddly enough, whenever one of the heroes appears to be in some kind of danger from other humans, an alien attack arrives just in time to divert attention. Questions about Jake’s wrist shooter also linger (how it works, who else has them).

Writers of the graphic novel, Fred Van Lente and Andrew Foley, are not among the eight credited with the film, but Rosenberg does have a producer’s credit. The lasting image of Cowboys & Aliens, the film, might be that of Olivia Wilde being plucked off a horse and roped into the sky. It’s a cool visual effect, for sure. The flying horses of the graphic novel would have been even cooler, but that still wouldn’t have resolved the problems with that pesky thing called the script. It’s the Achilles heel of countless big-budget summer films, but here’s hoping that, for starters, the makers of the next supra B-movie concept film (Gangsters & Zombies?) with A-list actors will scale down the writing credits by at least 75 percent. (www.cowboysandaliensmovie.com)

Author rating: 5/10