Cowboys and Aliens

Cowboys, aliens, Han Solo, James Bond and the man who brought us Iron Man...given the possibilities, Cowboys and Aliens could have been epic. And with an engrossing storyline, engaging characters, exciting action scenes and some extremely pissed-off aliens, it is very close - but doesn’t quite live up to expectations.

A man with no memories – outlaw Jake Lonergan (Daniel Craig) - awakens in the middle of the desert, a strange wound in his stomach and an even stranger bracelet round his wrist. Arriving in Absolution, he is soon drawing unwanted attention from iron-fisted rancher Colonel Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford) and a mysterious woman, Ella (Olivia Wilde), who seems to know something about his past. But when aliens attack, zapping Absolution to smithereens and lassoing humans into their spacecrafts, the outlaw and rancher must work together to rescue the townsfolk and uncover Lonergan’s past connection to the ‘demons’.

Director Jon Favreau does such a good job of evoking the atmosphere of old Westerns that by the time the lights of the spaceships appear in the skies overhead, you’ll have almost forgotten that this was anything other than a straight-shooting cowboy film. But that’s what makes it so fun - the unexpected clashing of genres and cultures, and it doesn’t hurt that the CGI blends seamlessly with the live action, particularly in an extended fight scene towards the end where cowboys and Indians take on the alien intruders using guns, spears and bow-and-arrows. The creatures themselves are surprisingly scary: Guillermo del Toro advised on the designs, and his influence is particularly apparent in the aliens’ extra arms that reach out from within their torsos.

Daniel Craig swaps sharp suits for cowboy boots, and proves that he can do rough and rugged equally as well as he does suave and sophisticated. It is great to see Harrison Ford back in a hat, and he has great fun with a few comic moments. This is not the first time Indiana Jones and James Bond have shared the screen (that honour went to Indy’s Last Crusade) and it is not the best either: separately, the two leads are great, but together they just don’t have the chemistry that could have elevated Cowboys and Aliens from ‘good’ to ‘brilliant’ in the way that Ford and Sean Connery did with the Last Crusade. A little reluctant bromance does bloom, but it feels forced and contrived. However, the stars are backed up by a great supporting cast - notably Adam Beach as a Native American who idolises Dolarhyde, and the always-brilliant Sam Rockwell as the town’s mild-mannered doctor who must reconsider his pacifism when his wife is taken by the aliens.

Cowboys and Aliens is not quite as epic as it should have been, but it is original, exciting and fun. And kudos to Jon Favreau for refusing a 3D release!