now I know why this premise was never pursued before.
Story. The movie started out interesting with the main character played by Daniel Craig, waking-up with amnesia. Not knowing who he is or how he got there, all he has with him is a picture of a woman and a weird oversized wristband/shackle on his arm. So, he journeys into town looking for this woman hoping to find out what happened. In town, we eventually find out he’s an outlaw with a bounty on his head. He get’s arrested and when they prepare him to be transferred to a federal judge for a hearing on his crimes, that’s when the aliens attack and start taking the town folk. He shoots down one of the flying machines, which causes the aliens to flee. With town folk missing, the town forms a posse to hunt down the aliens and get their people back. This is usually where movies are suppose to jump into second gear and the audience discovers more about the characters and their drive to do what they do, which is to rescue those captured by the aliens. The movie did that, but the bond and trust their suppose to have in each other didn’t come through as good as it could have.
Characters. Daniel Craig is the main character and from the get-go, we see that he’s a tough guy. Soon we find out he’s outlaw, so he’s a tough, bad guy. Being a tough, bad guy, when the aliens attack, he shoot one of the ships with his metallic wristband, and the aliens flee. Still looking for the lady in the picture, he eventually joins the posse, so he’s a tough, bad guy with personal motives. As the movie goes on, he attempts to rescue Olivia Wilde’s character, which was taken by the aliens, so now, he’s a tough, good guy. Forward to the end of the movie, he is the key to finding the aliens and he leads the posse in defeating the aliens, so now, he’s a hero but still a tough guy. Movies like this should have some personal growth, but I never got that from this character.
Now Olivia Wilde’s character was the most pointless main character in this movie, until the end where she sacrifices herself to defeat the aliens. For the most part, you have no idea why her character is doing what she’s doing. We are introduced to her as trying to pick-up Daniel Craig’s character. We are led to assume that they must have a past since Daniel Craig’s character had amnesia, but there was no past connection. Later in the movie when she’s rescued by Daniel Craig’s character, she ends up dying due to an injury (or so we think she died). Not being able to bury her body because the posse was captured by American-Indians, the American-Indians throws her dead body into the fire, but lo-and-behold, her body magically rises up from the fire and she says something like: I’m not from your world; I only took your form; the aliens also killed my people so I’m hunting them; and I also speak American-Indian too. WTF?
Harrison Ford and the other characters in the movie were ok and you understand their motivation in pursuing the aliens. Harrison Ford character’s son was abducted. The bar keep/doctor’s wife was abducted. The kid’s grandfather was also abducted. There wasn’t much that needed to be explained their character, but in movies, it’s revelation of sharing each other past which is what’s suppose to bond them in uniting themselves in fighting an common. Though the movie did portrayed that, I just didn’t feel that bond amongst them.
Special Effects. The special effects were good, but a good movie isn’t good solely on the special effects. The scenery was great, but again, it’s not the story. The special effects and the scenery are added features to a telling a good story, but when they seem better than the story-telling itself, then you know you have a bad movie.
Overall, it was a fun journey to the Wild, Wild West defeating the enemy. I have just watched enough movies to know that I would like to see things in a movie that makes sense. I left the movie feeling like I wasted my money.
Now for my Chazztastic Thoughts for this movie:
• When the American Indians were given Daniel Craig’s character a mystical potion for him to gain his memory, did anyone else realize that they were giving him some drugs? Hallucinogens? LSC?
• Why is it that aliens that can build a rocket ship out of metal, flying machines roping their prey, and powerful wristband weapons, always tend to look like overgrown insect-like animals?
• Why is it that even though the aliens have advance technology, they still have to primarily kill the humans by their bare hands?
My rating for this movie is TV. Sci-fi and action movie lovers will enjoy seeing this on the big screen, but for everyone else, I suggest you watch this movie on TV. I don’t suggest to rent it, buy it the dvd, nor steam it on-line. Save your money and just wait for the movie to come out on TV.
The Cowboys and Aliens Chazztastic Video Review:
No comments:
Post a Comment