When aliens invade earth during the 1980’s cowboys are all that stand in the way of world domination and using humans as slaves or worse as the main course for dinner in Cowboys & Aliens.
Film making 16/25
Video 22/25
Audio 22/25
Bonus Features 10/25
Total 70/100
Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig with Ron Howard as director makes for an interesting dynamic when you’re talking about aliens invading earth but it works. Harrison Ford plays the big ranch owner who is the bad guy of the film if were not for aliens invading.
Daniel Craig is the cowboy who gets amnesia after being abducted and fighting his way free and now he needs to fight back. After a while he starts to remember his breaking free and the arm band that turns out to be a weapon from the aliens around his wrist.
The aliens are here, back then, to use the earth’s resources for their own, specifically gold but they don’t need us as slaves to mine the gold. They don’t seem to need us at all except for our gold which we provide in plenty in the wild west of the times.
Olivia Wilde plays Ella Swenson, another alien from a world that the current aliens invading earth had previously destroyed trying to help us. The cowboys fight back and even the Indians of the time need to pitch in and fight the bad guys of this film.
Cowboys & Aliens is one of those films you have certain expectations about and it turns out to be not totally different but enough that things work out well. I was pleasantly surprised with the film and can really see how it works in so many ways even if the main premise is odd.
Cowboys & Aliens may take an odd twist for a cowboy film but it does work out well with both a science fiction theme along with the just good old cowboy film fun. Even with the science fiction added you get a real sense of the cowboy era using the authentic looking set and costuming that the film uses to great advantage.
The film does highlight the problems of combining genres, especially ones so far removed from each other but I thought it worked out well for a fun action film. This is one of those films that you add to your collection just because it is so different and unique not because it was highly regarded by critics.
Cowboys & Aliens looks and sounds fantastic from the dusty shots of cowboy’s gun slinging in the small town to the beautiful pictures aboard the stark alien ship with the molten gold. The film does look fantastic with excellent color and perfect looking scenery throughout with some great looking night scenes as well.
Audio is also excellent and with its DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio track there is the perfect mix of surround sound along with clear dialogue from the center speaker. Audio is outstanding and the Blu-ray really does make the best of the amount of disc space available with both a great quality film in audio and video as well as plenty of extras.
The Blu-ray edition I received has both the theatrical release and the extended version of the film but it only has a few more scenes and longer ones without much of a change to the plot or story. The extras on the disc include the U-Control Picture in Picture feature with features in 12 of the 20 chapters as well as other making of features.
Extras include an audio commentary, a 40 minute making of feature and set of cast talks along with all the extras on the Picture in Picture feature as well as the second screen feature. There is plenty here for fans of the cast along with enough making of features that this makes the film well worthwhile.
Cowboys & Aliens is one of those rare films that I feel will become something of a cult classic even if the main plot is a bit of a misfire. Cowboys & Aliens is well worth a rental and for this release, technically there is nothing preventing a purchase as far as this science fiction lover is concerned.
Cowboys & Aliens Website