Invasion by hostile extraterrestrials has been a stable of science fiction since H. G. Wells wrote his story, War of the Worlds. Since that time, many other writers and filmmakers have used the premise to entertain, and sometimes to explore societal issues.
Most often, the alien invasion is set in modern day. Even H. G. Wells’ tale has been refitted as the modern age advanced, though the story remained the same: Mankind’s technology is not sufficient to win a war waged by a species that is technologically advanced enough to bring an armada across the expanses of space to the shores of our world.
Given the possibility of extraterrestrial life, and assuming that they would have vastly superior technology to get here, would any age of man be safe? If modern man armed with nuclear weapons and rockets would be hard-pressed to repel such invasions, how much harder would it be for earlier periods of civilization to kick the aliens off the planet and back into space?
The answer that is provided by the movie Cowboys & Aliens, directed by Jon Favreau, and starring Daniel Craig, is less than conclusive. The movie Cowboys and Aliens should have been called Deus Ex Machina. The basic plot of the movie is that a stranger, who has lost his memory, can save us from the evil aliens who are here to strip our world of its resources and to eat us. Provided that he is armed with an high-tech alien weapon.
The plot difficulty of how to overcome a superior technology is never asked because the answer is given to the hero of the story at the very beginning. In the very first scene, our hero is already armed with the weapon of our salvation.
Cowboys & Aliens is filled with such deus et machina. There is the preacher Meacham (Clancy Brown) who patches up the amnesiac stranger (Daniel Craig), who does not care what he has done in the past. There is the headstrong son of the local cattle baron, Percy Dolarhyde (Paul Dano), who messes up and calls the attention of the law to the fact that there is a stranger in town, ensuring that he is still in town when alien aircraft attack. There is the beautiful woman, Ella Swenson (Olivia Wilde), who knows more about the situation than she should, who keeps dropping maddeningly hints about the situation.
Given the amount of deus ex machina present, one would hope that the characters would be allowed to develop during the course of the movie. Alas, this is not allowed to happen. The stranger, Jake Lonergan (Craig), seems to rooted in his past for eternity. One of the more interesting characters, Meacham is killed at the midpoint of the movie. The only character that seems to have any growth is Colonel Woodrow Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford), the local cattle baron; and even that character growth is largely superficial.
Cowboys & Aliens might be suitable for a leave your brain at home, popcorn movie, but beyond that one is advised not to expect much more. Out of ten dollars, I would pay three to see this movie again.