Thoughts on Cowboys & Aliens

[Ten]

COWBOYS & ALIENS:
the Lady Ten's in-depth, full-length feature review
or maybe just some initial thoughts and a few reflections
likely with trivial commentary and a meandering lack of clarity
but all I'm saying is you should go see it

I went to see this movie on Friday, right before we set out to go camping with the horses (perfect timing, amirite?). We were late, but we still got to see some of the previews. Thirty Minutes or Less doesn't look like the kind of movie I'd want to go see. It had a few funny moments, but I have a feeling they wasted all the good stuff in the trailer. Tower Heist looked like it was going to be a movie I'd want to go see, but then I saw the end of the trailer and I was like, no, you just blew it.

Have I ever mentioned how sad-furious it makes me whenever movie-makers ruin something that could have been great? Night at the Museum could have been so awesome...

But I digress.

Now don't worry, I'm not spoiling anything here, but I will give away the fact that the first opening shot is in a desert. It's a Western, so that should come as no shock. So there it starts, there's a desert up on the screen, and everyone can tell the movie is beginning...

...and yet this woman in the row in front of me has her cell phone on with its bright LED screen, checking her texts or whatever.

The camera pans along and it's obvious we're all trying to watch the beginning of the movie here, and she starts playing a voicemail. It's not on speaker, but she has the volume up loud and everyone can hear it.

what is this i don't even.

ASDLFKJWELKDSSDF YOU'RE IN A MOVIE THEATER.

TURN. OFF. THE CELL PHONE.

Alright, so about the actual movie. I'll try to avoid spoiling anything major. You don't have to worry about that much anyway, though, since it is a very predictable movie. There were times when I knew exactly what was going to happen. The people are all stock characters, falling in line with the stereotypes of classic Westerns. About the only surprising things in the movie were some of the deaths, but that could just be a lack of foresight on my part.

The movie has a lot of action. Let's face it; the whole premise is just an excuse for a bunch of fight scenes. There's humans vs. aliens, of course, but there's also plenty of conflict between the humans. As the writer of Starless' plot and an ardent-hearted lover of fictional conflict, I must say that the conflicts here are good stuff. Have I told y'all before about my philosophy that originality doesn't always make a story good and unoriginality doesn't always make a story bad? This movie is that philosophy in the flesh. In a good way. I've seen enough Westerns and Western parodies to know the setup isn't creative, but I haven't seen so many Westerns that I'm tired of it.

Even if you prefer originality and a bunch of gory action scenes aren't going to lure you in, there are some exchanges of dialogue that are certain contenders for Ten's Stamp of Approval. Then again, some wordless exchanges are contenders, too. For serious, there are some scenes that are just less than three.

Also, the soundtrack. I love the soundtrack.

I've read some reviews saying things like it's a comedy that takes itself too seriously and it has too many light moments that undermine the drama and such. I don't understand you people. If a movie is entirely comedy with no sobriety, or if a move is entirely drama with no spark of humor, I tend to refer to that as trying too hard. Real life doesn't stick to one genre.

Yeah, I know, this premise isn't my idea of realistic either... but now that I think about it, although there were some parts were I did laugh (and I'm not just talking about the movie trailer advertizing Battleship, which yes, they're making a real movie of), the story does a good job making itself seem somewhat plausible.

Onto more specific details. The first fight scene shows up quick. I liked that. ...er, not that I saw the movie because I enjoy watching people get shot, but the story seems to respect viewers at least enough to forgo the infodumps for a little while and get straight down to business.

So the main character gets on a horse and he's riding down the trail and look at that, the man is posting in a Western saddle (besides the family, I don't think anyone in the theater understood why I was snickering). For those who don't know, posting is a technique (okay, "technique" sounds too pretentious for this; it's just a thing you do) when riding at a trot. The trot is a very bouncy gait. When riding at that speed, you have three options: (1) bounce around like a sack of potatoes, (2) try to "sit" the trot, which means staying grounded in the seat of the saddle, and struggle not to bounce around like a sack of potatoes, or (3) post. Posting is when you stand up in the stirrups and sit down again, up-down up-down, in rhythm with the motion of the trot. Yes. It's standing up and sitting down. You see why I felt pretentious calling that a "technique"?

Anyway, posting is associated with the English style of riding. In Western pleasure classes, it's discouraged. It's not wrong, and it's preferable no matter which discipline you choose, and even I post in a Western saddle... but it amused me all the same.

A few other things.

The name of the little mining town is Absolution. Meaningful name much?

Despite the title, not many of the humans in this movie are actual cowboys. There are even some Apaches. Mom and I got all stupid excited when we recognized Lieutenant Chee. One thing that disappointed me, though, was how the Apache warriors are depicted as kind of useless. Sure, they shoot some arrows and stuff, but a white guy has to rescue the chief. That would have been fine if he rescued him back. That didn't happen. <edit> Forgot to put this: I think the story was trying to punish him for having too much confidence in himself earlier on. But still... </edit>

The guy is an Apache warrior. I don't know what else to say, man. If you want to make the Caddo or Pueblo tribes look like they're not the best fighters, fine, but these are supposed to be Apaches.

On a different topic, there's a character in this movie who makes a great villain (in terms of the overall plot, he's not the movie's villain, but he is a total jerk -- if you've seen the movie you know which guy I mean). Perhaps this its own topic altogether, but I don't see the phrase "good villain" as being equivalent to "powerful villain". In terms of a storytelling device, I prefer watching villains that I really love to hate. Example: Vector from Dispicable Me. Like that guy, he's not much of a threat on his own, but he's so annoying and full of himself that I can't wait to see him taken down.

Granted, it is important for an adversary to be powerful enough to present the hero with a challenge. That's why, with A:TLA, Zhao had to be replaced with Azula, even though I prefer Zhao as an antagonist (don't shoot me).

Okay, back to the Cowboys and Aliens character I was talking about before. He's not nigh-invulnerable. He's not almost impossible to take down. He does, however, present a very real problem for people just trying to live their lives. He seems -- dare I say such a thing when discussing such a movie like this -- like the kind of person you might encounter in real life. For this reason, seeing how the characters deal with him is much more satisfying. I would have been happy to watch a movie that was about him and the messes he started, sans aliens.

Unrelated: I'm not sure whether I condone the use of amnesia and flashbacks. It wasn't too annoying, I guess. There are some awesome scenes that make up for it.

Also, I kept noticing the Fire vs. Ice archetype.

That's all I can think of for now.

[duckyaisha]

I actually saw this movie (usually I don't see movies, so this was unusual) and I have to say I liked it for the same reasons you did. I think it had a great mix of action and comedy, and I really enjoyed the action scenes as well. I felt like, because the action started early on in the movie, the director was giving us a chance to figure things out ourselves instead of infodumping everything in the first 5 minutes, although it was explained later on.

One of the things I judge alien movies on is the design of the aliens. When I say design, I mean the way they look, the way they're animated, the way they move especially. I'm enthralled with the idea of creatures from another planet evolving sentience like us and yet looking and moving completely differently. I love drooling over good animation, which is why I loved Avatar despite its plot...issues. However, I like interesting, non-humanoid aliens like the ones from District 9 better than humanoid ones like the Na'vi because it seems more logical that creatures from a faraway planet wouldn't look anything like us.
Anyways, my point is that I loved this aliens in this movie. Their design had some of the classic freaky-alien-things but incorporated them in a new and original way, like the little mini-arms that came out of them, creating an interesting and unique race of creatures.
I loved the way they were animated, the way they moved- my favorite scene was his flashback of being experimented on and stuff and the alien was peering down at him intently, doing his science, and I wondered what the alien was thinking. I wonder what life is like for them, I wonder what their home planet looks like...
So yeah, I liked the aliens.

I freaked the first time I saw Olivia Wilde on screen, since I absolutely adore her as an actress; she plays 13 who is easily my favorite female character in House. Her character here was pretty great too, but I really liked the guy who's wife got taken and kept trying to be useful but barely knew how to shoot a gun because that's what I'd be liked in that situation and I could connect with his frustration of not improving and feeling like he's the weakest link in the group. I also liked the main character, which is especially unusual in movies.

Overall, I was a lot less analytical about this movie than you were, I honestly didn't think of all this, but I'm glad you did because reading it, it all makes sense.
And I forgive you for liking Zhao better _{even though Azula's my favorite character}

[Ten]

Aug 21, 2011 17:29:39 GMT -5 duckyaisha said:

Anyways, my point is that I loved this aliens in this movie. Their design had some of the classic freaky-alien-things but incorporated them in a new and original way, like the little mini-arms that came out of them, creating an interesting and unique race of creatures.
I loved the way they were animated, the way they moved- my favorite scene was his flashback of being experimented on and stuff and the alien was peering down at him intently, doing his science, and I wondered what the alien was thinking. I wonder what life is like for them, I wonder what their home planet looks like...
So yeah, I liked the aliens.

Same thing -- when watching that part, I could tell that it's supposed to thinking something (something malicious, no doubt, but it's still a thought). They're not all just these mindless beasts. They have consciousness. It's almost creepy.

Also I liked that they kind of ran like bulldogs.

Aug 21, 2011 17:29:39 GMT -5 duckyaisha said:

I freaked the first time I saw Olivia Wilde on screen, since I absolutely adore her as an actress; she plays 13 who is easily my favorite female character in House. Her character here was pretty great too, but I really liked the guy who's wife got taken and kept trying to be useful but barely knew how to shoot a gun because that's what I'd be liked in that situation and I could connect with his frustration of not improving and feeling like he's the weakest link in the group. I also liked the main character, which is especially unusual in movies.

My sister and I are divided on Doc. Her opinion doesn't count so I'll tell you about mine. I say he's a very well-written character. He has his flaws (i.e. he's whiny and pathetic and "God must not like me very much") but he still manages to capture my empathy enough that I want him to succeed. Even at the beginning, he at least had courage to stand up to Percy, sort of. Then he gets to prove his worth at the end, and it's very satisfying.

Also, I'm not sure how anyone could not like Jake after all the times he shut Percy up. Maybe if you were a total pacifist or something.

As it turns out, I didn't really like Ella. I wanted to, of course. I always want to like the tough girls. I'm not always content with them, though. Even after I understood why Ella had behaved in what had seemed like some illogical ways at first, I didn't like her demeanor. Almost "holier-than-thou". I don't know how to explain more without spoiling. However, there was this moment where Dolarhyde (yeah, his name is too perfect) gives this hilarious line, and Ella shoots him down with a contemptuous look. She was right, I guess, but that annoyed me. On its own, maybe that wouldn't be so bad, but it's paired up with her being viewed with such reverence by Mr. Apache Needs-To-Be-Saved. I wasn't that impressed with her. Now that I think about it, I suppose another underlying reason for my aversion to her would be her seeming lack of expression most of the time (shut up). The scenes of hers that I did like were only when she registered some emotion (aside from disdain), such as "oh crap; what's he gonna do to me?" or "Look! Hummingbird!"

Yeah, those are legitimate emotions, y'all guys.