|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The characters in Favreau’s Cowboys & Aliens
are, at best, mere caricatures TO the best of my knowledge, aliens made their appearance on earth only in the 20th century with Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind bringing them into close focus with the viewers. But director Jon Favreau decides to bring them on a century earlier when cowboys and Indians (we no longer call them Red Indians) were fighting their age-old battles. But gold is still the wonder metal, which draws all species. Who will be victorious is the moot point?
After an absorbing beginning, with a buffeted Daniel Craig in suit and Stetson, for a change, is a cowboy, who has forgotten his origins and is drifting in the plains of Arizona in an effort to find it. Then, Favreau keeps adding characters at regular intervals till the faceless, shapeless and, of course, heartless aliens come poaching in their flying machines. In a sudden swoop on what looks like metal dragon-flies, they pluck human beings randomly, stringing them and carrying them away, hanging in the air. In this way, two of the characters disappear — Sheriff Keith Carradine and the spoilt son of head honcho Col. Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford) — even as they were evincing interest. Jack Lonergan (Craig) is the man with a lost memory. He has a curious iron bracelet and is a wanted bandit with some strange links with the aliens. So Dolarhyde and he mount a hunt for the two who have been abducted by the aliens. Since Jack’s bracelet is the only thing that can destroy the aliens, he has to come along. After all, isn’t he the one with the top billing? Now, we need a heroine. So enter pretty Ellen (Olivia Wilde), a pretty woman with flowing hair and a gun in her holder. She begins watching from the shadows and when she comes to centrestage, she throws knowing looks and whispers at Jack. Does she have links with him in the past? To get on with the story, the Indians conjure up a "wonder potion" to bring back Jack’s memory which takes him back to the primitive past and his closeness to a woman. But gold or its attraction to both humans and aliens is the one-point programme, and the aliens with bulging muscles are no easy prey. In Iron Man and Iron
Man 2, director Favreau got the best out of Robert Downey Jr but
here the much-touted team of Craig and Harrison is a big let-down.
Even a damp squib. And so, when all is said and done, is Cowboys
& Aliens.
|
||
|
|
||
The
first requisite for this rather unusual (for buffs brought up on
Hollywood fare) is capturing the right ambience. And director Favreau
strives hard and very nearly succeeds in getting it right. But in
doing so, he seems to neglect the development of characters which, at
best, are mere caricatures.