Review: Cowboys & Aliens (2011) TH

Truth in the title

A memory impaired man (Daniel Craig) awakes with a strange metal shackle on his wrist and a wound on his side. After showcasing hidden skills like a 19th century Jason Bourne on some rough and tough dudes, he heads to the nearest town of Absolution only to find more hassles. He deals with a spoiled, troublemaker named Percy Dolarhyde (Paul Dano), who's father is a not-to-be-messed-with head honcho of sorts. Percy lands in jail and soon enough the man with no memory ends up in the cell next door, as he turns out to be the infamous Jake Lonergan who has a rap sheet longer than the Oregon Trail. When Woodrow Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford) gets word of his incarcerated son, he storms the streets with his cowboys. Right before a tense showdown, the alien part of the equation shows to make things go boom and people disappear. Jake's bracelet suddenly turns into Mega Man status and he blasts one of the ships down with an energy beam. The creature that operated the vessel flees and they round up a posse to track it back to where their kidnapped loved ones are.

"Cowboys & Aliens" is more about the journey to the final showdown involving various characters that it never fully scratches below the introductory surface on, which at times makes them more plot devices than natural. Along tags a bartender who's more business than brawn; a mysterious woman who eyes Jake; a practical preacher who knows how to pray and shoot; a young boy who's not yet a man; a loyal Indian who looks at his boss as a father figure; and the former colonel Dolarhyde who's got a thing or two to teach the youngins about battle. Now, where westerns in the past had everybody out for their ruthless selves, this uses the enslaving extraterrestrials as a means to get along for the greater good of humanity, including fierce outlaws and warrior Indians who are in the same dire straits. In the meantime, no one ever claimed the abominable aliens didn't have punctuality as they make a few well-timed appearances to the point of predictably just before a human vs human conflict is about to get all gun crazy. Though like throwing a rock at a tank, these basic, booze-drinkin', boot-wearin' westerners look to be completely overrun and overwhelmed. That is until they have to get sneaky and use strength in numbers to put a stop to the aliens, which at this point are so one-dimensional the movie plays out like an easily sold good vs evil template with nothing left over to put in the bank to accumulate interest.

This is more the former than the latter of the title. The western portion on its own isn't groundbreaking to the genre, and the sci-fi side isn't inventive enough to blow the lid off a long time fan, even if the combination is definitely original. Other aspects to fall back on like the pacing can feel like it revs the engine, then levels at a lower gear. This wouldn't be such an issue but it's not that contemplative of a film to hit the locker room in between for a break, and as a result creates a building list of questions from the viewer that never end up answered about certain plays. It's a film that treads more on mystery when it comes to its antagonists, by at first seeing a shadow, a claw and then a quick full frontal, as well as it only gives little snippets of information for the viewer. Problem is, it doesn't create that intriguing enough of creatures to pull the enigma off--no communication, no interaction with each other, very few distinguishing elements with behavior or appearance--or even go further into why they're on Earth other than laying out a questionable reason at face-value.

Daniel Craig played a simple but commanding presence, as he said little but when it came time for action delivered with full force as if he meant it, and then some. It causes you to focus in on him to not miss his next move, despite getting knocked about with a lesser blow or two. Clancy Brown plays a memorable role as a tough holy man that adds humor to the situations, but Chris Browning includes cartoon flavor with his crusty chompers and oafish demeanor. Paul Dano, as much as he tried and has the most range, his performance felt misplaced as if he's a tortured man rather than just a fearful kid with no perspective from growing up safe and spoiled. Harrison Ford's character is built up and built up, with other people making not only a legend of him but a power not to be reckoned with, though by the time it comes for him to show his stuff, he falls somewhat short on punch. It's a shame that some of his gruff lines come off as unflattering imitations rather than truly compelling. On an entertainment level, you get massive explosions, O.K. Corral-thumping gun fights, built up thrills, mystery, situational humor, potential love, tragedy, resolution and you get to see two separate genres at the same time. It sounds like a lot, but it didn't always come one after the other or always in a smooth, edge-of-your-seat transition together. The mentioned certainly made this enjoyable and an interesting concept to see but unfortunately it wasn't capable of thoroughly traveling beyond expectations for such a cool premise.

Director: John Favreau (Made, Iron Man 1 & 2)
Starring: Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, Keith Carradine, Sam Rockwell, Paul Dano, Olivia Wilde, Noah Ringer, Clancy Brown
Website: IMDB

Review: The Last Airbender (2010) TH

Four elements, warring tribes and a boy with tattoos

Once upon a time peace resided in a world full of special people called "benders"--someone select among a tribe that has the ability to control either air, water, earth or fire--and then suddenly a god among men that held it all together called the "Avatar" disappeared: the chosen one able to control all four elements and communicate with the spirit world for guidance.

Now, a century later and with strife on the rise, we're introduced to a southern water tribe who dwells in an arctic setting. An early teen named Katara (Nicola Peltz), who bends water and also narrates a portion of the story, and a young man called Sokka (Jackson Rathbone) are out on a hunt when they discover something lurking under the ice. A humongous beast and a bald boy with tattoos named Aang (Noah Ringer) lay there after Katara pops a sphere that enclosed them. Soon enough word spreads that it might be the Avatar reborn again. Great, it's time to rejoice! Nope. This poses a problem for the dominating fire nation in which all inhabitants of the air nation--which the Avatar is supposed to have descended--were thought to be extinct.

The good about "The Last Airbender": excellent stringed orchestras that are well timed over top to lend suspense; the cinematography is often panned to get a full scope of the various and plentiful areas they travel to; and just about every other set piece is splendid and awe-inspiring with nearly flawless transition of CGI and physical objects for the non-3-D version. This film is eye-candy for the person into fantasy landscapes, as well as someone who just likes to explore out of reach locales. Now, all this work was put into the music and visuals, but how the characters interact with each other and how their dialogue comes out makes you wonder if they even went back and watched the dailies as they were filming it. A large portion of the dialogue feels overly simplistic even by kid friendly standards and is often shortened to the point of missing punch and passion to back it up. On one hand it makes the story understandable--sometimes it's even over-explained at random points to an audience that's supposed to be invisible--as it frequently shifts from place to place, person to person, though it takes away from an edge to put a viewer right there in their shoes.

This establishes some brief back-story and explains throughout how the rules work, though as it carries on it feels like a series of aimless mini-missions with a world of connected characters to jump back and forth to. The boy with tattoos named Aang has to train and figure out what he wants to do, where he places himself and how to unlock his bending powers. He travels and meets people, though this loose way of following him around comes off like a haphazard string of events passed off as an actual story. A final battle happens and it shows off impressive special effects and fight scenes between the fire and water tribes, yet prior to that it felt like they were only handing out samples till you got to the entree. "The Last Airbender" mixes martial arts, myths and superpowers together and has an interesting concept as well as the imagery was truly impressive, but even said it still wasn't enough to overlook the mostly wooden and roaming human interaction.

Director: M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense, Signs, The Happening)
Starring: Noah Ringer, Nicola Peltz, Jackson Rathbone, Dev Patel, Shaun Toub, Cliff Curtis
Website: IMDB