The first half of "Cowboys and Aliens" is indeed a Western. Both the background and characters of the story are set according to the routine of traditional Westerns, from a gold mining town to an Indian tribe, from a lonely hero with amnesia to a grumpy old man. Cowboys, the director used all the elements at his disposal to frame the western background. The sci-fi elements in the entire first half of the film only appeared as clues and suspense for the development of the plot, and did not make too much explanation. However, when the heroine was reborn from the ashes and revealed her true identity, such an abrupt and unexplained turning point appeared, the film almost took a 180-degree "drift" turn, changing from a Western to a complete science fiction film. So alien spaceships of various sizes, ugly and ferocious alien creatures, mysterious alien technology, and messy sci-fi elements all smashed into the audience.
From this, it seems that the director actually intends to divide the film in half. The first half is a western film with science fiction to guide the plot and suspense, and the second half is a science fiction film with western feelings and plot core. If so, the first half of Cowboys and Aliens can definitely be said to be above the pass line. Especially the first scene at the beginning of the movie: the hero with amnesia wakes up in the desert and finds a strange metal bracelet on his hand and a picture of a woman on the ground, followed by the hero's "007-style" neat solution. Three bandits who want to make money and kill suddenly appear, then change into their clothes, pick up the photo of the woman, and ride their horses to a small town in the desert. suspense. It's a pity that the film went from bad to worse, until the above-mentioned turning point in the story of the heroine revealing her identity.
I personally think that the difference between science fiction and bullshit is whether there is a sufficiently complete and convincing logical explanation for the background of the story. This explanation can be as large as the entire world view such as "Star Wars", or a complex system such as "The Matrix", or it can be weakened to the particularity of individual events such as "Super Eight". Cowboys and Aliens explained the motives of the alien creatures, saying they came to mine gold, but said nothing else. And for the heroine's identity, there is no foreshadowing and explanation to support it. Such an abrupt appearance is outrageous, and even the follow-up plot has no supplement to make up for it. Who is the heroine, her origin, background, alien ability to become human and resurrection, and even whether she has gender, the film does not mention a word at the end, which directly causes Ella to become the most bullshit in the whole film. Weird character.
The rescue operation at the climax of the film is even more appalling. A "human army" composed of dozens of Indians, cowboys and bandits using knives, spears, wooden arrows and pistols, and a group of aliens with large, ferocious and ugly bodies, armed with high-tech guns and cannibals. In the monster war, the two sides with complete disparity in power were forced to be evenly matched by the director. The monster that couldn't be killed in the first shot was stabbed to death by a wooden spear in the second shot. The scenes inside the alien spaceship are also bullshit. How the weapon on the actor's wrist works has always been a major suspense in the film's settings. As a result, the heroine was dismissed by the phrase "control your mind", and sent a vulgar incident by the way. hollywood kiss. It's good to be imaginative, but making it out of thin air is complete bullshit.
"Cowboys and Aliens" ended up being a chaotic movie, with Western stories being scrambled by the messy sci-fi elements, and sci-fi stories being too abrupt and bloody because of the lack of foreshadowing and explanation. The lead star, Daniel Craig, who has always been cool and handsome from beginning to end, is worth seeing. After walking out of the movie theater, my friend and I talked about a scene in the film and couldn’t help but joke: the first time an alien spaceship appeared in a small town to capture humans, it seemed that they had done a pre-investigation “careful selection” to capture the boy’s grandfather. , Doc's wife, Ford's son... Anyway, just don't let people pair up.
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