Cowboys and Aliens
Aug. 5th, 2011 08:03 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nonionayWell, I saw it last night, and it was pretty much exactly what I expected, which was a lot of fun explosions, special effects and chiseled muscles. (How is Daniel Craig's chest not made of plastic?)
The acting and dialogue was a little worse than I'd expected, but I was amused by being able to predict exactly what was going to happen to a character by the way the camera angled on them. This is not a groundbreaking movie. Every single element of it is a reliable old trope, but strung together in a way that's fun if you're willing to turn off your brain. I'm pretty sure it would be an excellent tool for teaching basic storytelling. The opening scene in particular is classically handled, the camera carefully pointing out everything we need to know, and doing it in silence, which is a good thing, because Daniel Craig cannot do an American accent worth shit.
Also, there's a dog. Dog doesn't do anything except hang around people, and I imagine he's there because some exec said, "Hey, throw a dog in there. People love dogs!" And indeed, he is a lovable dog, hooking up with whoever killed his last master.
Now, me being the sort of person I am, I'm most interested in the aftermath of the events in this movie. Slightly spoilery stuff behind the cut:
Theoretically, at least, these people are going to be SERIOUSLY MESSED UP FOR THE REST OF THEIR LIVES. One thing the movie did well was spend a lot of time on the faces of the characters watching shit go down. These are not people who know what aliens are. They call them demons, and even if they don't do much questioning during the battle, afterwards, there will be some interesting reactions. The sheriff's 10-year-old grandson is along for the ride (I think he's supposed to be half-native), and has to watch A) His grandfather get yanked away by aliens B) Harrison Ford be racist towards his own Apache adopted son/servant. C) Harrison Ford then turn around and being nice to the kid, giving him a knife and telling him that to be a man, he has to be able to kill with it. D) Having to kill with it E) Having to watch dozens of men and horses get torn apart by aliens. All this time, the kid has one expression--mute, wide-eyed shock--which he does very well, and which is understandable. Anyway, that is going to be one messed up kid.
same with Daniel Craig's character. After all the shit that guy's been through, it wouldn't surprise me if PTSD drove him to blow out his brains as soon as he rode off to the other side of the horizon.
I can feel these possibilities in the characters as their actors play them, but of course, this is the sort of movie where a town can get alien fire rained down upon its wooden buildings, and the buildings are still standing pristine afterwards.
The acting and dialogue was a little worse than I'd expected, but I was amused by being able to predict exactly what was going to happen to a character by the way the camera angled on them. This is not a groundbreaking movie. Every single element of it is a reliable old trope, but strung together in a way that's fun if you're willing to turn off your brain. I'm pretty sure it would be an excellent tool for teaching basic storytelling. The opening scene in particular is classically handled, the camera carefully pointing out everything we need to know, and doing it in silence, which is a good thing, because Daniel Craig cannot do an American accent worth shit.
Also, there's a dog. Dog doesn't do anything except hang around people, and I imagine he's there because some exec said, "Hey, throw a dog in there. People love dogs!" And indeed, he is a lovable dog, hooking up with whoever killed his last master.
Now, me being the sort of person I am, I'm most interested in the aftermath of the events in this movie. Slightly spoilery stuff behind the cut:
Theoretically, at least, these people are going to be SERIOUSLY MESSED UP FOR THE REST OF THEIR LIVES. One thing the movie did well was spend a lot of time on the faces of the characters watching shit go down. These are not people who know what aliens are. They call them demons, and even if they don't do much questioning during the battle, afterwards, there will be some interesting reactions. The sheriff's 10-year-old grandson is along for the ride (I think he's supposed to be half-native), and has to watch A) His grandfather get yanked away by aliens B) Harrison Ford be racist towards his own Apache adopted son/servant. C) Harrison Ford then turn around and being nice to the kid, giving him a knife and telling him that to be a man, he has to be able to kill with it. D) Having to kill with it E) Having to watch dozens of men and horses get torn apart by aliens. All this time, the kid has one expression--mute, wide-eyed shock--which he does very well, and which is understandable. Anyway, that is going to be one messed up kid.
same with Daniel Craig's character. After all the shit that guy's been through, it wouldn't surprise me if PTSD drove him to blow out his brains as soon as he rode off to the other side of the horizon.
I can feel these possibilities in the characters as their actors play them, but of course, this is the sort of movie where a town can get alien fire rained down upon its wooden buildings, and the buildings are still standing pristine afterwards.
