When a stranger (Daniel Craig) awakes with no memory as to who he is, the only clue to what has happened to him is a shackle that’s attached to his wrist. It doesn’t take long for him to have a run in with the locals, who he easily defeats and takes their weapons and starts his journey to find a town. He soon comes upon the town of Absolution, once there he ends up getting into another altercation with a young man named Percy Dolarhyde (Paul Dano), who is bullying some town folks. The sheriff gets wind of the fight, and arrests Percy as well as the stranger. It turns out the stranger’s name is Jake Lonergan and he is wanted for a stagecoach robbery. The town is run by a wealthy man by the name of Colonel Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford), who finds out that his son has been arrested, and comes to the town to make the sheriff release his son. Once there he discovers that Jake is the one who stole his gold from the stagecoach, and he wants the sheriff to hand him over as well. Just as Colonel Dolarhyde and his men are about to get into a gun battle with the sheriff and his deputies, from out of nowhere a squadron of UFOs come and start shooting up the town and snatching up people as they try to flee. The shackle on Jake’s wrist responds to the alien invasion and it opens up to reveal that it is a weapon. Jake fires at one of the ships and shoots it out of the sky. The battle ends, but now all of the town folks want to know where the aliens have taken their loved ones.
Colonel Dolarhyde convinces them that Jake must know where the aliens are hiding because he is wearing their technology on his wrist. Meanwhile, there is a woman named Ella (Olivia Wilde) who seems to know a lot about the aliens and she wants to know how Jake got one of their weapons. The town put together a posse to go and search for the alien’s hideout, but they will not stand a chance if Jake doesn’t help them. Now Jake, who was at first not welcomed into their town, is their only hope at getting their people back from the aliens. Jake on the other hand, joins them because he also wants to have answers as to who he is and what has happened to him. They will need an army to go up against the highly advanced aliens, so they must all now join together. Jake, Colonel Dolarhyde and his men, the towns’ folks, outlaws, and Apache Indians must all put their differences aside if they are going to have any kind of chance against their common enemy, who plans on wiping out their civilizations.
There had been a lot of build-up to this movie. The premise seemed really intriguing, and original. I had been very enthusiastic about seeing this movie. It had two of my favorite actors, Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford, and it looked action packed in the trailers. The story was very original, and gave a twist to the old cowboys and Indians themed westerns. I have to say it was pretty good, but not as exciting as I had thought it would be. The special effects were really good, as well as the visual effects. The pairing of Ford and Craig was also really good, as the two played off of one another. There were some funny scenes as well to keep the movie flowing at a good pace. I did like this movie, but it wasn’t as spectacular as I thought it would be. Being that it was produced by Steven Spielberg and directed by Jon Favreau, I expected it to be much better. The aliens were done really well, and they looked quite large and menacing. The final battle between the aliens and the humans was cool, but I guess I just expected more. It could have been because I couldn’t get into was how the humans were able to give the aliens such a good fight, with just Craig’s character having the alien technology.
I not saying that this movie wasn’t entertaining, it just wasn’t spectacular. I gave this movie 2 ½ horses out of 4. It’s a good premise, which could have had so much more. The movie runs 1 hour and 58mins. It’s rated PG-13 for intense sequences of western and sci-fi action and violence, some partial nudity and a brief crude reference. The movie was written by Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, Damon Lindelof, Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby, Steve Oedekerk, and Scott Mitchell Rosenberg. It was directed by Jon Favreau. The film was produced by Platinum Studios, Imagine Entertainment, Kurtzman/Orci. It was distributed by Universal Pictures.
Don’t shoot till you see the bulge in their eyes. – Ezo
Next week review: Rise of the Planet of the Apes
