{"id":3094,"date":"2011-08-16T02:26:44","date_gmt":"2011-08-16T07:26:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chuckchat.com\/technorama\/?p=3094"},"modified":"2011-08-16T02:26:44","modified_gmt":"2011-08-16T07:26:44","slug":"review-cowboys-aliens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chuckchat.com\/technorama\/2011\/08\/16\/review-cowboys-aliens\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Cowboys &amp; Aliens"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><div id=\"attachment_3096\" style=\"width: 208px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chuckchat.com\/technorama\/files\/2011\/08\/cowboys_and_aliens.png\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3096\" data-attachment-id=\"3096\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.chuckchat.com\/technorama\/2011\/08\/16\/review-cowboys-aliens\/cowboys_and_aliens\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chuckchat.com\/technorama\/files\/2011\/08\/cowboys_and_aliens.png?fit=432%2C652&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"432,652\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Cowboys and Aliens\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;Cowboys and Aliens&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chuckchat.com\/technorama\/files\/2011\/08\/cowboys_and_aliens.png?fit=432%2C652&amp;ssl=1\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chuckchat.com\/technorama\/files\/2011\/08\/cowboys_and_aliens-198x300.png?resize=198%2C300\" alt=\"Movie poster for Cowboys and Aliens\" width=\"198\" height=\"300\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-3096\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chuckchat.com\/technorama\/files\/2011\/08\/cowboys_and_aliens.png?resize=198%2C300&amp;ssl=1 198w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chuckchat.com\/technorama\/files\/2011\/08\/cowboys_and_aliens.png?w=432&amp;ssl=1 432w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 198px) 100vw, 198px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-3096\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cowboys and Aliens<\/p><\/div>I&#8217;ve got to say it.  This year&#8217;s summer movie season has left me disappointed.  I remember it was only a few months ago when I was about to see Thor.  There were more comic book movies coming out this year than you could count on one hand.  The law of averages notwithstanding I hoped that there would be a cornucopia of geekyness at the theaters.  Such is life I guess.<\/p>\n<p>Now according to IMDB, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cowboysandaliensmovie.com\">Cowboys &amp; Aliens<\/a> is based on a graphic novel from 2006.  The story is that aliens come to Earth and start terrorizing a down-on-their-luck mining town in the middle of nowhere.  Daniel Craig plays <strike>Jason Bourne<\/strike>, er I mean Jake Lonergan, a cowboy who wakes up at the start of the movie with amnesia and a strange bracelet attached to his left arm.  Amazingly, he is one kick-ass fighter and has a heroically, chivalrous conscience.  I swear I&#8217;ve seen that somewhere before.  <\/p>\n<p>Then there is Harrison Ford who plays &#8230; himself maybe, while trying to avoid looking like Indiana Jones.  But, everyone else calls him Colonel Dolarhyde.  That&#8217;s not really fair, but it was one comparison that cannot be avoided.  But, the thing is, I liked him as an Indiana Jones clone.  The character was practically begging to be replaced with Indy and he carries the movie IMO.<\/p>\n<p>From here on, there will be spoilers, but I&#8217;ll leave that for after the jump.  It&#8217;s probably not a surprise, but I didn&#8217;t like Cowboys &amp; Aliens all that much.  I give it 3 out of 5 stars.  And I had better remember to do a word search on this before I hit publish because I keep typing Cowboys vs. Aliens instead of Cowboys &amp; Aliens.  I think that name would have been better for some reason.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s a list of sci-fi memes and nods that will caught my attention:<\/p>\n<p>The people catching traps look like big face huggers from Aliens.  The aliens swoop around like the Wraith from Stargate: Atlantis and snatch people up.  And my memory is a bit fuzzy, but the sound of the alien aircraft could have been really similar to the Wraith Darts.  Upon making the connection, I assumed that the people would be captured and kept for food and I can&#8217;t really say that I was wrong.  They never showed what the aliens ate.<\/p>\n<p>Daniel Craig&#8217;s hat keeps getting kicked around like Indiana Jones&#8217; fedora.  <\/p>\n<p>The bracelet around Daniel Craig&#8217;s wrist was a left over prop from Iron Man.  But what&#8217;s odd about it is that he can&#8217;t take the thing off until the proper cue is given in the third act.  I reminds me of the Mummy Returns where the kid can&#8217;t take off the golden bracelet either.<\/p>\n<p>And in the final battle, the aliens swarm out of their tunnels like &#8230; Aliens.  The Sigouney Weaver variety of Aliens.  And they practically lined up to get blown up.  It&#8217;s like these creatures figured out space travel but forgot basic infantry tactics.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve got to say it. This year&#8217;s summer movie season has left me disappointed. I remember it was only a few months ago when I was about to see Thor. There were more comic book movies coming out this year &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chuckchat.com\/technorama\/2011\/08\/16\/review-cowboys-aliens\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3,653],"tags":[691,692,690,346],"class_list":["post-3094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-reviews","tag-aliens","tag-cowboys","tag-cowboys-aliens","tag-movies"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pe53l-NU","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chuckchat.com\/technorama\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chuckchat.com\/technorama\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chuckchat.com\/technorama\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chuckchat.com\/technorama\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chuckchat.com\/technorama\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3094"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.chuckchat.com\/technorama\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3094\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3103,"href":"https:\/\/www.chuckchat.com\/technorama\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3094\/revisions\/3103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chuckchat.com\/technorama\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chuckchat.com\/technorama\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chuckchat.com\/technorama\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}