And as a western, it follows ALL of the good structure of any John Ford piece. Just because it has Aliens in it, does not make it a Science Fiction movie.
So, I understand the disappointment of certain so-called Eberts who think they know anything about movies, who posted here how bad this film was. No, it wasn't - But all of their pompous reviews and
negations of this film were odious.
This film can simply be considered "The Searchers with Aliens in it". What makes this film great, is that this takes place after the Civil War, During the Indian Wars, and right before the Railroad boom.
We have two guys, two Protagonists: Daniel Craig, Looking VERY MUCH like Nevada Smith aka Steve McQueen - the Man with No Name, rolls into town and trouble just seems to follow him in, yet the preacher (the great Character actor Clancy Brown) still takes him in. The Sheriff, Keith Carradine, is just doing his job, and the Rancher Harrison Ford wants payback for a past injury. Said Rancher has a son, who is the bane of the town, always stirring up trouble from which his Pa has to bail him out- played by Paul Dano, and his sidekick, Adam Beach, who is of First Nation descent, and looks up to his boss Ford as a father.
Then there is the mysterious Girl, Olivia Wilde (Qorra from Tron Legacy) who just happens to tote a large gun over her pretty dress - Which is very out of place but it works here. And then the Bartender, Sam Rockwell, who is actually a doctor. And a band of about 40 ravening Gunfighters and Train robbers who Daniel Craig used to lead like a pack of Dogs, And a band of Chiricahua.
This film is The Searcher on Steroids: we have several disparate groups of people, Ranchers, Outlaws, Townsfolk, and First Nationers, under normal circumstances natural blood enemies. They all work together here and earn each other's respect.
I see this film ONLY as a western, and it has John Ford elements - Especially, the Locations, where you almost cannot distinguish the Alien Spaceship from the natural surroundings, it looks very much like an Anasazi structure found near the SouthWest, reminiscent of Louis L'Amour's "The Haunted Mesa" L'Amour's last book which also mixed Science Fiction and Westerns.
Where the critics fail is that they are expecting a Science Fiction film akin to Orci/Kurtzman's Star Trek, which proceeded at Warp Nine. THIS is a Western, they did not have Warp Drive, let alone Automobiles, they had to depend on Horses to travel from one place to another. This is actually Star Trek on the scale of the old Southwest area of the US back in the 1870's. So this film does follow the tenets of a Star Trek film only at a pace more befitting to Horses than to Warp Nacelles.
This was the Old West, things took time. Searches took time, days - Weeks. And the Old West Frontier, was akin to the Gamma Quadrant – The people who rode in Conestoga Wagons from the East to the West, are the same people who don Starfleet uniforms and travel in starships to all points west of Federation Space.
The Aliens in this, are ruthless killers, with no regard for Human life, only for the Gold they are extracting from the ground and anywhere else they can find it. They don't like to handle coins, so they just liquify the stuff. These things are like, they have Frog's Heads on top of four-limbed bodies, and an extra pair of arms in their chest - This is a weakness, can't tell you more though.
My suggestion is to ignore most of the bad reviews - I myself do not go to movies to pick them apart, either I enjoy it, or I don't. This film should have been Jon Favreau's masterpiece- It IS his masterpiece. It's a GOOD FILM, by any standards of John Ford and Cameron/Spielberg/Jackson.
This film shows how the characters of men can be changed for the better when they are forced into a situation where they have to live, work and fight side by side with people groups they normally would not associate with - When there is a common threat, it brings these natural enemies together, and who knows, sometimes, they end up not being enemies after that. But that is just the normal way of how friends meet sometimes, many good friends were enemies when they initially met. Unfortunately, this is a fact of life, it should not take calamitous events to bring people together, but that is just how this world works, and even more so in the times where there was no Technology.
And it is due to the lack of Tricorders, Phasers, Quantum Torpedoes, Disruptors, Cloaking Devices, AntiProton Beams, Sensors, Radar, Radar Detectors, Metal Detectors, Cars, Toilets, and Strip Malls that this movie is a great Western - A modern Sci Fi movie will use gadgets to move the plot along, sometimes many times the speed that light can flow from the Movie Screen into your Eyes. But the lack of technology in this film is befitting to the plot - And of course, the only man who has access to advanced Tech is Daniel Craig's character - And it is not necessary that he should know what it is, or how it works, or even how to use it! And so, it is that LACK of Tech that is precisely why this is a great Western- And the Relevant Conundrum of this Film is not solved by Gadgets, it is solved by sheer Human Ingenuity and Bravery.
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