#283: Cowboys & Aliens, Pottermore

[Sean]

Fist post w00t!!

Listing to the cast, and you guys talking about Cowboys & Aliens (I haven’t seen it yet, so I’m going on C&A chat, & the trailers), and describing Jake as just that guy who takes on anything life thows at him. That guy who kicks butt and takes names, etc, and how the movie comes across as a tragedy, esp for his character.

It reminded me of Bruce Willis’ character John McClaine in the last Die Hard move (Live Free or Die Hard), when he’s talking to the hacker he’s trying to protect about being that guy. I’m paraphrasing here, but essentially he said that it sucks being that guy. Being that guy means you’re out there “taking care of business” instead of being with the woman you love. Being that guy means facing up to things everyone else looks away from, no matter what it costs. No one in their right mind would choose to be “that guy.” As much as we like seeing these guy in the action films, I think at some level they’re all tragedies for those characters.

Welcome Homie!

Awesome first post btw. Yeah agreed there. Jake takes a bunch of crap and just has to deal. He’s not a good guy but he is tough enough to live through it.

[FireBreathingChicken]

Moved to the Gutter… http://forum.galacticwatercooler.com/showthread.php?4137-Straight-to-the-Gutter-thread-(NSFW)&p=384210&viewfull=1#post384210

[StuffHeardOnGWC]

Vote for your favorite GWC Podcast 283 quote(s). This poll will close on September 1st, 2011 at 08:26 AM.

[pisumnux]

I know this is late. (I held off until I could see C&A.) On the note of unlikely allies, one of the big ones that came to my mind was in Serenity after Miranda when Jayne passes his flask to Simon. Another was the FBI and mobsters in Rocketeer fighting side by side to repel the Nazis.

And as far as the western gruff being a common factor, I was reminded of a line from XXX 2 (the only decent thing in the movie) was Ice Cube saying something to the tune of “The fate of the free world in the hands of a bunch of hustlers and thieves” to which his FBI friend responds “Why should tonight be any different?”

[frakkintalos]

Just watched Cowboys & Aliens last night.

While I agree with Chuck that the main story was centered around Jake, I must say I felt the same way Audra does about the supporting character B stories. I felt the father/sons story were skimmed over and lacking true depth. I wanted to feel more for them. I know the actors were definitely up to the job, just not given the screen time to do it.

The concept and execution of Cowboys and Aliens is ambitious to a fault. Let’s face it. It’s a Western, Sci-Fi, Action, Crime, Thriller, Buddy Film, Romance, Mystery…ok…ok…you get my point. It’s a genre smörgåsbord. There is so much to do in a short amount of time. It’s David Lean meets John Woo. That being said, I think Favreau tackles it wonderfully. There are so many storylines and Favreau highlights the important moments, as brief as they are.

As Chuck stated, the aliens weren’t important. However I think they screwed up there, they should have been. I say that because they made them more interesting than most of the other characters in the movie. Other than Jake the most interesting things in the movie were all aliens, Ella and the gold-diggers.

I think all the characters, even Jake, are neglected because there is so much story to tell in a short time.

My personal opinion was that this was a good flick, I liked it and will see it again… on DVD. For me it was like Star Wars, but beginning from the Endor net trap and told from Wicket’s point of view. You get the sense that the cooler more interesting shit went down somewhere else and that this story is way bigger than the part you and your furry clan are seeing here.

Yeah. I want to know about Ella’s world and their plight.

Cowboy’s and Aliens:

The main reason I think I enjoyed this film so much was because my expectations were so low, it looked so superficial from the trailers. And yet it had some decent characters in it and flirted with their relationships just enough to make it interesting. I was hooked right away by the cinematography and the opening music, and when the preacher arrived I was sold; and went along for the ride and had a good time. I just hope that a director’s cut will be available when it comes to DVD, it had a good cast and I would like to think he had made good use of them while they were available, but cut the film down for time reasons for its initial release at the request of the producers. I would like to see more of the casts interactions.

I enjoyed the movie but I think it would have made a better TV series. Yet, you’re not going to get Harrison Ford, et al for a TV series. The film has piqued my interest to check out the comic, though.

As for the ending, the reappearance of the hummingbird (the one from the Indian Ceremony) while he revisited the abandoned homestead made me think that something good was coming his way as a reward for his driving away the invaders.

To be honest, when that hummingbird showed up I thot, “Oh great. Now it’s tickling the Art House genre.” Then, for a moment, I thot the bird was going to morph into Ella. That would have been so cheesy.

Does anyone else see the similarities in the construction of the aliens across the recent films involving J.J. Abrams? Cloverfield (filmed in BARFcam!), Trek 2009, and now Cowboys & Aliens- all the creatures have head bladders that expand and contract, ominously reflecting the KILL emotions within. All have those gelatinous flappy openings that reveal nasty maws or appendages. Similar musculature. Is it the same FX house or is it the artistic hive mind at work? Artists out there, can you speak to this? I find it intriguing.

Nowadays, there is never just one FX company for a film. Here is a list of the FX companies for the films you mentioned:

Cloverfield:
Fugitive Studios (matte painting)
Lidar Services (lidar provided by)
Creative Character Engineering (CCE) (animatronic effects)
Hammerhead Productions (visual effects)
Third Floor, The (previsualization)
Double Negative (visual effects)
Tippett Studio (creature animation and visual effects)
Pacific Title and Art Studio (opticals)

Star Trek:
Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) (visual effects and animation)
Digital Domain (additional visual effects)
Svengali Visual Effects (additional visual effects)
Lola Visual Effects (additional visual effects)
Persistence of Vision Entertainment (pre-visualization)
Kerner Optical (additional special effects photography and miniatures)
Third Floor, The (additional previsualization)
Pacific Title and Art Studio (opticals)
Evil Eye Pictures (visual effects) (uncredited)

Cowboys and Aliens:
ArsenalFX
Creature Effects
Halon Entertainment (previsualization)
Industrial Light & Magic (ILM)
Kerner Optical (special practical effects)
Legacy Effects (creature effects & specialty props)
Lidar Guys
Lightwave International (laser effects)
Shade VFX (visual effects)

Creature designer Neville Page did the Cloverfield monster and the “snow anus” from Star Trek. Scott Chambliss was hired as the production designer for Cowboys and Aliens based on his work on Star Trek, produced by Orci and Kurtzman. The visual effects were created by Industrial Light & Magic (ILM).

I do agree with Dollarhide’s inconsistency - he’s supposed to be such a dick but except for the very start, he’s not at all.

I thot of Dolarhyde as similar to Ian McShane’s Swearengen from Deadwood. They are both powerful and successful men in the survival of the fittest world of the old West. They will do anything to protect their interests and the ones loyal to them. The priorities of the film change so frantically throughout the film, it is difficult for the characters not to adapt abruptly. If they don’t change loyalties quickly, they’ll be dead.

In terms of the humor, I was trying to articulate to the spousal unit that it was funny without being laughing funny, and settled on the idea that it was amusing, in a funny way.

I attribute that to the pure acting brilliant acting talent in the film. Clancy Brown, Sam Rockwell, Paul Dano, Walton Goggins, Harrison Ford, Daniel Craig…Holy Crom!!!

I did love the gold symbolism, though.

Recently, I watched an episode of Ancient Aliens (addressing the 2012 Mayan calendar thingy) where they explained that some UFO enthusiast believe that Aliens mined for Mayan gold centuries ago because they require it for their atmosphere. They believe that the Aliens will return in Dec 2012 when the calendar ends.

I wanted more of Ella’s story, but we didn’t get it, so that’s that.

Yeah. Me too. I’m was hoping the comic would reveal more. It doesn’t.

[Rig]

A lot of stuff to try and squeeze into a Movie, but Favreau (SP) did a pretty good job. Daniel Craig was good, Olivia Wilde was fandamntastic! Seeing what Favreau did with this movie makes me a little sad that he isn’t directing the third Iron Man movie. I wish he would have completed the trilogy. That being said, Cowboys and Aliens is the kind of movie that blu ray and surround sound were made for. I just loved throwing the movie in sitting back and letting the kickass just happen!

[Rig]

Harrison Ford was pretty good too, his past couple of movies he’s been playing caricatures of himself, but he did well in Cowboys and Aliens.

[Chuck]

Agree, Rig. This movie catches a lot of hell simply for not being what people expect of it. I really enjoyed it, and I’m looking forward to seeing it again now that it’s out on video.