First Hit: An odd idea turned into an action packed fantasy.
Jake Lonergan (played by Daniel Craig) wakes up in the middle of nowhere. He doesn’t remember anything from his past, his name or why he has a large metal bracelet on his left wrist.
He does remember that he speaks English (one of my favorite lines). Three guys come up and start to harass him and he takes them out quickly. This sets up his character.
He is generally quiet, fast and strong on his feet, fearless and has an unknown purpose. He takes one of his accoster’s horse and rides into town where the sheriff arrests him because he is Jake Lonergan (thief and killer).
Confused by what is going on, he goes along with the sheriff until spaceships swoop down on the town to steal bodies of the towns’ people. During this attack he discovers he can control this bracelet on his wrist with his mind because it becomes active and a powerful weapon. With this weapon he shoots down one of the spacecraft which gets the attention of the townspeople.
Woodrow Dolarhyde (played by Harrison Ford) the town bully, witnesses Jake’s powerful wrist weapon and because Woodrow’s son Percy (played by Paul Dano) was one of the people kidnapped by one of the spaceships, he wants Jake to go with him to find his son.
Jake also meets up with Ella (played by Olivia Wilde) who thinks he can help her on her mission (which we find out later is strangely different than the rest of the town’s folk). Together with other town-folk and a tribe of Indians, they go off to find their missing relatives. When the Indians give Jake some visioning drink, he remembers who he is, why he has the weapon bracelet, and where the alien mothership is located.
The group finds the alien mothership and together, Cowboys, Indians and an Alien, they save the stolen people the invading aliens.
Craig is curiously stoic and adept in this heroic part. Ford is great as a crusty overbearing rancher. Dano is good as the whiny gutless son. Wilde is ethereal and beautiful as Ella, an alien in disguise. The whole host of 9 writers created an interesting story out of a bizarre and plausible story line circumstance. What I mean by that is, why wouldn’t aliens have invaded our planet during the 1800’s? Jon Favreau kept it interesting when this film could have fallen off course at any point in time.
Overall: This was an entertaining film made well by a fine cast and director.