The much anticipated trailer for Cowboys & Aliens, director Jon Favreau’s next feature following the ultra successful Iron Man 2, has been released online over at Yahoo!. The story is based from the Platinum Studios comic book where an alien spaceship crash lands in Silver City, Arizona and the various inhabitants have to put their differences aside to tackle the Aliens which come from within.
I have not read the comic on which this is based but they appear here from the first trailer to not give too much away in terms of plot, but rather, develop serious intrigue. Mostly from the character of Jake Lonergan (played by Daniel Craig) who appears seemingly out of nowhere with a strange futuristic device attached to his wrist, rides into town and is arrested.
The trailer looks great, with a fantastic recreation of an old Western town which brings to my mind Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven as well as HBO’s Deadwood, but maybe that’s just the presence of Keith Carradine. It is then mixed with some very nice visual effects of dazzling light shows which recall Close Encounters as well as echoes of Spielberg’s War of the Worlds. Also nice to see Harrison Ford doing something other than an indulgent melodrama, and a role which for now doesn’t appear to be entirely heroic but still keeping the grizzled charm of Indiana Jones.
I generally enjoy the Iron Man movies, they aren’t substantial but they are good blockbusters and Favreau directs well. Here the tone is more serious and it looks a lot tougher in terms of suspense and violence, definitely one to check out.
Cowboys & Aliens will be released on July 29th, 2011
