Cowboys & Aliens — Why Massive Hollywood Blockbusters Fail | Anatomy of a Failure

Cowboys and Aliens is another wannabe blockbuster from 2011, with massive elements involved. You got the director of Iron Man, Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, Steven Spielberg, Ron Howard... just to name a few. This should've been a successful hit, yet it turned out to be a massive flop that tanked at the box office and ensured no future instalments were made. And the main reason could be in the large sum of its parts. There is so much here that there is nothing here, because the movie lacks specifcity. We have cowboys as well as aliens, yet we have nothing. In today's episode of Anatomy of a Failure, let's try to see why and how to ensure the same doesn't happen to our movie.

#Cowboysandaliens #danielcraig #anatomyofafailure

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Cowboys & Aliens (2011)
Based on the graphic novel by Scott Mitchell Rosenberg, Cowboys & Aliens is set in 1800s Arizona, where the local cowboys, headed by gunslinger Jake Lonergan (Daniel Craig), and the indigenous Apache tribe have been feuding fiercely for quite a while. Their skirmish is interrupted, however, by the appearance of a spaceship, commanded by an alien creature that's bent on enslaving the human race. It's time for a six-gun shoot-out between these cattle rustlers and space invaders, and there might even be a temporary peace between the cowboys and Indians as they both take aim at these extraterrestrial uninvited guests. Jon Favreau directs from a script by Star Trek scribes Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, with help from Lost's Damon Lindelof. Olivia Wilde, Harrison Ford, and Sam Rockwell fill out the headlining cast.
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Iron Man (2008)
From Marvel Studios and Paramount Pictures comes Iron Man, an action-packed take on the tale of wealthy philanthropist Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), who develops an invulnerable robotic suit to fight the throes of evil. In addition to being filthy rich, billionaire industrialist Tony Stark is also a genius inventor. When Stark is kidnapped and forced to build a diabolical weapon, he instead uses his intelligence and ingenuity to construct an indestructible suit of armor and escape his captors. Once free, Stark discovers a deadly conspiracy that could destabilize the entire globe, and dons his powerful new suit Cowboys & aliens aliens scene battle everything wrong with cowboys & aliens honest trailer cowboys and aliens funny moments cowboys and aliens full movie online free 4k clip hd only action cowboys and aliens alien fight scene explained cowboys & aliens 2 sequel why cowboys and aliens flopped bad movie good movie on a mission to stop the villains and save the world. Gwyneth Paltrow co-stars as his secretary, Virginia "Pepper" Potts, while Terrence Howard fills the role of Jim "Rhodey" cowboys & aliens official trailer explained movie mistakes cowboys & aliens ending Rhodes, one of biggest flops Stark's colleagues, whose military background leads him to help in the formation of the suit. Jon Favreau directs, with Marvel movie veterans Avi Arad and Kevin Feige producing.

[jessetorres]

I actually liked this movie when it came out. I mean, how often do you get James Bond & Indiana Jones together in a movie? Plus, it did the primative Humans vs. Aliens who want gold story way better than Battlefield Earth.

[barnabusdoyle]

Your point about the aliens is spot on. I don’t think the creators knew what they wanted these aliens to be or what skill set they had which is why they are so inconsistent. If the aliens were small, but used tech to dominate the battlefield, they would have actually been pretty unique to aliens in other media. I think the movie would have been much better with aliens using the weapons against the humans in very western style shootouts. Of course the aliens should have also had enough advantages with their tech that they were a huge threat to the humans.

The gold would have been easy to use for the aliens. The circuitry their tech uses be made out of gold, iron and a few other metals. The aliens coming to Earth to harvest gold, show the gold being used to make their tech and the audience would instantly understand what they were doing even if the characters didn’t.

[LordofSadFac]

I find this movie as a kind of guilty pleasure, im fully aware of its flaws and the logical failures it needs to do in order to allow the plot to exist, but at the same time i do like what it showcase and the concept itself is not as insane and incompatible as some people might think, it just needed better writting. Also i love how the alien Daniel Craig fights at the end looks a lot like a Hell Knight from Doom 3.

[MrCovi]

This goes back to the basic issue of motivation. Jack Sparrow is motivation incarnate and figuring out what was motivating him was part of the mystery. Jason Bourne was motivated by the mystery of who he was with cryptic clues to start the journey so we were invested in finding out who he was. I can't even remember Daniel Craig's character's name because he just kinda spawned into the world and then hobbled from one plot point to another like a video game.
Ouch I'm hurt, guess I'll find a doctor. That would have been far more intriguing to us if despite his wound there was something that he wanted MORE than that. What if Craig's character had remembered who he was, and spent the entire movie working towards that, but refused to tell people (like Jack Sparrow)? That would have been far more compelling. "What does he care more about than the bleeding hole in his side?" "Why does he seem to have this alien wrist band, and know how to use it but didn't know it could run out of ammo (or something like that)?"
That would have been far more compelling than "ouch I'm hurt, guess I'll find a doctor" and "oh the wrist band deus-ex-machina'd the hero out of a hole, then went away for most of the rest of the movie."

[HeisenbergFam]

Hollywood doesnt disappoint when it comes to disappointing

[nami]

This movie was a fever dream. I remember watching this as a kid feeling disappointed? First time I felt this way for a movie.

[Ludi_Chris]

I would have the bracelet play more of a part.
1: like Filmento said it helps him escape after waking up
2: When in the town and those ruffians stir up trouble the bracelet kick up again.
3: the aliens are tracking the bracelet.

[BigTimStrange]

I think a big problem with the film is that there was no creative vision to serve as it's foundation. The movie started off as a pitch by a suit in the indie comics scene who has aspirations to be a Hollywood big shot. He hastily threw together a graphic novel to get his pitch out of development hell because Hollywood at the time was jumping at any chance to make films based on a graphic novels.

[scottvaski]

A few days after watching this movie, a friend and I were in a store and we saw the soundtrack for cowboys vs aliens on sale. My friend said "was there music to go with that movie?" Then we looked at each other, laughed, and she said "Was there movie to go with that movie? "

[thepopculturedude]

Mad respect for you on adding Red Dead Redemption elements throughout in this video.

[Figgy]

Back in the day of Netflix mailing DVDs to your home, I picked this one and after watching it during family movie night, it was deemed I was no longer allowed to pick the movies without confirming it with someone else first.

[AsterSkotos]

In the making of this movie, there were just too many voices not agreeing on specifics. Too many great content creatures, either a director, visual artists, or writers. Too many great ideas stuffed into one thing to the point there were no more room for specifics and personality of characters. They never had the chance to focus on one thing long enough for us to care

[AshGCG]

It still feels very strange when Filmento makes me aware of why I did not think much of a film.

"You might not have noticed, but your brain did."

[rclark]

They had the chance to do something really interesting with the parallel of aliens invading our world and the Westerners invading the Natives' world, but they just... didn't.

[LucLB]

I remember watching this and being like « yeah it’s not bad, but there’s something off that makes it not great either ». Thanks for helping me put a finger on it.

[dars]

What's even funnier is that if the aliens want gold that badly, there is way more to be found in the asteroid belt than there is on Earth. Enough to make all the gold on Earth practically worthless.

[Sudno]

Having seen this analysis, I think this movie can be made much better in terms of aliens by making one small change: there are two separate species - one that is weak, smart, technological and hideous, and the other that are mindless brutes. And to add a twist at the end of the movie - reveal that the brutes are actually mutated kidnapped humans.
I'm not a professional writer, but I think those little changes would have turned C&A from a passive average to a pretty solid sci-fi, even with other plot flaws.

[bdablader]

My absolute favorite thing about this movie was when it came out, all the tinfoilers started preaching that the movie was warning us that aliens put us here to mine gold and be raised as food and the illuminati, government(s), and all celebrities/political elite were in on it.
Love living on this timeline lol.

[Sketch]

I remember three things from this film: the aliens blasting the village, the battle at the end, and Daniel Craig saying “We FLEW!”. That was the most realistic moment in the film and kind of refreshing. Other than that I could never put my finger on why I wasn’t an enthralled with it after I left the theatre, and I cannot tell you my excitement when it popped up you were dissecting this. Thank you!

[yetsumari]

This plagues every industry. The music industry because many songs in the top 50 at any given point has 5 or more songwriters, not counting the actual members in the group. Soulless bops. All star teams in sports suffer because at every given moment multiple people need to be playing support rather than setting themselves up to shine. It can never be more than the sum of its parts, a necessity in art.