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

Speaking about RDR, can you make The Last Of Us 2 video please?

You Should do a Video on Pacific Rim. You can cover whatever you want about it I just need a video on it.

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.

@@wrath7646the first pacific rim SLAPPED

@The.Nasty. Still one of my all time favorite movies

It wasn't terrible. Watched it on blu ray and have good memories about it

I liked it too, only issue I had was with the ending when the hot town girl suddenly is an alien all along - might be slightly wrong it's been a while since I watched it.

@@gidi3250 that was stupid )) but expected

I liked it too!

"way better than Battlefield Earth" ... Is there a lower bar than that?

Or imagine if the aliens had also been like... alien cowboys, come to herd some human cattle and mine gold.

I kinda though thought the big aliens were exoskeletons?? Maybe im not remembering right

Oooh, how about the gun's fuel is gold? That way it is easier to see why the aliens need gold so much, and you can get conflict with that as the gun watch can only be used after getting enough gold, a scarce resource, and justify when and how you use it

not really, independence day did it already

@@cardescomedioses3674 gold is nonreactive, it wouldn't make sense to use it as fuel or ammo. It would be better if they needed it for some sort of advanced tech, but it would be difficult to make it feel logical. Coming to Earth for gold is pretty weird, really. It's pretty common and could be mined from multiple locations that don't have gun-toting humans.

Then you may want to check out the Doctor Who episode "A Town Called Mercy", it's the same concept done well.

Same

Me too! I know this movie sucks in many ways, but I love the premise and I think Daniel Craig rocks it. (A Town Called Mercy is a great ep, andras!)

Same here. "Guilty pleasure" is how I feel about it as well. Cowboys & Aliens is no blockbuster, but it does have it's moments. Also, there was a huge supporting cast that were every bit as good at bringing their characters to life compared to Ford and Craig. This movie is slowly becoming a cult classic. I'm glad to see that happening.

@@Corinthians- hey hey hey hey, lets not get crazy cause Wild Wild West is a really fun movie.

Well said. It is the thing they are most consistent in. Thats what makes actual incredible films so rare 😂

Lol

Look at the writers. Kurtzman destroyed Star Trek and Lindeloff did that god awful Watchmen series.

The movie started out good then it does get boring

@@cyberspirt it was complete paint by numbers now that you mention it. Looked like an old PlayStation game I would have played in the day.

As a kid I sat down and repeatedly watched a myriad of movies - and looking back I’m not sure I even liked most of them.

Strange i saw it as a adult, and we family and friends who went to it (Cinema), liked it all.

Any time I read "watching this as a kid" in the comments I feel very old. This movie came out like yesterday. And if you want to say that 2011 was a long time ago, you just prove my point.

This movie completely disappeared from my memory, I only remembered it because of this video

this is such bullshit

She's funny😂

Valid point. The writers were more interested in the concept then the actual characters. It's the kinda movie JJ Abrams would make. Competent, entertaining enough with cool ideas but nothing truly original and has no deeper meaning. Side note, always bugged me that Daniel Craig's character had the same wrist size and the hulking alien monstrosities.

One reason this video was late was because after I added those references I had to take out my 360 and start playing RDR

@@Filmento You're awesome.

​@@Filmentoto be honest this could have been a really good dlc for Red Dead redemption 2.

Reply 5

@@Filmento wait a minute is the reason why you started replaying it is because you heard it was going to get a remake or remaster or something.

I liked the graphic novel, they defined the aliens as space pirates which is more unique than most alien invasions

Point 3 is so obvious that just now I noticed that they weren't after it! LOL (I didn't watch the movie, just here for the learning)

Those damn creatures running everything!

I know what I said...

Yeah but no one wants to make a crappy movie about that. Lol

Or even raiding the oceans...

How do you know there is so much gold in the asteroid belt? And is it easier to To mine asteroids than it is a planet?

@@mackinblack I don't know that. NASA knows that. And if you're a space-faring civilization, yeah, it's easier. Once gravity is no longer a problem, mining is basically no more arduous than plucking feathers.

MAD makes fun of everything to be fair

@@mrstealyogirl5796 Not EVERYTHING but most things.

Cowboys vs Ben 10 Alien(s) force

​@@InevitableOption-ic2vxLittle did Ben know that altering his DNA on a daily basis would lead to terminal cancer.

lmao, I feel like I don't spend enough time in the obscure parts of the internet

What u mean u love living on this timeline..? Have u been on any other one? HUH?!?! ANSWER ME! lol

it's all trooooooooooooooooo!

You believe in stupid shit like “timelines” but you don’t think aliens could possibly be farming humans?

That would've explain why the bracelet paired and worked on human.

This is genius. Well done.

You noticed this? This movie had a plot?

Or comic books, where a finished page is the work of up to five people (writer, penciller, inker, colorist and editor, unless someone does multiple roles) because they need to be finished so quickly. If one of them is not in sync with the vision of the rest of the team it can seriously ruin a great comic.

Pretty bad movie. Paul Dano and Olivia Wylde were the only good things in it and they are in other movies that are actually GOOD

@@worsethanhitlerpt.2539 Better than anything you could conceive of ever. Everyone did fine.

​@@PaulSmith-nb6mdBro are you 5?

@@PaulSmith-nb6md that is some seriously stupid take, buddy... how embarrassing

@themug406 Bro are you? What kind of idiotic response is that?

I thought the concept was pretty interesting but when i watched it, it was like they only did the bare minimum with it

There's a golden rule in all good screen writing and cinema. Let the audience draw their own conclusions, don't over-explain and proclaim the audience idiots and above all don't explain things which couldn't/shouldn't be explained. This can be summarized with: 1. Leave it a mystery because what isn't explained is scarier. People fear what they don't understand. 2. Leave it a mystery because *some things are irrelevant to the story itself and doesn't affect the narrative* . The big picture. 3. Leave it a mystery because some things can't be explained without it sounding *incredibly silly* . "Have the dumb, brutish enemies be a species assimilated in order to be used for their melee combat. " Well, isn't this already explained in the film with the alien lady saying that what they're dealing with is just simple scouts, the same of which are found elsewhere on other planets these aliens have visited. She also says that since these aliens don't consider humans even a slight threat so they neither arrived in great numbers nor brought equipment for any confrontation or war. Why would an advanced race even need to assimilate other alien races? They're not Egyptian pharaohs who need millions of slaves to do all their chores and a labor workforce. At a time there weren't any machines doing all the hard labor and chores conquerors needed to assimilate, enslave or "pacify" the locals. "Have the humans kidnapped also be a result of assimilation instead of just turning them to dust" And again this humans assimilated by aliens thing belongs in the 1950's when alien invasion movies were just an allegory for the red scare, and people feared their neighbor who didn't talk to them might be an assimilated Soviet spy or something. "They are already among you, you're next!" The original Invasion of the Body Snatchers is a perfect example. And if you've never heard of it, well pardon me this proves your ignorance of film history and the themes of different eras. Again, in the film the alien lady clearly explains the aliens don't consider humans a threat and are but annoying, little insects they think nothing of. WHY would you need to assimilate such a species? You're adding a layer of paranoia *which isn't needed in this film and isn't part of its narrative* They also didn't just turn to dust. The aliens inserted some tubes into the captured humans and drained them of their fluids and nutrients which the aliens themselves need to sustain something. Humans are therefore harvested as a source of readily available energy. Those who aren't needed at the moment are put in a state of suspended animation or whatever it was to be harvested later. "Gold could just be a resource they're extracting" Well, isn't that also explained in the film. The aliens need the gold and it's as precious to them as it is to humans. Exactly WHY and WHAT they use the gold for is irrelevant to the story, and also to the humans on the receiving end of their horror. "maybe even just one of multiple" Keep it nice and simple. Brilliance has its core in its simplicity. You don't need 5 narratives for a thing which could be explained by one. "and blowing up cows could just be them trying to starve and weaken the humans. " Exceptionally stupid. Again, *why* would they try to starve and weaken humans when they're clearly not even slightly bothered by them or consider them a remote threat? When they can fly in and take whatever they want without any problems why would they try to starve and weaken humans? When they see humans the same way humans see worms why bother with something utterly pointless? Again you're reasoning like human conquerors of the past reasoned. In a siege of a city you could make sure no food got in. The Vandals tore down Roman aqueducts knowing full well that those cities would fall with no water flowing into them. Hence the word vandalism btw. And why does this "blowing up the cows" totally minor event even need to be explained?? Why the aliens just shot up the cows and the cowboys probably was some casual target practice or them enjoying themselves. Who cares? Why does this detail need to be explained at all? "There are ways they could've had this make sense" Sigh. You don't get it. Sci-fi generally falls in two brackets. One is the intelligent sci-fi which generally doesn't involve aliens at all but if it does focuses on the general theme and lessons and not frickin' details! The other bracket is the adventure extravaganza. High on entertainment value but generally illogical and dumb. It's pure escapism. Switch your brain off and enjoy the ride. Only a fool would try to make sense of it or superimpose his/her own warped/myopic/infantile interpretation on it all. Cowboys & Aliens falls in the latter category. A ragtag bunch of humans facing dangerous aliens and triumphing in the end against all odds. That's the story. In the case of this movie you also missed the underlying themes of children growing up to face what it means to be an adult, different cultures siding their differences when they face a common enemy who don't see that difference at all and how greed is a destructive force (Craig's gunslinger train robber, Ford's greedy cattleman who owns the town and also the aliens). You miss all that because you're pre-occupied wanting explanations why the aliens blew up cows. For real. "but instead they decided to wing it and hope nobody asks questions as to why they're doing this." Listen. Only idiots ask questions about this. Only autistic fools get upset over minor details and completely miss the story, narrative and underlying themes. Worst of all, only complete cretins want such things explained and come up with their own absurd explanations. Guess what that makes you? Alfred Hitchcock never explained why all the birds suddenly started attacking human in The Birds. He knew that there was no way of explaining this without it sounding silly, that it wasn't even needed or pondered by the protagonists of the story and them trying to survive and that above all it was best left to the audience. This is why he was a great film maker and you are... (best not to speculate here)

Man just wrote a multi-page paragraph for a suggestion just to say "It's only a movie, it doesn't need to have an explanation, just turn your brain off" like that'll satisfy me or my curiosity. Not to mention it was stated by Hitchcock himself in regards to The Birds that "they wanted to exact revenge against humanity for taking nature for granted" according to a book written by Paglia, and he created the movie after being partly inspired by an event where hordes of seabirds started dive-bombing homes. This means this Hitchcock analogy doesn't even work as even that had an explanation. Not to mention that the movie doesn't explain a lot as shown by this rant, and I'm not afraid due to not knowing, just very confused. This multi-paragraph fluff is just full of holes, and really only stands to be more insulting than informative, with the only reason I'm not breaking it apart being because I really don't want to bother. Also as a side note, love how this guy states that the reason for them extracting gold is explained in the film, and then states there's no explanation because it's irrelevant to the story. "They do it because it's precious to them" is NOT an explanation, because why the hell else would they go out of their way to come to a planet just to extract a metal. WHY would they bother to do it is the question, and not knowing isn't making this any scarier.

Understandable

You can email me for the PDF (explained in the description) as of now. I'm still trying to figure out how to get the margins right on Amazon on the physical version. And I'm working on a better cover for the physical as well. Thanks for watching and for waiting.

Yeah,the use of gold as plot device is one of those "standard western tropes" Leone and Corbucci did better.

This is such a good point. They could have had the aliens bring death and debilitating disease instead of just blowing stuff up. It would have been a mirror of how white settlers brought death and disease to the indigenous Americans. Only now you could have the white settlers align with the indigenous Americans to fight off the aliens. It certainly would have been more emotionally impactful and have more of a lasting message besides “money”.

From this video I feel like I'd have enjoyed this if I'd actually watched it when it was released (because I was 15) but I never did because the lazy movie title made it sound so bad...

It was an awfull movie pal, wake up

@@fredy2041 YOU wake up, people can have opinions and preferences

@@felipecorpuz2476 not with bad movies kid

if you "really loved this movie", you must be very easy to please...

​@@stefanforrer2573What's wrong with that? If anything you should envy him...

Yep. To me the key to a good movie is that you can enjoy watching it many times. Sure, C&A is not perfect but I love rewatching it, which is more than I can say for many supposed classics.

She was hot af at this time

The aliens from Independence Day are supposed to be on the frail side, I believe.

Important lesson to be learned from that movie is the balance between practical effects and cgi. Naturally you need cgi for giant robots fighting giant monsters, but del Toro uses as much practical effects as possible. I hope they make a sequel one day, Pacific Rim is amazing

Frfr

Why try then? Why try making a good movie with at most decent action.

I never understand that viewpoint. Aliens, Terminator 2, Robocop, Die Hard, etc. are action schlock and great cinema at the same time, it can clearly be done, so why give movies that don't even try a pass just because they tick the "action" box? Well written story is the single most important aspect of even the schlockiest of movies.

​@@jranimations5955not every film has to be a cinematic masterpiece. The point is to entertain. This movie was quite entertaining regardless of its flaws. As such the movie was a success because it did what it was supposed to. I thought that point was rather obvious given the original comment

@@PaulSmith-nb6md Given that it lost a huge amount of money, obviously it didn't succeed

@@nnnp634 Given you cant read it makes sense why you made this response. Nit being a financial success doesnt mean the movie didnt succeed in its intent.....which is to entertain.

ohayou mob kun

I feel like if you want to make a fun movie with a strange premise, it would have been better to go all out and do some weird, cool things. It feels more like they wanted to play it safe, and made a movie that passes the grade of being okay, rather than risk going out of the box too much and risking a flop that would have ended up having a cult following.

Yes. Loved it too. It’s right up there (nearly) with ‘Chronicles of Riddick’, another underloved iconic classic.

It’s certainly alongside Chronicles of Riddick but only in the sense both were terrible films.

@@ddc2957 - Well, thankfully not everyone in the world has the same tastes. Would be a dull place if we all did. I also love David Lynch’s “Dune”: another flawed classic that I rewatch regularly. Doesn’t work so well as a story but the sets are so beautifully designed and atmospheric that I’m instantly transported to another universe - the prerequisite for any successful sci-fi.

But why would they come to earth for it?

​​@@imbaby5499Because other planets might not have it duh. Because we do. Duh. Because other planets dont necessarily have places to land and mine without putting them at risk? Any number of reasons explain this

@@PaulSmith-nb6md asteroids have gold (as well as other metals). That's how we got gold on earth in the first place, through asteroid collisions. Looking for gold on earth while you have reliable space travel is like looking for a needle in the Pacific Ocean.

@@imbaby5499 But astrodids move

@@PaulSmith-nb6md so do planets. Motion is relative, and mining asteroids is much easier than planets because of their smaller size and lack of any noticeable gravitational field. You need to waste energy to lift off a planet, and the more gold you have, the more energy you waste.

What came out at the same time as Cowboys and Aliens was Spielberg's Super 8. While that movie was set in a Close Encounters-type small town, it also featured a mysterious alien invasion. IIRC, the alien was so similar in its monstrosity to C&A's aliens, they could've easily swapped the CGI from one movie into the other.