Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		2.5

Cowboys & Aliens 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov October 19, 2024

Jon Favreau's "Cowboys & Aliens" (2011) arrives on 4K Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber. The supplemental features on the release include archival audio commentary by Jon Favreau; archival cast and crew interviews; and vintage promotional materials. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-Free.

Let’s have a retired Indiana Jones and a retired James Bond in a western with aliens that rehashes material borrowed from more than a dozen classic action-adventure films. We can then do some tweaking to ensure that this western has easily recognizable qualities comic book fans would appreciate. This way, it would be a sure summer box office hit. I guarantee this was the thinking that greenlighted Cowboys & Aliens, an awful, overwhelmed-by-cliches film with the soul and appearance of an outrageously expensive and overdeveloped video game.

The narrative is a collection of uneven episodes, most of which easily leave the impression that they were conceived by different writers working with very different ideas. In the first episode, wanted man Jake Lonergan (Daniel Craig) wakes up with a giant bracelet on his wrist and without memories. He is also wounded by a weapon that cannot be found in the Wild West. In another episode, Woodrow Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford), a former military man-turned-cattle dealer, is told that his son, a troublemaker named Percy (Paul Dano), has been arrested in a nearby town. In another episode, Lonergan and Dolarhyde meet in the same town, while aliens with flying machines kidnap Percy and other terrified residents. During the chaos, Lonergan discovers that his bracelet can shoot down the visitors, and soon after inspires single beauty Ella Swenson (Olivia Wilde) to follow him. Can you guess what happens next? Lonergan, Dolarhyde, the beauty, and several new characters organize a posse and begin searching for the place where the aliens have landed. Along the way, they clash with a brave Indian chief and his men, and after the beauty reveals that she has arrived from another galaxy too, the improved posse goes back on the road.

Plenty of twists expand the narrative in different directions, but they are equally ineffective because the collection of episodes never feels coherent. Each twist is essentially an ornamentation adding a new layer of content that is typically at odds with the previous one, so instead of strengthening the quality of the production, this ongoing accumulation of incompatible material does tremendous damage. In the areas with the most severe damage, it is incredibly easy to find kitsch like the one that the infamous stinker Battlefield Earth is remembered for.

The other very big problem with Cowboys & Aliens is that its two superstars are not right for it. Most of the time, Craig looks like a British convict on the run who wears a cowboy outfit because he is trying his best to blend in, and when he uses his powerful bracelet, which he can control with his mind but does not know how to take off, he evolves into a ridiculous caricature of Mr. 007. Ford simply looks too old and too tired.

Is there at least one good reason to seek and see Cowboys & Aliens? There are two. The better one is to approach it as an exotic trivia game -- just about every episode utilizes material that can be traced back to another film, so you can attempt to identify it. The other reason is the eye candy. Several episodes have wonderful panoramic footage, plus a few more have decent special effects. However, plenty of other films offer the same as part of a good and convincingly told story.

Jon Favreau made Cowboys & Aliens with cinematographer Matthew Libatique, whose credits include such vastly superior films as Requiem for a Dream and Pi.

Kino Lorber's combo pack release presents two versions of Cowboys & Aliens: Extended Cut, which is approximately 135 minutes long and placed on the Blu-ray, and Theatrical Version, which is approximately 118 minutes long and placed on the 4K Blu-ray.

Cowboys & Aliens 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Kino Lorber's release of Cowboys & Aliens is a 4K Blu-ray/Blu-ray combo pack. The 4K Blu-ray is Region-Free. However, The Blu-ray is Region-A "locked".

The combo pack release presents two versions of Cowboys & Aliens: Extended Cut, which is approximately 135 minutes long and placed on the Blu-ray, and Theatrical Version, which is approximately 118 minutes long and placed on the 4K Blu-ray.

Please note that some of the screencaptures that appear with this article are taken from the 4K Blu-ray and downscaled to 1080p. Therefore, they do not accurately reflect the quality of the 4K content on the 4K Blu-ray disc.

Screencaptures #1-24 are from the Blu-ray.
Screencaptures #26-39 are from the 4K Blu-ray.

Cowboys & Aliens made its high-definition debut with this release in 2011. I do not have this release in my library, so I cannot reference it.

In 4K, Cowboys & Aliens cannot be viewed with Dolby Virion or HDR grades. I viewed it in its entirety in 4K and later sampled various areas of the 1080p presentation on the Blu-ray. On my system, a lot of visuals looked mighty impressive. However, I immediately have to state that many had a distinct digital quality as well, which of course should not be surprising considering that Cowboys & Aliens was completed in 2011. The most impressive material was the one with the outdoor panoramic footage, but this is where the digital roots of the special effects were most obvious as well. Colors are very lush. During the flashbacks, perhaps even too lush, borderline garish, but this is clearly a stylistic choice. Image stability is excellent. While comparing the 4K and 1080p presentations, I noticed that a couple of background areas begin to crush, but this is something that could very well have been introduced during the mastering process. It is difficult to tell because the amount of digital stylization work is at times rather overwhelming. I could not see any substantial improvements on the 4K presentation to declare that it is the superior one. However, some viewers with very large screen could discover that the optimized encoding does offer some meaningful benefits.

Cowboys & Aliens 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are two standard audio tracks on this release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature. When turned on, they appear inside the image frame.

I viewed the entire film with the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track. Its dynamic potency is impressive, but this is to be expected from a big-budget summer blockbuster. The battle footage has the most impressive sound design, and several segments boast what I think is reference quality. The use of music is excellent, too. There are no encoding anomalies to report.

Cowboys & Aliens 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

4K BLU-RAY DISC

• Commentary - this archival audio commentary, Jon Favreau explains why two versions of Cowboys & Aliens exist, and discusses its narrative construction, style, the intent to create a modern film with a somewhat believable authentic personality, the different casting choices that were made, the humor in a lot of the action material, etc.

BLU-RAY DISC

• Commentary - this archival audio commentary, Jon Favreau explains why two versions of Cowboys & Aliens exist, and discusses its narrative construction, style, the intent to create a modern film with a somewhat believable authentic personality, the different casting choices that were made, the humor in a lot of the action material, etc.

• Conversations with Jon Favreau - presented here are several long segments with people that collaborated with Jon Favreau on Cowboys & Aliens. In English, not subtitled. (81 min).
  
  1. Daniel Craig
  2. Harrison Ford
  3. Olivia Wilde
  4. Producers Steven Spielberg, Ron Howard, and Brian Grazer
  5. Screenwriters Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci
  6. Screenwriter Damon Lindelof

• Promotional Materials -
  
  1. TV Spots
  2. Trailer One
  3. Trailer Two
  4. Trailer Three

Cowboys & Aliens 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Very little separates Cowboys & Aliens and Battlefield Earth, so if you decide to spend a night with the former, prepare to have your IQ assaulted and insulted in a variety of different ways. I viewed the shorter Theatrical Version on the 4K Blu-ray, but the entire experience still felt like an endurance test because a lot of the material is not good and does not gel well. Kino Lorber's combo pack offers solid presentations of the two versions of Cowboys & Aliens. However, the Theatrical Version, which is the only one on the 4K Blu-ray, cannot be viewed with Dolby Vision or HDR grades.