Editor, Times-Union: This is not a review of a movie but a review of reviews, like my prior letter on “Avatar.”
The new movie “Cowboys and Aliens” looks like a real winner – great cast and way-out special effects. But some reviews describe the film as “something new,” “unlike anything you’ve ever seen” or “wickedly original” and that simply is not true.
I remember the first time I saw cowboys taking on aliens was in the Marvel Western comic “Kid Colt, Outlaw” #107 November 1962 “Giant Monsters of Midnight Valley”. Cowboys and aliens clashed again on the TV show “Time Tunnel” in an episode titled “Visitors from Beyond the Stars” (Jan. 13, 1967). The time travellers Doug and Tony stopped them sidewindin’ alien owlhoots from rustlin’ our cattle in a uniquely sci-fi way.
I do not know why film makers have to pretend their ideas are absolutely unique and original. That is as silly as Spielberg pretending that no one ever made a dinosaur movie before “Jurassic Park”. Doing a movie idea better is more important than doing it the first time. Even Shakespeare based many of his plays on someone else’s previous works.
