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A bunch of alien bugs attack a small village in the Old West, and it
falls upon misunderstood outlaw Sam (James Marsters) who was about to be
hanged to bring the survivors - including his estranged fiancée (Cindy
Sampson), a two-timing female bounty hunter (Sanny Van Heteren) and the
cowardly scientist type who has somehow caused everything (Sebastian Knapp) - to
safety. Of course, in the course of the proceedings, pretty much everyone
dies, especially the female bounty hunter, but once it's found out the
aliens feed on uranium which the cowardly scientist has been mining, our
heroes build a primitive atom bomb and blow up the aliens and their
spaceship for good, which is when the scientist redeems himself by giving
his life triggering the bomb by hand. Only Sam in his fiancée survive and
decide on re-starting their relationship and walking into a brighter
future. Blending the science fiction and the Western genre
seems to be a fun idea on paper, but unfortunately, at least since The
Phantom Empire back in 1935, hardly anyone got it right, and this
film is no exception: Sure, all the plot elements are in the right places,
but from here on it goes wrong. Problem is that the script shows
remarkable little understanding for the (B-)Western genre, and at the same
time fills up its plot with the worst clichés - the outlaw with a heart
of gold, the resolute yet helpless fiancée, the tough-as-nails yet
two-timing bounty hunter (female variety), the four-eyed and cowardly
intellectual whose heart is in the right place - and tries to put a more
contemporary spin on the characters, which leads to all of them reflecting
about their lives and relationships a lot instead of keeping the plot
moving along. That James Marsters doesn't come off too well as tough guy
lead doesn't help much either of course. Of special interest in this
film though is the depiction of female roles: There's the bounty hunter
who's the fastest draw in the West - but since she has dared to step onto
male-dominated territory, she just has to turn evil (according to the
film's logic, not mine) and eventually has to die. On the other hand,
there's the fiancée: She might be resolute, and her heart is in the right
place, but she also needs a fair share of saving, and let's face it, her
contributions to the proceedings are mostly of a domestic nature, like
caring for the injured and that sort of stuff (I'm almost surprised she
isn't shown cooking as well). She's allowed to stay alive
of course, and in the end gets the boy, too ... In all, this is not a
good film, but I have to admit I've seen worse, way worse - which is not a
good enough reason to watch this one though.
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