History Headscratchers / CowboysAndAliens

* Why is gold of any value to aliens that are clearly so advanced that they have spaceships and extremely effective weaponry? Are they cousins to the [[BattlefieldEarth Psychlos]] or something?

* Why aliens, capable of intergalaxy space travel, relayed so much on hand-to-hand combat in final battle instead of just sitting at the BFGs of their tower and shooting the annoying human beings away?

* Why do so many people think the premise of cowboys fighting aliens is fundamentally ludicrous? If we accept that aliens landing on earth is a sensible plot to begin with (and judging by the thousands of movies where exactly that happens, ''we do''), then why does setting the plot in the mid-19th Century suddenly make it crazy?
** I think it's the idea that cowboys stand a reasonable chance against aliens and won't be utterly wiped out in the first ten minutes.
** So after tens of thousands of years of storytelling, an outmatched hero triumphing against impossible odds is now ridiculous? Bonk that; I want to see them do a series of these movies. Just think: ''[[TheColonialPeriod Colonials]] and Aliens,'' ''{{Samurai}} and Aliens,'' '''''[[ThreeHundred Spartans]]''' and Aliens''...
*** There's a novel by PoulAnderson called ''TheHighCrusade''. Anglo-Norman knights preparing for an excursion into the Holy Land, face a surprise AlienInvasion, kick the aliens' asses, commandeer their ship and carry the crusade beyond the stars - and that's just the first few chapters! It could make an AWESOME movie -- unfortunately, ''Cowboys And Aliens'' seems to have tanked and discredited the idea.
**** I ... don't know quite how to tell you [[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110024/ this ...]]
**** That works fine, and now I'm going to watch the ''shit'' out that movie.
**** Don't bother. It's crap.

* The allegory. The movie is essentially, with a straight face, comparing the white settlers to hulking, brutish monstrosities. That just rubs me the wrong way.
** We object to it because we ''are'' the aliens, whose cultural heritage is perfectly obvious to us. To natives who had never before encountered the colonialists and their advanced tech, the invaders were often being mistaken for gods, demons, or mythic beings. Perhaps the nuances of an alien culture aren't readily apparent to those who have no idea what to look for. Especially when they are in the middle of massacring you.
** It worked a ''bit'' better in the comic book where the aliens had a more evident culture and weren't just monsters with spaceships.

** We object to it because we ''are'' the aliens, whose cultural heritage is perfectly obvious to us. To natives who had never before encountered the colonialists and their advanced tech, the invaders were often being mistaken for gods, demons, or mythic beings. Perhaps the nuances of an alien culture aren't readily apparent to those who have no idea what to look for. Especially when they are in the middle of massacring you.

* Why are the aliens completely naked? It's one thing to have bulletproof armor, its another thing to be completely naked, in a possibly hostile biosphere, and have natural armor. Maybe it's to facilitate the usage of the lung arms, whole other headscratchers in themselves, but why not have armor that opens up there whenever they need to use them?

* So Native Americans keep anti-amnesia medicine sitting around just in case... why?

* When did Ella arrive on Earth? Was she on the same ship that Jake had been captured on or did she crashland somewhere else? Even if she did, where's her ship and why didn't she have any technology with her? Did she spend a long time learning how to speak and act human or does she have alien powers that allow her to understand it all at once like [[TeenTitans Starfire]]? If all that was needed is to get inside the alien tower and blow it up, why did her entire race die? Were they a non-violent species or did they not know how to do it? If throwing her in a fire didn't kill her, how were the aliens able to kill her entire race in the first place?