Chapter 1: How the West Was Lost.

Kevin Costner’s 4th directorial position is “Horizon: An American Saga,” which is released this year in two chapters. The third chapter has started principal photography, while the fourth is in the developing stages. It’s a western that wants to focus on the pre and post Civil War and the American expansion, like how “How the West Was Won” represented Westward expansion.

Unfortunately, we’re not off to a good start, as this first part is overstuffed with how the west was back then, and how people were fighting for their freedom. You have the Civil War, you have Native Americans, you have prostitutes, you have travelers, and you have guns and knives, as part of their survival kits.

Now, an epic western like this should have Costner greatness, especially since he used his time wisely with “Dances with Wolves.” But “Horizon: An American Saga-Chapter 1” is all by the numbers and less on the substance and its representation of life in the Old West and how the Civil War divided it.

This movie has too many characters for us to stay completely focused on, and they’re portrayed by a terrific cast, so I can only name a few.

In front of the camera, Costner plays a horse trader named Hayes Ellison, who fancies a hooker named Marigold (Abbey Lee). But he must protect her and the child she’s babysitting from the dangerous Sykes brothers (Jon Beavers and Jamie Campbell Bower).

Jena Malone plays Ellen, the loud-mouthed mother of the child, who always criticizes Marigold for her behavior, while falling under the machinations of those villains.

Sienna Miller and Georgia MacPhail play a mother and daughter who both survive an Apache attack and are taken in by soldiers (with Sam Worthington as the First Lt., Michael Rooker as the Sgt. Major, and Danny Huston as the Colonel). And so far, the franchise hints at a romance between the mother and Lt.

Luke Wilson plays a bossy wagon master, while Ella Hunt and Tom Payne are among the travelers on the Santa Fe trail. Each scene is the same as they have their leisures, while he has his lectures.

And we also have Owen Crow Shoe as the Apache warrior and tribe leader Pionsenay, who leads his people to violent attacks on white Americans. You know how things were back then. We see them killing people and setting things on fire, while having their moments of whatever humanity they have in them.

That’s all I have to offer about the characters so far, and there are some I liked and others I didn’t. Maybe I haven’t gotten to know more about them at this point in the franchise, and maybe I will.

So far, you get some good performances from Costner, Lee, and Rooker, while others like Miller, Worthington, and Malone are underdeveloped and standard. You get some nice production designs of the old buildings and stables, as well as some beautifully filmed locations, but you don’t have a story as glamorous as them. And yes, I did mean to use the word “overstuffed.” I wanted to like this film because of how Costner usually specializes in westerns, whether he just acts or also directs, but this first part didn’t cut it. Let’s see how “Chapter 2” does in August.

Costner left “Yellowstone” to work on this franchise, but his next few sequels better be worth it. “Chapter 1” isn’t.