So we took in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull this weekend, with I admit some apprehension because of some mixed reviews coming out. It’s a good thing I don’t listen to critics because I thought it was great. Great story, strong performances, familiar faces and just some good old fashioned fun.
A lot of people have been coming down on the story, and I think this is where I am going to differ the most. The film definitely has a sci-fi bend to it and for me that works great. I think because the first films delved heavily into theology in one form or another, people were expecting the same. They all deal with some sort of mysticism, the new film included. The mysticism simply has its roots in different areas.
Harrison Ford and Karen Allen held up pretty well. They both look like they have aged 20 years, but they are still watchable and attractive people that fit comfortably into their roles. Shia Lebeouf also gave a great performance once again, he’s shaping into a great actor.
If you enjoyed the first three Indy flicks you should not leave the theater disappointed in any way.
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General Electric, Tarzan, and the cliffs of insanity.
There were three things that stood out about Crystal Skull that I had a real problem with. I realize these movies are all over the top, but in the previous three film no moments jumped out at me and made me think ” give me a break “. They all had moments that probably should have made me think this, but they were all filmed in a way that I just got engrossed in the films and didn’t care. Maybe its just that I was so much younger when the other films came out. They lost me a bit early on when our hero survives the center of a nuclear blast because he jumps into a lead lined 50’s style fridge and gets blown to a safe distance. At this point all I could say was WOW.
For the first time in any of his films I thought that Shia LaBeouf was pretty good. I always felt he was a whiny over actor, but I think this film brought out his best. He did a nice job. When he first rolled in looking like Brando from the Wild One I was thinking “give me a break”, but he pulled off the character well.
The Second thing that really bothered me though, was the Shia LaBeouf Tarzan scene. This was beyond silly. We get it Lucas, you are a Tarzan fan, first the wookie in Revenge of the Sith, and now this. This scene actually took me out of the film for a moment.
The last thing was the scene with the big cliff. Karen Allen drives past the cliff, looks over the side, smiles knowingly, then proceeds to Thelma and Loise off of it only to land the vehicle softly on a tree that lowers them ever so gently to safety below. The tree then snaps back against the cliff knocking off a bunch of Russians. Once again, just WOW.
To be honest, I wasn’t a huge fan of the Skull itself. It at times just looked like a plastic toy skull with a bunch of tinfoil inside.
It has been a week and a half since I saw it and I am still on the fence about the movie as a whole. Even though the above is nothing but complaints, I think I still liked the movie over all. Didn’t really mind the Sci-fi angle the movie took. Thought it was an interesting twist.
Bottom line is I liked all the Indy flicks, and although this post is mostly just a bunch of bitching, I enjoyed this one as well.
I think.
I need to see it again.
I finally got a chance to see Indy 4, and at certain points I will agree with you that it all felt a bit cheesy…
But then I thought back to 2 major points.
1. I remembered a Nazi opening up the Ark of the Covenant and his face melting off…a little unrealistic, a lot ridiculously cool, a perfect way to catapult an excellent franchise.
2. This movie was meant to look like one of those old 60’s flicks…check out the very beginning again when the title is merely pasted on the screen as if from a typewriter, and the whole feel of the cinematography screamed “THIS IS SUPPOSED TO BE GRITTY”
Now my order of preference for the 4 movies stands as such
Raiders
Crusade
Temple
Skull
but that’s not to say I didn’t throughly enjoy this flick either.
Lucas spoke about this in an EW interview with his “pal” Steven Speilberg in that EVERYONE, will be disappointed with this movie, and how he’s dealt with it all before when he made the Star Wars prequels, and how this movie was more for themselves, and their own nostalgia, than any fan, which I’m fine with, because if the creators love it, then there has to be some redeeming quality about it.
I found those qualities were abound, especially with the self-deprication of Harrison Ford.
I definately need to see it again, but I think i’ll watch the first 3 prior.