Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - *SPOILERS WARNING*

Yeah, well, ever since I watched a couple of Russian films labeled as comedies, which turend out to be dealing with dementia, alcoholism, domestic violence and suicide, I have had my doubts about the Russian sense of humour...

As far as research goes: meh. It's an Indy adventure. As long as it looks good, I'm happy.
(If I want research, I'll read a book).

IJATSTUPIDACRONYMS?

Ok, just saw this film.

I think 5 out of 10 is pretty fair.

The good:
- Harrison Ford. Rueful as ever as the hero, and took on the age angle pretty well. I like the way he's become more of an academic over the years.
- Shia LeBouf, even if his hair joke (which was funny once), is repeated ad infinitum.
- The Harvard chase sequence was top stuff, though the motorcycle sliding under the tables began the movie's descent into completely impractical action sequences.
- Ben Burt's sound design for the film was a thing of beauty. It was good to feel punches like that again.
- Film wasn't too long. This is a good thing. (It did feel too long in the middle though...)
- The shot of 'The Departure', with the valley swirling into a frenzy, was a great effect. (As was the atom bomb.)
- John Williams' more original cues. In particular the sequence where Irina 'knows everything' ('The Secret Revealed') features a brilliant blend of her theme with the Crystal themes. This is the old contrapuntally-dense Williams we know and love. Good on Johnny also for making a whole concert suite out of what was essentially a 40 second section from the 'Jungle Chase' cue for Mutt. I am pleased to hear so much effort was made to find new musical opportunities and new themes in this film, especially given how many moments in the music rested on the laurels of the previous films.

The cute:
- The Janitor from SCRUBS as a hard-nosed FBI agent. Nice casting joke there.

The bad:
- The Jungle Chase - some great choreography in parts, but this is where the film really began to jump the shark. The tarzan thing - I'd say it has to be seen to be believed, but I've seen it and I still don't believe it. I was back in that Conveyer Belt sequence from ATTACK OF THE CLONES.
- Ants. Why didn't we see a man's flesh eaten away by the ants? And why are these film-makers recycling sequences from THE MUMMY?
- Cirque du Soleil Peruvian Indians. Circus acrobatics are not scary. This felt like BATMAN RETURNS at one point.
- TALKING about EXPOSITION in an INFORMATIVE before EXPOSITING more TALK. There was a lot of talking in this film. A lot of exposition about something that wasn't very interesting.
- Where was the suspense?
- Bit of CGI eh? It led them to take the action sequences to ridiculous places they shouldn't have gone. ( Like in a car over a cliff, into a tree, and then down to water's level... when the film makes PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN 2 seem light on CG, we're in dangerous waters.
- Ray Winstone was pretty uninteresting. If they wanted there to be any surprise when he turns on them one last time, they should have cut those shots of Cate Blanchett finding tracking markers left by Mac. Who else were we meant to think was betraying them? Mutt?
- John Hurt was not successfully made the humourous mad man he might have been.
- 'They're from the space between spaces.' YSHWEFWEH?!?!?!! Note to David Koepp: THIS CHARACTER IS NO LONGER A RAVING MADMAN WHEN HE SAYS THIS.
- 'I have to return it.' The main character's motivation materialises out of nowhere.
- In RAIDERS, we only really learn the power of the Ark in the final scene. In LAST CRUSADE, we only discover the Grail towards the end of the film. The mystique of these objects was well developed in advance of their appearance. The Crystal Skulls - in addition to being a fairly uninspiring prop - never felt that interesting. It's not John Williams' fault, as his music gives the things about as much mystique as he could. The prop itself and the way it constantly appears in the film is the problem here.
- Johnny overused the Indy theme in this film. After its more sparing use in LAST CRUSADE, to hear the theme in its traditional arrangement so often in the film was a bit redundant. The literal quotes of earlier scores was a bit much too.
- Fan fiction moments: Indy looks at photos of Marcus and his dad, cheesy wedding sequence, 'somewhere your grandfather is laughing'.

The Ugly
- Janusz Kaminski, how was it that even when these characters were outdoors, they felt like they were indoors? That is very much in your department.

If they'd made this 15 years ago and worked off a better version of the script, it would have been reasonably good. Coming now, I don't see that this film needed to happen. I had some fun, but not enough given the talent assembled.

Hilarious 'abridgement' of INDIANA JONES IV.

http://www.the-editing-room.com/indianajones4.html

It goes without saying that it's better than the movie!

^ Did ya have to quote the whole review?

-Erik-

Whew! Thanks!



-Erik-

Haha, funny as hell, in that state I could have enjoyed Indy 4 to some extent instead of the unfunny / uncool movie it's now.

Hey, I'm a drooling Indy fan with judgments coloured by nostalgia and I still enjoyed it! (Perhaps that was the exact reason I enjoyed.)

When I saw it the second time though, I couldn't help but notice that when Blanchett said "Dr. Jones" her Russian accent disappeared completely. It sounded really weird.

The character itself is weird. Any of the villains of "Walker - Texas Ranger" has more charisma than Blanchett´s Spalko.

But you see, that's where the problem lies. They COULD have gone the route of NATIONAL TREASURE/Michael Bay to cater to contemporary kids and teenagers (which is fine in itself), but they decided to HONOUR the tradition and honour the audience that also consisted of older, 30-something year olds who wanted to relive the "adventure" feeling of the past, at least subconsciously. That's an impossible task. I think they solved it wonderfully - keeping the references that WE crave, keeping the B-movie feel that all the films had (with all kinds of weird, unbelievable stunts) and using contemporary resources, effects and editing pace to make it more contemporary. They also managed to squeeze in character development and character dynamics in there, and that's really all you could ask for. Yes, there were a couple of flaws, but nothing to detract from an overall enjoyable experience.

I'm fairly confident that in 15 years time (or even less), it will find its place alongside the three previous installments as an equal effort, because by that time nostalgia will colour value judgements even for THIS film.

Well, I'm not sure memorizing lines is a prerequisite for a good film (a bonus from clever dialogue writing, perhaps), but I also think they will come in time, once it has gone its rounds on DVD and whatnot.

As for suspense....I don't know, I don't think any of the films were particularly suspenseful to begin with. They're too tongue-in-cheek for that. I saw the first film when I was 11-12 years or thereabouts (on VHS in the late 80's), and I didn't take it particularly serious even then. Were they wonderful thrills? Yes, certainly. But it was more a superficial entertainment than, say, ALIEN, which was a film that went DIRECTLY to my emotional core when my dad allowed me to stay up for it on TV at about the same age.

Errrr...sorry, what was Doom Town again?
The graveyard?

Ah! Of course!

(Boom Town, then, rather )