Alright, to be honest this post should've been up like 2 days ago, but I've been distracted by three things: the massive archives of Scary-Go-Round, Dr. Apollo von Pizza, and marker fumes. They are very distracting indeed. But, enough wish-wash. We went to the 12:01 showing at our local theater, and let me just say I am very glad we went and saw it before pretty much 99% of everyone else who will ever watch this movie. No, really I am.
So, honestly it's been twenty years since the last Jone's flick, but I am convinced that Harrison Ford gets into this costume on the weekends and pretends to be Indiana like Jews celebrate the Sabbath, dutifully, regularly, and from sundown till sunup. He was pretty swell. Karen Allen's return was pretty swell, and the development of her character was nice too. She was no longer the smarmy, smart-mouthed lush she was in Raiders, but was much more fitting with what had happened to her in between. They also very neatly wrote out some old characters, and added some excellent new characters. These new people being of course Shia TheBeef and Cate Blanchett. I thought both played their characters excellently, and really helped flesh out plot of the movie.
*****SPOILER ALERT******
As for the plot, I thought it was well conceived and an excellent late 40's continuation of the kind of things Indiana Jones had experienced and sought after in the original three films. The transition from Nazis to Russians was (to me at least) the only logical choice and I'm glad it was made rather then going for some kind of rebel Nazi group fighting on in the Fuhrer's memory. This was already excellently done by Hellboy and others and did not need to be reiterated. While the whole alien skull thing may have been a tough pill for some to swallow, I thought it made perfect sense. It fit right in with the scientific and military priorities of Russia at the time as well as many popular, if not decried, theories about early human civilization. Bravo to George and David for bringing us a fine story and a fine script.
******SPOILERS OVER********
Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of The Crystal Skull (forever after to be refered to as Indiana Jones 4) gets Seven Beards and A Mustache.
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3 comments:
I can concur. I have been waiting expecting and preparing for this release for no shorter then 8 years! I felt the Nazis were indeed not the villain for the time line. I also thought the atomic age and greaser archetypes were well placed. The movie Kept me engaged and entertained.
*****SPOILERS******
however the (what seemed to be) need to over the top the past 3 movies could have been served in smaller doses. Flying refrigerators of uncanny craftsmanship and spinning metallic trans dimensional discs were just a tad out of this die hard zealous fan's reach. The very very ending though with the bit of a psyche! Was excellent and Because so many returned to make this film work... IE John Williams, Ford, Film Crew , Producers... I felt a undeniable connection to the other films. I still think the CGI at the temple was over the top. But in all I can't remove the excellent character interaction concluding with a 8 beard total for this one.
As far as a ranking in Favorites from the series this does take (as its new title suggests) 4th
***SPOIL'D COMMENTS******
I really enjoyed the movie. My only problems were an overuse of CG (namely the unnecessary prairie dogs, and random CG monkeys, I was fine with most of it) the weird seemingly pointless in consistent magnetism of the crystal skull, and the surviving the nuke, and to a lesser extent, giant waterfalls.
I feel like the film would have been perfect without these things. I enjoyed the aliens because I've always been a big fan of the stories of ancient civilizations meeting being from another world. Thats what Indiana Jones was always about, these as he likes to put it "bedtime stories" that are tied to the past that turn out to be true. I feel this was just another one. I also felt it would make for a great last hurrah for Dr Jones. It reminded me of Rocky Balboa which I also liked. I think it was an outlet for these older filmmakers and their also older fans to sort of get in that one last adventure. The generation older than us that puts themselves in the shoes of the aging Indiana Jones to feel that magic that cinema gives them; I think they get a unique appreciation of these revival films. Also for the man who's had so many adventures, speaks like every freakin' language and has damn near seen everything in the world, what kind of adventure do you give him. How do you keep him surprised. Another biblical artifact or tribal treasure wouldn't have been good enough. It would have been more of the same. I felt like the aliens was an awesome thing for Indiana Jones to see. For those to say that its kind of out there, lets not forget that he also saw a box that made people melt and explode, a tribe that mind controlled people and pulled out their hearts, and an immortal, medieval fucking knight. Indiana Jones sees some out there shit and I felt like that saucer scene was appropriately epic. Fuck, how'd I end up typing this much?
Thank you, Fernando.
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