After watching the first trailer for ‘Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,’ my excitement quickly turned on me. Everything about this installment seems to be a bit limp, from the action sequences that have a very “stunt show” vibe to them, to the look of it all- which juggles phony CG with overstuffed sound stages.
The film has just screened ahead of the May 22nd release date, and even the most favorable review (so far) claims it to be only the third best of the series (calling ‘The Last Crusade’ the weakest of the bunch, which is a nutty view in my book). However- two other fans are less happy, and here are some spoiler-free excerpts:
But that’s not to say it’s a bad movie. It’s just an unnecessary one…the problem is that Lucas, Spielberg, and Ford are trying far too hard to give everyone what they think that they want…nothing about this film stands on its own – it’s constantly leaning on the past, hoping we don’t notice that it doesn’t bring anything new to the franchise.
Set pieces just sort of appear out of the ether, and each is bigger and more bombastic than the last, and none of them matter, because you don’t really give a rip what happens to anybody. Which is really sad, when you consider what an iconic character they’re throwing away.
What’s especially strange about this movie is how heavily it relies on the MacGuffin, and just how talky it is.
It sounds like I hated it. I really didn’t. But I have to admit it made me sad. It felt like going to a family reunion where everyone was forced to watch a slideshow or old home movies instead of getting a chance to catch up with each other.
and more:
In short, this is the Indiana Movie that you were dreading. I remember seeing the two trailers and though I was excited to see the old man in action again, I was kind of worried that they seemed to be missing ’something’. That something was tension. During the whole of the movie, there was not a single moment that I thought our hero Mr. Jones was in any sort of peril or even significant inconvenience. In most cases, you were so many steps ahead of the characters that it was really just an arduous wait for them to get through it.
And then we have Indy himself. He has a few lines that work and a million that don’t. He just never shows signs of worry or distress. Again, no Tension. He also has a weird tendancy to help the bad guys figure out the clues; never figured out why.
Ooh- that’s gloomy. I can’t say I’m surprised. Check out Ain’t It Cool News if you want more.
Ian, for The Broken Telegraph
Brian, for The Broken Telegraph
7 Comments
Saturday, May 10, 2008 at
Hmmm.. disappointing but not really surprising when you think about how old Lucas, Spielberg, and Ford are. They have no creative juices left and on top of that they probably don’t really even care anymore. They should’ve passed the torch to a younger director who grew up a fan. That would’ve provided a fresh perspective along with the vision and passion to make a great film. Just the fact that this has been in ‘pre-production’ for 13 years is probably a sign in itself. Like they dragged their feet for so long and then they finally decided, “ok, we better throw something together.” So in summary, I’m not too excited and tomatoes will probably determine my presence in the theater.
Saturday, May 10, 2008 at
i think you’re right. 13 years in limbo is a big deal. Plus- Lucas was the one who really fought against the previous script by Frank Darabont- a different story that Spielberg and Ford wanted to shoot. But Lucas was in love with his own storyline- one that the other two refused for years before they finally agreed to do it. So this is really his movie. Scary.
All hail the tomatometer! Q: If The Dark Knight is under 45%, but I love it and recommend it, will you go?
-ian
Tuesday, May 13, 2008 at
I will probably see it just because…
We (as a small town in the Central Valley) were excited they filmed a small portion of the movie out in Dos Palos. Harrison Ford came to Dos Palos and Los Banos. This event made the front page of the town (crier) newspaper….lol.
Small town life. : )
Thursday, May 15, 2008 at
random! yeah, you have to see it now
-ian
Saturday, May 17, 2008 at
Yes, I will see Dark Knight for sure.. that’s going to be fresh though, almost a george zimmer guuuarranteeeeuuuwee!
Thursday, May 22, 2008 at
i keep thinking Cate Blanchett is going to speak English with a German accent in the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull as Jones tends to go against Nazis, (but, of course the bad guys are Russian this time)
Thursday, May 22, 2008 at
yeah russian doesn’t have the same feel, does it?
maybe that’s a big problem for this sequel- we’ve had so much time with the other three (almost by force thanks to TBS and other second-rate cable marathons) that it might be impossible to accept this one. As inferior as Temple of Doom was, it still fits in. I’m wondering if Crystal Skull will just feel detached.
I felt the same way about Die Hard 4. Nevermind- that was awful for a bunch of other reasons (starting with its rating).
thanks for stopping by. let me know what you think once you see it.
-ian
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