Blogtown, PDX

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Film Movie Review: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

Posted by Erik Henriksen on Wed, May 21 at 2:55 PM

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Well, the midnight screenings start tonight, so we’ve posted our review of the latest Indiana Jones a few hours early.

The more I think about this one, the more I like it—and the less sure I am about how it’ll be received. On one hand, this feels totally like an Indiana Jones movie, with all the kickass, fun stuff that implies; on the other, there are things about it—plot things I won’t spoil, and, really, the overall tone and narrative of the thing—that make it feel very, very different from any of the previous films. (It’s also weird, and kind of hard to wrap my head around, ‘cause I’ve been waiting for this film to come out for like forever, like 15 years probably, and I genuinely never thought that, for all of Spielberg and Lucas’ promises, it would really get made. So just seeing it for myself, and knowing that it actually exists, still feels fairly surreal.)

But I’m really curious to hear what other people think of it. I saw it with three friends on Sunday morning, and we all got a big kick out of it (I’m thinking I’ll probably try and go see it again this weekend, actually). But I’m also about 99.99 percent sure there’s going to be a fairly large contingent of people who’ll feel as disappointed by Crystal Skull as they were by the Star Wars prequels; whether that’s due to the film itself or their expectations, I honestly don’t know.

ANYWAY: The review’s up! And if you see it tonight or this weekend, drop a comment below and let me (and fine, whoever else is reading this thing) know what you thought. This’ll probably be the biggest movie of the summer, and it’s Spielberg, and it’s Lucas, and, well, fuck, it’s Indiana Jones, man. So it’ll be a good one to talk about.

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Comments

Yes.

Posted by The Cameo Ghost of Marcus Brody | May 21, 2008 4:28 PM

CONTAINS SPOILERS:

why? why god? why did lucas have to be the writer on this? i know it's his character and all, but jesus... someone needs to man up and tell him to stop. he can't write. the dialog... lord the dialog... so very disappointing. not to mention --SPOILER ALERT-- the marriage? the killer ants? the nuclear bomb? the vine swinging? the son? just to name a few. i learned that monkeys hate russians, you can survive a nuclear blast in a refrigerator, there are ants in south america that can pick a man up and drag him down into their catacombs in a matter of seconds and they can climb on top of one another to build a tower if they want to bite people swinging from vines, and that there is an amazing group of ninja's that live in peru. yeah, i know, the other films are unbelievable too, but at least they make you kind of believe. i feel as if the previous films give more respect to their audience. with the "crystal skull," it seems like george lucas just thought, "fuck it, no one knows anything about anything anyway. ninjas in peru."

i guess it's impossible to live up to a legacy as great as the original. it was probably foolish of them to try; however, the most ridiculous thing is, all the issues i have with this film aside, i have to admit, i still am happy to have seen it. crazy right? but, i mean, it's indiana jones for chris'sakes -- the best hero ever.

also, watch this documentary on george lucas: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZzFPEEUMoA

Posted by greg | May 22, 2008 2:53 AM

i'm sorry. i had high hopes for this film. but when it turned into indiana jones + the da vinci code + x files i became irritated as hell.

Posted by brother phil | May 22, 2008 8:27 PM

It. Fucking. Sucked.

19 years for the Mummy meats Stargate? Fine, Lucas was involved but, sweet Jesus, Speilberg should have known better. I'm sure he laughed all the way to the bank.

That scene with Shia LaBeouf swinging around with the monkeys? Worse than the worst moments of the prequels. The refrigerator gets a pass because I'm convinced it was an odd nod to the original draft for Back to the Future.

Posted by Indiana Short Term Loans | May 22, 2008 11:38 PM