Entries tagged with “Indiana Jones” from Things You Don't Care About

So this week marked the release of one of the most highly anticipated movies of the summer, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.  I've now seen it twice -- once in a mostly-empty theatre on opening day with the guys from work, and once in a pretty crowded theatre on Sunday with Marc.  I'm a big fan of pulp stories -- I am probably one of the few people that really enjoyed The Shadow movie, I guess -- and of course, the Indy movies are some my favorite movies of all time, so I was pretty excited about this.  However, I was prepared for disappointment; let's face it, the Star Wars prequels definitely weren't up the hype, Harrison Ford is in his 60s, and there's no Nazis in the movie, even though it takes place in South America.  The Boys from Brazil, anyone?

After the first viewing, I admit I was really disappointed.  I felt really let down, and I had some gripes, but I couldn't really put them into anything solid.  However, I have to admit I was in the minority of the people I saw it with (CK and Pat).  Knowing I was going to be seeing it again with Marc, I decided to reserve judgement until I watched a second showing with a bigger crowd and reevaluate.  I also got pointed by RPGnet to Todd Alcott's blog posts on the movie, which made me think a bit more about it thematically and I decided maybe I hadn't given it quite a fair shake (by the way, if you've never read Todd's dissections of the Bond movies or anything else, you owe it to yourself to take the time to do so, especially if you're interested in film).

So, after seeing it twice, the second time with a real crowd, I can say that I definitely feel I was too hard on the movie at first.  It still isn't as good as the others, I think -- even the much maligned Temple of Doom was better, in my humble opinion (but I admit I have a weakness for Mola Ram as an iconic villian).  However, it's still a serviceable movie, even if I'm not totally thrilled with every aspect of it.  Do yourself a favor and either see it with a crowd or wait for DVD though -- there's a definite difference in seeing the movie with a big group and feeling the reaction of the audience, as is often the case with big spectacle movies like this.  Unfortunately, coming immediately after the completely awesome Iron Man and right before what promises to be an amazing movie in The Dark Knight, the movie suffers from just being "good enough."

I have some more specific comments about what I did and didn't like behind the cut, since I don't want to spoil the movie for people who haven't seen it yet.  For those of you who have, I'm very curious to hear what you guys think (especially the esteemed Mr. Chesnut).