As I mentioned in my last post, tickets to see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull were given to me for my birthday. I saw it in the amazing Uptown Theatre in Cleveland Park (Washington, D.C.).
Let me start by saying my favorite Indiana Jones movie is Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. I have been watching obsolete HD-DVDs recently, when I turned on the dvd changer to watch Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, it was already in the playing position which reinforces my favorite movie status 🙂
Okay….so…here come the spoilers…..aka don’t read past here if you don’t want to know the ending.
I was at a sold out showing in the largest single screen theatre in the area. The lights dimmed, the fandango jingle concluded, cell phones were silenced….the Lucas Film logo appeared….it was starting! Dum Duh Duh Duh. Dum Dah Dah Dah…Doo Doo Doo Doo….okay..so I am trying to imitate the theme song. Hum along if you like.
Before watching the most recent film, I would recommend that you watch the previous 3 movies. There are references to them which make more sense and also keep you laughing at jokes with the die hard Indy fans.
Like the Last Crusade, there are tons of anecdotes which make the movie great. One that was rather odd, but made the animal lover laugh, was the presence of Prairie Dogs which seem to be in the wrong place a few times in the movie.
I am sure this is in an attempt to bridge the generation gap, but the first 3 movies were relatively believable. This one….as we have seen in the leaps between sky rise construction cranes in the new James Bond: Casino Royale, unbelievable stunts have become commonplace. In the secret government warehouse, Indy is trying to escape from his Nazi captors by running across the roof support beams. No need for a whip, just a perfect stride at a running pace. So aside from that unbelievable scene, most of the movie was believable.
Marion……What a great person to bring back! While she has not aged well, the familiar face and voice brought me back to the Raiders of the Lost Ark! The fact that Indy was the father of her son, Indy’s side kick, was a surprising, but not overly chick flicky! This does remind me of my favorite TV series of all time MacGyver. Check out the last episode if you are interested. You will see a very similar situation. In the last episode of MacGyver, while his side kick was not as much of a trouble maker as Indy’s, they both rode a motor cycle and had a strong willed personality. I guess that is where the similarity ends, but it hit home for me 🙂
Mr. Lucas….. I would have liked to see Sean Connery in the movie as a grandfather just for a moment at the beginning of the movie. Secondly, could you have not picked aliens? Or keep the aliens but discard the 60s looking metal space craft? A shooting star would have worked as they departed the earth, but that space craft….even the TV series Lost in Space had a better one. I will be looking forward to the DVD release and checking out the alternate scenes. Who knows, maybe we had some of the same thoughts 😉
So, my overall opinion….the theme song lives on as do the Nazi’s and anecdotes, but the alien space craft needs to go!
Musical score… 10 Cinematography (aside from the space ship)… 9 Plot (Why Aliens!)… 4 Overall 8/10 4/5 stars. I will of course get it on DVD to complete my collection, but will have to watch it a few more times before I can decide if it will become my favorite Indiana Jones….but at this point… “goose-stepping morons like yourself should try reading books instead of burning them.” tops my list of great Sean Connery lines which were missing from this movie.
What is your favorite Indiana Jones?