I do wonder if my appreciation of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was marred by its disturbing similarities to the star-laden drivel that was National Treasure 2, because I warn you now, I am going to do a fair bit of griping.
The film itself is standard Indiana Jones fare: a hero, a quest, a girl, elaborate action sequences, the revelation, the end, interspersed with moments of humour. It is not meant to be deep and meaningful, just cotton candy action fare. Perhaps I went into the Embassy (wondrous cinema that it is!) without this frame of mind.
It started off with nods to actors and plots from movies past, and then got into the telling of the new Indie story. Harrison Ford played an older, more grizzled Indiana Jones, the years between Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and this film filled with Jones becoming a patriot and working for the CIA, and losing quite a bit of his roguish smarm. No ladies with tattooed eyelids in Professor Jones’ class these days – he is less swashbuckling hunk than reliable-yet-active Dad material now.
The other actors were fine, making the most out of the characters they were given. They were all believable (despite Karen Allen grinning her way through most of the movie), though not really engaging. I was left convinced that most of their interaction and character development happened off screen, perhaps in a different film. Only Cate Blanchett’s vile, diabolically-coiffed Communist bad girl was given the opportunity to shine alongside Indie – and grab that chance she did with scenery-chewing success. I waited with baited breath to see if “Evil (?) FBI Guy #2” (played by Scrubs’ Janitor) would come back into the movie at some or any stage and engage in some despicable acts of random lead character humiliation, but in the end Cate wound up with all the nefarious plans.
And then, along came the action sequences. The longest one was set deep in the heart of a surprisingly car-friendly jungle. Indiana Jones movies have to have huge, outrageous stunt scenes filled of improbable twists and turns, where everything goes the way of the hero and his team (mostly). This time around, the moviemakers had the added advantage of CGI. Huge, great wads of CGI. If CGI was sugar, then it would have been a cup of tea with a cup of sugar mixed in. So there was a lot of it. And, after the first 5 minutes, I got bored. Probably this is a me thing, but too much obvious CGI manipulating the actions of people really grates my “suspension of disbelief” cheese, as it’s one thing to make stunt people do incredible feats, but another thing entirely to get a computer to do it for you – and so obviously. James Bond's "back to basics" approach gets my thumbs up. But remember Legolas mounting the Warg and despair…
After the jungle fever, I needed the film to give me a bit of medicine, and it did, returning to the tried and true Indie formula. Humour-wise, the large Embassy crowd was noticeably quiet during the one-liners, though one could sense a familiar warm glow during the less patronising exchanges. And the end didn’t really make a whole lot of sense, which is definitely keeping with the Indiana Jones tradition. But I wasn’t blown away by anything, especially when the similarities to National Treasure 2 became even more pronounced.
I have tried to steer away from revealing too much of the plot, as I don’t want to give a blow by blow account of what happened so that anyone seeing the film after reading this can enjoy the film. Hopefully the generalisations I have used illustrate my particular point of view, without giving too much away. But, to summarise all my many words above, the film was every inch an Indiana Jones movie, though, disappointingly, with a bit of the exoticism and swagger removed in favour of studio lighting and hubris.
I suppose I was expecting something that I didn’t get from this Indiana Jones film, though from the sounds of it, I am in the minority. If you feel inclined to share, let me know what you think – perhaps you can convert me (though I somehow doubt it).
Verdict: Indie is back, but older and with computers in tow. 5 whips out of 10, with 2 extra snaps for old times’ sake.
The film itself is standard Indiana Jones fare: a hero, a quest, a girl, elaborate action sequences, the revelation, the end, interspersed with moments of humour. It is not meant to be deep and meaningful, just cotton candy action fare. Perhaps I went into the Embassy (wondrous cinema that it is!) without this frame of mind.
It started off with nods to actors and plots from movies past, and then got into the telling of the new Indie story. Harrison Ford played an older, more grizzled Indiana Jones, the years between Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and this film filled with Jones becoming a patriot and working for the CIA, and losing quite a bit of his roguish smarm. No ladies with tattooed eyelids in Professor Jones’ class these days – he is less swashbuckling hunk than reliable-yet-active Dad material now.
The other actors were fine, making the most out of the characters they were given. They were all believable (despite Karen Allen grinning her way through most of the movie), though not really engaging. I was left convinced that most of their interaction and character development happened off screen, perhaps in a different film. Only Cate Blanchett’s vile, diabolically-coiffed Communist bad girl was given the opportunity to shine alongside Indie – and grab that chance she did with scenery-chewing success. I waited with baited breath to see if “Evil (?) FBI Guy #2” (played by Scrubs’ Janitor) would come back into the movie at some or any stage and engage in some despicable acts of random lead character humiliation, but in the end Cate wound up with all the nefarious plans.
And then, along came the action sequences. The longest one was set deep in the heart of a surprisingly car-friendly jungle. Indiana Jones movies have to have huge, outrageous stunt scenes filled of improbable twists and turns, where everything goes the way of the hero and his team (mostly). This time around, the moviemakers had the added advantage of CGI. Huge, great wads of CGI. If CGI was sugar, then it would have been a cup of tea with a cup of sugar mixed in. So there was a lot of it. And, after the first 5 minutes, I got bored. Probably this is a me thing, but too much obvious CGI manipulating the actions of people really grates my “suspension of disbelief” cheese, as it’s one thing to make stunt people do incredible feats, but another thing entirely to get a computer to do it for you – and so obviously. James Bond's "back to basics" approach gets my thumbs up. But remember Legolas mounting the Warg and despair…
After the jungle fever, I needed the film to give me a bit of medicine, and it did, returning to the tried and true Indie formula. Humour-wise, the large Embassy crowd was noticeably quiet during the one-liners, though one could sense a familiar warm glow during the less patronising exchanges. And the end didn’t really make a whole lot of sense, which is definitely keeping with the Indiana Jones tradition. But I wasn’t blown away by anything, especially when the similarities to National Treasure 2 became even more pronounced.
I have tried to steer away from revealing too much of the plot, as I don’t want to give a blow by blow account of what happened so that anyone seeing the film after reading this can enjoy the film. Hopefully the generalisations I have used illustrate my particular point of view, without giving too much away. But, to summarise all my many words above, the film was every inch an Indiana Jones movie, though, disappointingly, with a bit of the exoticism and swagger removed in favour of studio lighting and hubris.
I suppose I was expecting something that I didn’t get from this Indiana Jones film, though from the sounds of it, I am in the minority. If you feel inclined to share, let me know what you think – perhaps you can convert me (though I somehow doubt it).
Verdict: Indie is back, but older and with computers in tow. 5 whips out of 10, with 2 extra snaps for old times’ sake.
2 comments:
I liked that Indy was less roguish and smarmy. It acknowledges that by now the character and actor are a lot older and wiser.
Being me, I found it amusing that the biplane they travelled in at one point originated from, how shall I put this, somewhere not compatible with it being operated by Pan Am in the 1950's.....:)
Both Karen Allen and Ray Winstone were kinda redundant.
Overall, I thought it gloriously sily, and just right in tone.
I didn't notice the CGI overload so much, but miss the old days of proper stuntwork anyhow
It was just silly. You go expecting silly to a certain extent when it is Indy, but it went too far. Having a not-car not-boat successfully get 5 people down a couple of waterfalls the size of Victoria Falls was just a tad on the not-believable side (not that you go there to believe, but honestly!)
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