Recommended: Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Crystal Skull
Filed Under: Film, Recommended Media
We saw the latest, and probably last, of the Indiana Jones franchise last night. This is gonna be chock full of spoilers as I discuss many aspects of the film. Come back after you’ve seen the movie and let’s discuss!
As we left the theatre, generally satisfied, the first thing that my wife and I talked about was the change in tone over the series. The first film, while having comedic elements, was fairly serious. The second one had more comedic relief, then the third was practically a comedy until the final act. Now this film takes that comedy even further, with several comedic characters factoring in through most of the series. The last act barely takes a turn for the serious. In general, this is a much more lighthearted film than any of the previous Indy pictures.
Everyone involved in this (minus Shia) are a hell of a lot older than when the started, and I think their age and maturity shows in a kind of rounding off of the sharp corners. The meat is here, the core of Indiana Jones. I laughed with joy at several moments–especially when the punch sound effects matched the earlier films so well. Nobody takes a punch like Indiana Jones, even this considerably older and slower Jones.
The loss of the Nazis was felt by me pretty strongly. I think the screenwriter did a fairly good job of trying to make the Russians menacing, but they just don’t have that malevolence that the Nazis had. The Soviets could barely hold together their own country, let alone take over the world. The Nazis actually got pretty far along in their plans before they were stopped. So, Nazis scared me more, but then, I was a kid.
The villainness seemed more eccentric than evil. Kate does an admirable job with very little, compared to some previous villains in the series. The sword-fighting aspect did not seem integrated into her character as a psychic scientist very well. If I were more cynical, I would say the sword fighting was added to the two characters simply so we could have the action scene later on.
The most satisfying aspect of the film for me is how much Indy has changed, and yet how much he has remained the same. You don’t get the feeling that he went into cryogenic suspension between the third and fourth films. The revelation that Indy is a war hero and a former OSS spy is fitting. His hatred for Nazis earlier could very easily have led to his enlistment.
It’s that gap of time between the third and fourth films that makes me sad. We will never see a movie version of those years, at least not with the principals we know. Maybe when I’m 75 and Spielberg’s children sell the rights and some young Turk revives the franchise, but it won’t star Harrison Ford, and then I’ll be one of those old fogeys saying “Who’s this dorky kid playing Indiana Jones? He can’t hold a candle to old Harrison!” And then teens in the rows around me in the moviesphere will glare at me over their smart glasses, wondering who Harrison is until their smart glasses helpfully present the information from Wikipedia. Also, what a “candle” is.
Anyway. As much as I enjoyed it, there were moments of ridiculousness. The CG actually bothered me less than I expected except for those stupid god damned prairie dogs. The scene with the snake, while funny, was completely impractical, and when they actually use the “snake” to pull Indiana out, it looks ridiculous. That would kill a snake, pulling on it like that. Also, siafu are African army ants. South America has its own big ants (no where near as big as those), and I can chalk up Indiana calling them siafu because of his worldly travels, but the biological pedant in me was annoyed by it. Several action scenes felt a little half-hearted–in particular, the run down the slowly disappearing staircase at the end.
I was not bothered by the addition of aliens to the franchise. I was a bit worried about this, but it works int he pulp setting of Indiana. There are only so many biblical artifacts you can wrap a movie around. I’m just glad we didn’t get “Indiana Jones and the Shroud of Turin Hoax.”
Another thing– I was left confused by the aliens burning up Spalko. Of course, it’s true to form for the series that the villain gets incinerated or melted, but I didn’t understand, from the perspective of the aliens themselves, what her sin was to deserve it. They come 7000 years ago and teach humanity a whole range of technologies. And she asks to “know everything.” Wouldn’t they be happy to oblige her? Was the idea that they looked into her mind and saw the evil schemes? I guess I can buy that. But it felt a bit anticlimactic. She should have been driven mad and left a broken husk like Ox was, only worse. That would have been more satisfying, I think. She got what she wanted, and couldn’t handle it. But then, that would have denied us our melty face, and we can’t have that, it’s a Indiana Jones tradition!
I’m sure there were major problems in the film. But it’s freaking Indiana Jones. I was raised on this stuff. It was about 100x better than the Star Wars prequels, and perhaps my relief over that will cloud my judgement on the rest of it.
It made me laugh with humor and excitement. It made me feel like a little kid again most of the running time. I’m happy with it, and I look forward to seeing it again. That’s all I can really ask for. Best movie ever? No. A good way to spend a Thursday night? You bet.
Comments
05-24-2008
I’ve already seen the film twice, and I actually liked it more the second time. Maybe because I didn’t have any preconceptions. It was a good film, but it doesn’t hold a candle to Raiders or even to The Last Crusade. It felt rushed to me, and there were strange scenes like when Indi was reunited with Marion. I thought that it should have been more of a serious scene, instead of a comedic rant between the two. Marion acts like a little schoolgirl. And Jones is, well…giddy as a schoolboy. The inaccuracies didn’t bother me that much except for the really impossible scenes, like when Marion drives the autoboat off of the cliff into the tree. Not only does it safely lower them into the water, but it swings back towards the unsuspecting Russians. Not to mention the incredible Tarzan scene, or the fact that a group of Russian soldiers can fire hundreds of rounds and not hit a damn thing. I guess Lucas is staying true to his stormtrooper philosophy of “can’t hit a damn thing”. Anyway, I liked it, but I felt that it should have been more of a serious film like Raiders, and less like The Mummy or Tomb Raider. Sorry for the long comment by the way.
05-25-2008
Long comments are not discouraged around here, so no need to apologize.
I completely forgot the two utterly ridiculous scenes you mentioned. Our entire theatre was groaning at the tarzan on the vines thing. The boat thing with the treereally did break the suspension of disbelief entirely as well.
I agree with your placement of the film for sure. I put it in Temple territory.
I thought there was something really off about Karen in the scene where she first meets Jone again. Something odd about her smile or her acting, like it was really forced. I don’t know what it was.
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