| Friday, May 23, 2008 |
| Indiana Spoiler and the Kingdom of the Crystal Spoiler |
At one point during the Thrilling! Climax!! of "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," I turned to Joe and whispered, "Didn't this exact same thing happen during 'National Treasure: Book of Secrets'?" Strangely enough, a lot of the last half hour of "IJ" gave me a sense of deja vu, because it already happened in a movie that came out six months ago. Perhaps mediocre minds think alike.
Since "Raiders of the Lost Ark" was such a seminal movie for me, I had been looking forward to "IJ," but I also realized that it was highly unlikely that it would be amazingly good. And whatever warm feelings it conjured up were mainly the result of nostalgia -- that hat! That music! That bullwhip! Karen Allen!! Actually, the first part of the movie is fun, with some satisfying callbacks to the original trilogy. But then the action shifts to Peru, and it goes sadly off the rails.
The main problem is just a huge overload of special effects. From the cute li'l CGI prairie dogs and monkeys to the ginormous earth-shattering stadium-sized UFO-thing at the end, it's just too over-the-top, and most of it doesn't serve the story. I would have loved to have seen another scene or two with Indy and Marian; surely "Spider-Man 2" proved that it's possible to intersperse some quieter moments and character development with action to create a more satisfying movie.
The teenage girls sitting behind us were obviously crazy about Shia LeBeouf in the same way I was mad about Harrison Ford back in 1981. Ford's been in a lot of clunkers lately and the word is that he asked Spielberg and Lucas to make this movie so he could have another hit. And even though he's in his mid-60s now, I have to admit that he looks damn good and even made a credible action hero. Shia would be lucky if he aged so well. It was also nice to see Karen Allen back as his love interest instead of a much younger woman -- say, one Calista Flockhart's age -- but in this case I almost wonder if the filmmakers wanted Allen back so they wouldn't have to pause between car chases and fight scenes to introduce a new character. |
posted by 125records @ 7:39 PM  |
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| 1 Comments: |
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There was a scene in the trailer that reminded my of National Treasure 2, so I'm glad I wasn't the only one. Karen Allen is the only reason I want to see it. And we are going to start calling you SpoilerGirl.
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Name: Sue
Home: San Francisco Bay Area, California, United States
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There was a scene in the trailer that reminded my of National Treasure 2, so I'm glad I wasn't the only one. Karen Allen is the only reason I want to see it. And we are going to start calling you SpoilerGirl.