WARNING: spoilers ahead.
I took my family to see "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" on Sunday night while we were on a short trip upstate. We stayed in "The Jameson Inn" on Clemson Road, then spent Memorial Day hiking to waterfalls near Walhalla. In any case, I spent $39 for this piece of entertainment. To be brief, I want my money back.
Clearly, the Indiana Jones franchise has "jumped the shark." Of course, IJ is known for his thrill-packed action sequences, but seeing a group of 4-5 people go over three consecutive South American Niagra-type waterfalls of over 50 feet each in a military style amphibious vehicle - all the while staying in or very near the vehicle - well, I checked out.
IJ is known for action sequences with a supernatural element thrown in. "Raiders" was with Judaism; "Temple of Doom" was with some kind of tribal Hinduism (I think); "Last Crusade" was with Christianity; "Crystal Skull" was with extra-terrestrial life? I suppose the supernatural element had nowhere to go to gain my sympathies. But aliens? It didn't work. I would have been happier even with a "Scooby-Do" type "it looks supernatural but its really not" kinda thing.
Harrison Ford is old...like really OLD. Karen Allen as Marion Ravenwood, again, she is OLD. The magic was not there, though I liked the "family" element, that Indy and Marion had conceived a son together. I thought that was kinda cute.
The Russians were nice enemies, though again, the Nazis are simply too much fun to hate. I can't quite hate the Russians in the same way.
The Cate Blanchett character, Irian Spalko, was...just weird.
So, all in all, the romance was weak, the supernatural element was too fanciful, and the stunts unbelievable. IMHO, "Raiders" and "Last Crusade" are great; "Temple of Doom" and "Crystal Skull" are too dark or too weird/overdone.
1 comment:
I wasted $7 on this movie too. It was pretty awful and the whole e.t. intelligence thing smacked of Scientology propaganda.
The Visitor and Wall-E look promising though.
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