J: The title of this movie should have been “Indiana Jones and the Mystery of Why This Movie Needed to be Made”. Sure, I was entertained & don’t feel as though I lost a couple of misspent hours of my life, but…..frankly, I feel cheated. I have a short list of movies that begin with more intense and engaging action than anyone could possibly ask for; some movies don’t have as much quality action in the whole film as these do. “Indiana Jones and The Raiders of the Lost Ark” is one of the movies on that list. Clearly, the first half hour of Raiders would be hard to beat but one would expect that if anyone could master that task it would be Lucas/Spielberg, et al. But even that dream team couldn’t quite pull it off in the second, and decidedly weakest, installment of the trio. However, they came roaring back with “The Last Crusade” and quite successfully. It is definitely my favorite. But, as Spielberg himself admits, Indy road off into the sunset at the end of Last Crusade for a reason – it was meant to be the last and it should have been. With so many of the original characters back and with so many impressive additions, this film has such potential and that makes the fact that it seems like everyone thought all they had to do was “show up” so much more heartbreaking. Indy never got to do any really amusing and original “shtick” (think bullwhip vs. big knife in Raiders), he never had the kind of snappy repartee one would expect, and everything in the past gets explained away instead of woven into the fabric of the plot, such as it is. I get the need for moving the action away from Nazi’s and into the Cold War so I wasn’t bothered by that so much but the link between what the skulls could do and why the Russians wanted them was never quite believable in the context of the film. Which begs the question, why would you take such care to make sure the timeline fits and then build the plot on quicksand? Cate Blachett’s accent didn’t bother me as much as that. The opening scenes in the warehouse had so much potential and creativity (I loved the realization that you were back in the same warehouse where the Ark was stored in Raiders!) but everything slowly slid downhill from there – were they looking for the Ark or something else? Indy’s relationship with Mac (Ray Winstone) was glossed over and confused (could we have had a small flash-back there or a better explanation?); Jim Broadbent as Martin Brodie’s successor could have been fleshed out more (we all miss Denholm Elliott and we deserved better) and in line with his vast talent. Even the relationship with “Mutt” (Shia LaBeouf, who was clearly the best addition and obviously being prepped for a future with Lucas/Spielberg, et al.) was rushed – no nuance, just Marion blurting it out. No style! By the way, was Prof. Oxley (John Hurt) REALLY off his rocker or just faking it? Could we have added a little more mystery there?
And the action……just like with “Star Wars”, Mr. Lucas suddenly has a whole new box of toys to play with in the form of CGI on steroids courtesy of ILM. But that doesn’t mean you have to play with all of them all at once! I believe there should be a universally agreed upon time limit for car chases; or chases in general (like the “dino” chase scene in Peter Jackson’s “King Kong”). Even though I didn’t feel the movie was too long, a little cutting in the chase scenes could have allowed for some of the character and plot development that was lacking. By the way, just because the action is taking place in the 1950’s doesn’t mean you need to insert a nuke test site just to prove it. Please pick one: Area 51 or Nuke Test, please don’t include both just because you can. Also, if the choice is the Nuke Test (and I believe it should have been), the situation was just begging for more humor – admittedly gallows humor but the world has many more problems right now other than nuclear holocaust, so I think it would have fit nicely. I would have much preferred a little more time spent in Peru (sans frenetic chase scenes) which would have provided a deeper connection with the crystal skull than a mushroom cloud. While I’m on the subject, please pick one: Giant Red Ants, Killer Monkeys or Three Waterfalls – even just two would have been better (again, just because you have the toy doesn’t mean it HAS to be played with). The waterfalls and Prof. Oxley’s tie in with them was truer to Indy movies past and could have been a useful way to expand a bit on Prof. Oxley’s mental health. But by that time, I was too overwhelmed by gratuitous action scenes to really appreciate it. And what’s up with the so-called zombies in the cemetery and the weird natives coming out of the walls of the cave? Were they really necessary? Did we forget the time in screenplay writing class when the instructor talked about the rule that says if you introduce a gun in the first scene, someone better get shot by the last scene? But I typically digress here – I figure I get one of those digression in each movie review, ok? Unfortunately, the complexity of the action scenes appeared to suck the life out of the characters themselves. It seemed like most everyone was just going through the motions prescribed by each set piece, with no E-motions. The action itself, and the special effects creating said action, was the driving force and the characters were just along for the ride. This movie also suffers from some weird multiple personality disorder. An homage to a favorite movie is fine when done well but one should never have to decide what movie one is watching! And anyone who has seen “The Wild Ones” (spoiler alert – although I think everyone pretty well has heard about this by now) knows that the scene copied in this movie and used to introduce “Mutt” is pretty cheesy looking in the original, despite being an iconic visual. As such, I felt it could have been skipped. Maybe I’m just a bigger James Dean fan and a Marlon Brando fan, but….. I also saw parts of “The Mummy” and “The X-Files” and it was confusing and numbing. I don’t think it served the movie well.
I was particularly confused by the need to attach Lucas’ vaunted and much discussed MacGuffin (the crystal skull) to extra-terrestrials, given the mythology of the crystal skulls themselves is much more interesting. Fan fears seemed to have been justified with this tie-in. ET is just not as current a topic as the end of the world right now and, again, I kept waiting for Mulder and Scully to appear in the finale shouting to the crystal aliens “I want to believe”! It seemed as though Lucas and Spielberg were so “married” to the ET connection that they couldn’t entertain anything else. The actual skull legend and its connection to the Mayan calendar (that says basically we are all going to be toast on Dec. 21, 2012) could have easily replaced the ET mind control “thing” with the Russians. Something along the lines of “if we get the skulls first we can save just ourselves and rule the world” which would be more believable given the Russians’ theology during the time line presented in the movie. I think the ET thing has been played out a bit and just because it has worked in movies past doesn’t mean something needs to be repeated over and over – hasn’t Hollywood learned that yet? Maybe we movie fans need to reinforce that lesson! As I said, I felt the movie was entertaining enough but frankly I left the movie missing the satisfaction I had hoped for; I was cheated out of the cinematic orgasm I crave so much.
K: I agree with J, however she went to great lengths to describe all the faults with the movie. I agree with everything she wrote, I just want to point out that she also said this is a movie worth watching, even if you wait for DVD. The heart of the issue is that we were expecting a great script from Spielberg and Lucas since they had 15 years to pull this together. It's a fun, entertaining movie but it's not going to blow your socks off. I wanted to lose my socks.
And the action……just like with “Star Wars”, Mr. Lucas suddenly has a whole new box of toys to play with in the form of CGI on steroids courtesy of ILM. But that doesn’t mean you have to play with all of them all at once! I believe there should be a universally agreed upon time limit for car chases; or chases in general (like the “dino” chase scene in Peter Jackson’s “King Kong”). Even though I didn’t feel the movie was too long, a little cutting in the chase scenes could have allowed for some of the character and plot development that was lacking. By the way, just because the action is taking place in the 1950’s doesn’t mean you need to insert a nuke test site just to prove it. Please pick one: Area 51 or Nuke Test, please don’t include both just because you can. Also, if the choice is the Nuke Test (and I believe it should have been), the situation was just begging for more humor – admittedly gallows humor but the world has many more problems right now other than nuclear holocaust, so I think it would have fit nicely. I would have much preferred a little more time spent in Peru (sans frenetic chase scenes) which would have provided a deeper connection with the crystal skull than a mushroom cloud. While I’m on the subject, please pick one: Giant Red Ants, Killer Monkeys or Three Waterfalls – even just two would have been better (again, just because you have the toy doesn’t mean it HAS to be played with). The waterfalls and Prof. Oxley’s tie in with them was truer to Indy movies past and could have been a useful way to expand a bit on Prof. Oxley’s mental health. But by that time, I was too overwhelmed by gratuitous action scenes to really appreciate it. And what’s up with the so-called zombies in the cemetery and the weird natives coming out of the walls of the cave? Were they really necessary? Did we forget the time in screenplay writing class when the instructor talked about the rule that says if you introduce a gun in the first scene, someone better get shot by the last scene? But I typically digress here – I figure I get one of those digression in each movie review, ok? Unfortunately, the complexity of the action scenes appeared to suck the life out of the characters themselves. It seemed like most everyone was just going through the motions prescribed by each set piece, with no E-motions. The action itself, and the special effects creating said action, was the driving force and the characters were just along for the ride. This movie also suffers from some weird multiple personality disorder. An homage to a favorite movie is fine when done well but one should never have to decide what movie one is watching! And anyone who has seen “The Wild Ones” (spoiler alert – although I think everyone pretty well has heard about this by now) knows that the scene copied in this movie and used to introduce “Mutt” is pretty cheesy looking in the original, despite being an iconic visual. As such, I felt it could have been skipped. Maybe I’m just a bigger James Dean fan and a Marlon Brando fan, but….. I also saw parts of “The Mummy” and “The X-Files” and it was confusing and numbing. I don’t think it served the movie well.
I was particularly confused by the need to attach Lucas’ vaunted and much discussed MacGuffin (the crystal skull) to extra-terrestrials, given the mythology of the crystal skulls themselves is much more interesting. Fan fears seemed to have been justified with this tie-in. ET is just not as current a topic as the end of the world right now and, again, I kept waiting for Mulder and Scully to appear in the finale shouting to the crystal aliens “I want to believe”! It seemed as though Lucas and Spielberg were so “married” to the ET connection that they couldn’t entertain anything else. The actual skull legend and its connection to the Mayan calendar (that says basically we are all going to be toast on Dec. 21, 2012) could have easily replaced the ET mind control “thing” with the Russians. Something along the lines of “if we get the skulls first we can save just ourselves and rule the world” which would be more believable given the Russians’ theology during the time line presented in the movie. I think the ET thing has been played out a bit and just because it has worked in movies past doesn’t mean something needs to be repeated over and over – hasn’t Hollywood learned that yet? Maybe we movie fans need to reinforce that lesson! As I said, I felt the movie was entertaining enough but frankly I left the movie missing the satisfaction I had hoped for; I was cheated out of the cinematic orgasm I crave so much.
K: I agree with J, however she went to great lengths to describe all the faults with the movie. I agree with everything she wrote, I just want to point out that she also said this is a movie worth watching, even if you wait for DVD. The heart of the issue is that we were expecting a great script from Spielberg and Lucas since they had 15 years to pull this together. It's a fun, entertaining movie but it's not going to blow your socks off. I wanted to lose my socks.
