Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
I great up with Raider of the Lost Ark. I was less impressed with Temple of Doom and equally unimpressed with Last Crusade. That isn't to say that I think they are bad films or anything. They just don't measure up to Raiders.
So how does Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull measure up for me? About the same as the other sequels. The storyline is pretty good. I'm a fan of Chariots of the Gods style theories and Coast to Coast AM. I don't believe in them but I sure want to. In some ways it would be a lot more interesting if that stuff were true. So I liked the storyline. I also didn't hate Shia LeBeouf. As in Transformers he was adequate. I didn't like his name "Mutt" though. There's a hint at the end that Shia's character could take over for Indy and Mutt Jones just doesn't sound good.
There are some details of the script I find would have been a bit better off left on the floor. I like it when the mystical stuff is less central to the story and there are other things more central to it like beating the Nazis or saving dad. In this one there is the goal of saving the college but it takes a back seat. There's one scene where Indy gets sort of hypnotized by they crystal skull where I was hoping that at the end he would laugh and say something about it all being some dumb superstition or something.
That is a pretty minor problem in comparison to the real problem of the special effects. Some people are trashing the CGI and while it isn't perfect I didn't find it nearly as bad as the practical effects. There is a scene that recreates the black and white footage of a town getting blown away by a nuclear bomb test that is obviously a model and there is another shot that is an overview of a cemetery that is also very obviously a model. You would think that after all these years and after the Lord of the Rings they would know how to make models that didn't look like models.
The worst offender by far, however, is the skull itself. When not glowing it looks like ass. It looks like they made it by taking one of those bluish plastic 5 gallon water cooler water jugs, cutting it into a skull shape and stuffing it full of crumpled up plastic cling wrap and crumpled aluminum foil. There's a scene with Indy holding it and talking about how perfect it is that is just laughable because the skull looks so plastic and full of crumpled up foil and plastic. You would think that with all the scenes the thing has they would make it look better. Moreover, you would also think that they would make it look like the beings that it is supposed to represent. It is supposed to look like the skull of one of the aliens people call the Grays. but instead of the skull stretching up it stretches back so that it looks almost exactly like a skull of one of the Aliens from the Alien films. The whole time I kept thinking about what an Alien vs. Indiana Jones film would be like.
three thumbs up
Indy is so old
Aliens would kill him quick
and little Mutt too.
So how does Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull measure up for me? About the same as the other sequels. The storyline is pretty good. I'm a fan of Chariots of the Gods style theories and Coast to Coast AM. I don't believe in them but I sure want to. In some ways it would be a lot more interesting if that stuff were true. So I liked the storyline. I also didn't hate Shia LeBeouf. As in Transformers he was adequate. I didn't like his name "Mutt" though. There's a hint at the end that Shia's character could take over for Indy and Mutt Jones just doesn't sound good.
There are some details of the script I find would have been a bit better off left on the floor. I like it when the mystical stuff is less central to the story and there are other things more central to it like beating the Nazis or saving dad. In this one there is the goal of saving the college but it takes a back seat. There's one scene where Indy gets sort of hypnotized by they crystal skull where I was hoping that at the end he would laugh and say something about it all being some dumb superstition or something.
That is a pretty minor problem in comparison to the real problem of the special effects. Some people are trashing the CGI and while it isn't perfect I didn't find it nearly as bad as the practical effects. There is a scene that recreates the black and white footage of a town getting blown away by a nuclear bomb test that is obviously a model and there is another shot that is an overview of a cemetery that is also very obviously a model. You would think that after all these years and after the Lord of the Rings they would know how to make models that didn't look like models.
The worst offender by far, however, is the skull itself. When not glowing it looks like ass. It looks like they made it by taking one of those bluish plastic 5 gallon water cooler water jugs, cutting it into a skull shape and stuffing it full of crumpled up plastic cling wrap and crumpled aluminum foil. There's a scene with Indy holding it and talking about how perfect it is that is just laughable because the skull looks so plastic and full of crumpled up foil and plastic. You would think that with all the scenes the thing has they would make it look better. Moreover, you would also think that they would make it look like the beings that it is supposed to represent. It is supposed to look like the skull of one of the aliens people call the Grays. but instead of the skull stretching up it stretches back so that it looks almost exactly like a skull of one of the Aliens from the Alien films. The whole time I kept thinking about what an Alien vs. Indiana Jones film would be like.
three thumbs up
Indy is so old
Aliens would kill him quick
and little Mutt too.
