- One the basis of the new film one could construct a plausible theory along the following lines: the Indiana Jones films stand and fall on the quality of the central MacGuffin. So - Raiders Of The Lost Ark; the Ark Of The Covenant: good. Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom; some stones: not so good. Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade; the Holy Grail: good. Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull; some sort of crystal skull: not so good. Needless to say this isn't totally conclusive, and one could come up with equally plausible theories which say, for instance: odd numbers in the series good, even numbers bad, or: fewer words in film title good, more words in film title bad (5, 7, 6 and 9 respectively, just to save you the trouble). Or films with Nazis good, films without Nazis bad.
- This film is noticeably sillier and more implausible than the others, and obviously they weren't all that realistic to start with. But I don't think any of the previous 3 films featured anything as ridiculous on so many levels as the bit during the big set-piece at the start of IJATKOTCS where Indy shelters from a nuclear bomb blast by hiding in.....a fridge. I'm not joking.
- The bit where they find a secret Mayan temple in the Amazon jungle by walking through a waterfall to a secret cavern behind is lifted straight out of Hergé's Tintin adventure Prisoners of the Sun.
- It all goes very science fiction at the end, with a multi-dimensional temple-destroying climax very reminiscent of similar scenes from Stargate and The Fifth Element, among others. An impressive orgy of CGI, but not as good as the simple cup-selection routine at the end of the third film. He chose....poorly.
- Cate Blanchett was obviously having a lot of fun as the Russian femme fatale, and adhering to the instructions in Russian Film Villain Accents For Dummies, rule one of which says: do a vaguely German accent, but insert a "y" before 80% of vowel sounds, so you get something like: Yif you wyill nyot cyooperate, Doctyor Jyones, we wyiull hyave to be more.....pyersuasive. That and saying "w" instead of "v" instead of vice versa for a German accent generally does the trick.
- All good fun though, for the most part. As for the critics, some liked it, some didn't.
Wednesday, June 04, 2008
shoot zem. shoot zem both.
We went to see the new Indiana Jones film last night (at the lavishly appointed Newport Cineworld gargantudome). Needless to say the following series of brief musings contains several film-ruining PLOT SPOILERS for those who haven't seen it yet.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
7 comments:
We saw it a fortnight ago, and agree with pretty well ebberytang you wrote.
As for our Reading cinema audience - I think everybody thought it was too late, and too bad. Yep.
Aw well.
Spielberg, Lucas and Ford all "chose poorly" we think.
Yeah. And what was all that business with Indy Jr. swinging from tree to tree like bleedin' Tarzan followed by a load of monkeys? Eh?
Or the fencing on the jeeps?
Or the WHOLE ending?
Or the fact that from the very first scene when we saw Indy's leathery neck, and he staggered around like an oap, we immediately realised this film was about 15 years too late, not only for the film, but also Harrison Ford.
The series used to be full of charm - all there was to this one was CGI effects and quips. Thats another thing that the original Indy never did - quip like some kind of "Bond" - he was always a little awkward.
Yes indeed. Harrison Ford chose poorly. But...
Sean Connery on t'other hand.
"He chose wisely"....
And the plunging off three increasingly huge waterfalls, with rocks at the bottom, one fater the other, and just getting a bit wet.
The bit with the man-eating ants was quite cool though.
That would be "one after the other", of course. Indy Jr. - I am your fater.
I think we've ruined it enough for those who haven't seen it.
Hmmmm.
Missed out on an opportunity to use the word "spoil" in that last comment.
Aw well.
There'll be another time.
Post a Comment