Saturday, May 31, 2008

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

This is the fourth episode of the ever-popular Indiana Jones series. When I heard they were making a fourth one, I was really doubtful that it would be that good since it's been like 15 or 20 years since the original three came out. However, I was really impressed with this movie, and it's probably the best come-back-later movie I have ever seen. It had a bit of language in it, but not too much. If you liked the old Indiana Jones movies, you will like this one just as much, if not better. If not, you should see the others first because this one will be millions times better if you've seen the originals. Having the same actors as were in the first ones was a major plus. Harrison Ford will always be the only guy capable of playing Indiana Jones, just like Johnny Depp is the only guy who could play Jack Sparrow. I was pretty happy with this movie as a whole. It had some kinda strange extra-terrestrial alien thingys in it, but it's a fiction movie, so it was cool. The other Indy movies had similar stuff too. All my teenage siblings and my parents saw all these movies and thought they were really cool, but for younger kids this is not that great of a movie to let them watch. Some people might get get a creepy feeling on their skin watching one scene of the movie when a guy gets covered by a swarm of ants and dragged into their huge nest and killed.. it wasn't graphic or anything, but some people may not like it too much. My sister saw it and thought it was fine though, so it wasn't too bad. I rate this one 8 out of 10.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good review! I gotta admit though I had a few problems with this movie. First off.......Aliens. Why'd it have to be aliens? The first three movies dealt almost entirely with some ancient (usually Biblical)Relic-That-Everybodys-Looking-For-And-Usually-Does-Something-Gross-To-The-Bad-Guy-In-The-End. I mean, we had the ark of the covenant and the holy grail (I'm not going to even mention Temple of Doom--that movie was so horrendously bad it doesn't even belong in the canon) so why didn't they pick something along those lines for this movie? Heck, the Shroud of Turin would have been a good choice in my opinion. Aliens just aren't believable in ANY context, even an Indiana Jones film.

Second, I don't like Shia LaBeouf to begin with, and I absolutely DETEST his role in this film. Stereotypical rebellious fifties teenager who (surprise, surprise!) winds up being Indy's son. I'm willing to forgive Lucasfilm for including him, though, cause its not like Indiana Jones hasn't had its share of annoying characters in the past (I'm looking at YOU, John Rhys-Davies).

I do like some things about this film. Marion Ravenwood is absolutely fantastic. Its also a great triumph for moral values when she and Indy finally get hitched at the end of the movie. Plus, throughout the movie we do see glimpses of the old Indiana Jones through the crotchety old man that he's become (Sorry, Harry, but you're 65 years old, man). The fight scenes are spectacular, and the level of CGI is low enough to keep them believable (except for the alien ship at the end---WHY ALIENS?? WHY WHY WHY???)

In the end, I came away with a WAY lower opinion of this movie than most people did. It's not as bad as Temple of Doom, but I think its pretty darn close.

Matt Skywalker said...

I agree.. pretty much having aliens was a bad idea.. and as to temple of doom... it doesn't deserve to be called an Indiana Jones film.. but I thought it was ok overall :)

Anonymous said...

You should do a review of 'The Truman Show'. That's a really good movie. lol