NOTE: This article contains slight spoilers that have been blacked out. Highlight them to read the text.
Early rumblings indicate that Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull may end up with $25-30 million for Thursday. These kinds of numbers are going to put it in the top four all-time Thursday openers and if you look at the reviews you would think Indiana Jones IV lived up to its 19 year wait as it currently sits with a 79% rating at RottenTomatoes.
However, I have a hard time believing Indy 4 is going to ever be considered a great film as it appears to be following in the footsteps of another film. A film that has the #1 all-time Thursday opening and also currently sits at 79% on RottenTomatoes. Come to think of it, this other film also involves George Lucas and his world of CGI. Yup, Star Wars, Episode III – Revenge of the Sith appears to have laid the groundwork for Indy IV in some very eerie ways.
Critics hailed the film on its release, but it has slowly been shunned as the few years since its release have come and gone. People realize they were wrapped up in the spectacle that was, what we believed to be, the final Star Wars film, and considering it was the best of the prequel films it received the greatest amount of love. I am not saying this is a bad thing, I am simply saying I am seeing a trend.
I mean, come on, how hard is it for anyone to truly say something bad about an Indiana Jones film? I know it wasn’t easy for me to give it a “C-“ (which I felt was generous). I did everything I could to like it as the world of CGI monkeys and ridiculous Jeep-aided sword fights clashed before my eyes. However, I saw the film for what it was; a bloated special effects driven mess that not only doesn’t work in terms of being an Indy film – it doesn’t work as a film of any sort.
However, there are those folks out there that hold on to a flawed argument. They know it’s flawed but they have no other retort. That argument is: It’s an Indy film!
Huh? What does that mean?
I know it’s an Indiana Jones film, but are you implying that the nonsensical broken plot filled with CGI creatures and half-baked villains is what made the Indiana Jones franchise popular?
How about this for the ultimate comment on Crystal Skull from a fan waving a related “It’s an Indy film” flag, that I found on the RottenTomatoes forum:
To me, Indiana Jones is characterized by its over-the-top scenes. That’s what it’s supposed to be–over the top, crazy action. I grew up on these movies, with their cheesy one-liners and fascist goons and unreasonable amounts of The Hat.
No, it’s not ROTLK. No, it’s not TLC. And it’s certainly not TOD. But it’s a good movie, and like another reviewer said, I’d rather see this many times than most of the crap that’s been coming out in the last few years. I saw it last night at midnight, best $10 I ever spent to relive some of the best moments of my childhood.
I can’t help but disagree with the entire first paragraph, but I whole-heartedly agree as he combats his own argument with the first sentence of his second graph. No, Crystal Skull is NOT Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Last Crusade and not even the most over-the-top of the first three Indy films – Temple of Doom. Doesn’t that in-and-of-itself basically say that this is NOT an Indy film? Outside of Harrison Ford this is nothing like an Indy film.
Taking it a little further and addressing this feeling of “over the top, crazy action” and “cheesy one-liners”.
Give me an example of a scene in any of the first three films that duplicates Shia swinging with CGI monkeys through the jungle, Shia swashbuckling with Cate Blanchett in a mad jungle dash, a car load of 60-somethings falling over THREE waterfalls and surviving, a wedding scene and Indy battling one man for what felt like 10 minutes in hand-to-hand combat.
I would say the raft scene in Temple of Doom is 10,000 times more believable than the three waterfall gag and Indy’s battle in Raiders with the Nazi heavy before he was chopped to bits may be the only comparison to the hand-to-hand battle in Crystal Skull. However, CGI ants don’t compare to propeller blades and had they really wanted to “tip the hat” a solitary bullet, reminiscent of the Raiders scene featuring Indy vs. the swordsman, would have made the theater erupt. Not only is that the best scene in Indiana Jones history, it is a scene that everyone remembers and loves. The fact that they didn’t go for it saddens me.
And if you can find comparisons for the sword fight (which included mommy Marion’s aid) and the Tarzan scene, then congratulations, you have stretched logic and reasoning to its limit.
Crystal Skull also suffered on a villain level. No, Cate Blanchett was not “wonderfully batshit” as David said in his review (yup, calling out my own reviewers). She was tired and needed a nap and an accent coach. Where were the villains we remember? Major Toht and Belloq from Raiders, Mola Ram from Temple of Doom or Colonel Vogel from The Last Crusade? Hell, Elsa Schneider from Last Crusade was more of a villain than Blanchett’s character ever wanted to be, and it wasn’t Blanchett’s fault, the character just wasn’t there.
Please understand, I am not saying it has to be like the other films. No one would want that. I am simply saying that it seems some folks that favor the film aren’t really seeing it for what it is as much as they are seeing it for what they want it to be.
The only reason I bring all this up is because I am frustrated. I am frustrated because I wanted this movie to be good and it seems critics are giving it a pass with major reservations. I even went in with low expectations. Half-way through I realized what the film was and thought I could catalog it with The Mummy and The Mummy Returns as a fun CGI-driven adventure flick, but even Stephen Sommers’ Mummy movies have better villains and a better story than Crystal Skull, and considering it took 19 years to make, that is truly disheartening.
I would love to hear your comments on this, especially if you disagree. After all, I will definitely be giving the film another chance on DVD and hopefully will find love for it there, but I didn’t even touch upon the ending in this article and that may have actually been the biggest letdown of all for me.
