Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
176 of 211 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
So much time, so little result., August 18, 2008
I love the first three Indy films. Like so many others I was greatly looking forward to seeing a new one. I thought (or hoped) that the very long time they took to come up with a script meant they were polishing it to a brilliant shine. After seeing the movie, I conclude it was really a long negotiation between Lucas, Spielberg, and Ford, with some of them eager to make a crappy movie, and some of them not, with the end result being crappy, but perhaps not as crappy as it might have been.
The movie started with a bit of promise (other than the infantile CGI prairie dog). I'm not as offended by the nuclear fridge scene as many are, because I know those mock towns weren't built at Ground Zero (or they would have been vaporized). They were built at a distance to judge the effect of the blast on places some miles from the explosion. So while it's not credible for Indy to survive being tossed around that much, he didn't exactly survive a nuclear explosion. Some of the other early scenes, such as those where Indy is actually discovering something, are also good.
Still...
About halfway through the movie, despite my fervent desire to like it, I realized it just wasn't working for me. No suspense. No real sense of urgency or danger. Low stakes. Too many marginal or pointless characters. Too much cartoon nonsense going on, far less believable than anything from the previous films (the stupid monkey vine swinging, Marian's idiotic tree-driving stunt, the multiple waterfall drops...none of it scary, none of it remotely convincing, or even fun). Marian's long-awaited big reveal was one of the biggest, flattest duds in film history. She shows up and spends most of the rest of the movie just tagging along with a dazed grin on her face like she was just grateful to be there, a flaccid dishrag compared to the character from the first film. Not Karen Allen's fault...she was just thrown in for nostalgia's sake, and was poorly written. Mutt was actually not a bad character, but I don't need or want him to be Indy's son. Is there any worse cliche in fiction than the Son He Never Knew He Had? I realize Spielberg and Lucas are fascinated by father issues, but I'm not. And then there's the whole point of the movie...the skull and the aliens...ehhhh. Who cares? The finale was a muddled jumble of flashing lights and wind that meant nothing and evoked nothing but tedium. Remember at the end of the previous films, where the characters actually seem to notice that something extraordinary has happened, were even scared, or traumatized just a little bit (okay, not so much in Crusade, where they quickly shake off any aftereffects and devolve into slapstick and lose all interest in their surroundings). Not this time. The giant flying saucer takes off, and Indy and his massive crew of sidekicks start cracking jokes.
I'm inclined to blame Lucas for most of this mess. He's made a habit of lapses of taste and judgement since...hmm..."Howard the Duck"?
I don't want to see this movie again, and I don't want to own it. I hope they don't make another, because these guys have proven they no longer have what it takes.
|
|
|
84 of 111 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Indiana Jones and the temple of bad scripts, September 18, 2008
What a mess this movie was. Good to see Indy again but you can tell from the start that Lucas had approval over this script after rumors he threw out so many better scripts out the window (Frank Durapont anyone?).
Indy surviving nuclear blasts, Rodents coming up from the ground and grinning at the camera, Shia LaBouf swinging from vines in a jungle with Monkeys and hardly any Marion. She barely has anything to say.
Then you get the ending which comes out of a different movie.
Suspending Disbelief is one thing but you gotta check your brain and taste at the door for this one.
Lets hope they don't make any spinoffs with Indy's kid.
|
|
|
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Time for Indy to retire, June 7, 2009
I was greatly intrigued when I heard that the fourth Indiana Jones movie was coming out. I enjoyed all three of the original trilogy films back in the 80s & early 90s, and was hoping they would be able to end the series with a blockbuster story. Unfortunately, this was just not to be.
This IJ movie picks up in 1957 and as such it taps into some of the more noteworthy aspects of that time, such as the Red Scare / McCarthyism and nuclear bomb testing (I never knew that refrigerators provided such protection against nukes!).
The central theme of the film, however, revolves around the infamous E.T. incident at Roswell New Mexico that has received so much press the past 60 years. Like Independence Day (Single Disc Widescreen Edition), the story also indulges into the associated mythology of little green men being held at AREA 51.
As an adventure film, this is roughly as well done as the first three, albeit with some action sequences which go well beyond the realm of believability. Harrison Ford is back, Karen Allen reprises her role from Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark (Special Edition) (and she has aged quite well, I might add!) and Shia LaBeouf is a good young up-and-coming actor. While the identity of LaBeouf's role is pretty predictable, it is still a worthwhile addition to the IJ storyline.
The problem with this movie is that I found the plot rather....well....hokey. Once you get into the "This stuff is too advanced to have been crafted by humans. Must have been aliens!" motif, then everything becomes very silly very quickly. Having occult stuff and Hindu stuff in IJ movies is great fun, but to summon space aliens just isn't very Indy like.
Ultimately, this movie struck me as a cross between a cross between an IJ movie and Close Encounters of the Third Kind (30th Anniversary Ultimate Edition). While I enjoy both the adventure movie & science fiction genres, it's just not a good thing to try & combine the two (in my opinion, at least). It's kind of like putting ketchup on your ice cream; you may enjoy both, but.....
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|