Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Before we get going, did you guys catch Kobe putting up 25 in the second half to rally his team from a 20 point deficit; that is why he is the MVP.

Now that we have that out if the way, it is 2:30 in the morning and I just got back from my 12:01 screening of the new Indiana Jones movie. Overall I would probably give it a B-, not as good as Raiders or Last Crusade, but still decidedly better than Temple of Doom. Obviously I was psyched about this movie coming out; I mean I went by myself for a midnight showing.

THE GOOD
Action packed as every Indiana Jones film should be. Director Speilberg and Cinematogropher Kaminski combine again to shoot a wonderful film. There were limited CGI special effects even though there was action throughout the entire film. The writing was right on point, with that trademark smart ass attitude of Dr. Jones and Harrison Ford’s perfect delivery of those lines. Shia LeBeouf’s character was not as annoying as say Jar-Jar Binks. He offered some good delivery and played a worthy partner to Indiana. As usually the back story and history of what Dr. Jones was searching for is amazing and based in truth with some Hollywood twists thrown in which makes it interesting. And the set pieces of some of the places they were going were also extremely detailed and well done. Great references to Dr. Jones the elder and Marcus.

THE BAD
Well first of all Cate Blanchett’s character was horrific, one of the worst movie villains of all time. There is one action sequence with LaBeouf which is pretty hokey, but very amusing nonetheless. The very end of the movie was pretty cheesy, but you could see it coming a mile away, and you know why they ended it that way, but it still sort of sucked. Also, there is one major “twist” in the movie which is so painfully obvious that it got absolutely no reaction from the crowd like it should have.

THE CONFUSING
Being an Indiana Jones nerd I have done a great deal of reading leading up to this film. The one thing Lucas said he liked about the David Koepp script was that it did not have any cheesy references to the first few films, but it did, especially in the beginning. Lucas has stated repeatedly that this is the last installment of series, but in true Hollywood fashion they have left the door open for LaBeouf to star in a sequel.

All in all it is worthy of being part of the series, and if you are a fan of these movies you will enjoy this one too