I caught the 11:59 screening of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull last night.
I’m a huge fan of the three earlier films, and remember seeing the intro up to Raiders up to the point where Indy jumps in the plane to avoid the advancing natives many times on television before I was ever allowed to watch the full movie. The amount of violence up to that point was always enough for my parents to make the call that the film was inappropriate, but I’d already seen enough to fall in love with the idea of a swashbuckling archaeologist adventurer. When I finally saw the full movies, I became a huge fan of the series, even in light of the latter films’ flaws.
I don’t have a lot of time to go into detail, but I had tremendous problems with the new movie.
I really enjoyed the series of sequences from when they first showed Jones at university, up until the end of the grave site scene, but the bookends of the film completely ruined it for me. Within the scenes I found redeeming, I thought the cinematography in the soda-pop bar scene was awful and misguided. I wanted to see close-ups of Mutt and Jones’ faces, but all we got was a long dual profile shot. I was really bothered by the digital post grading, and especially by the bloom on everything in the final scene. I felt like I was watching The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King.
My largest complaint was the overuse of CG and compositing. Why they couldn’t build the background facades in the first shot of the Nuke-test neighborhood is beyond me, but almost everything in the film had an ambient occlusion haze around it–and everything looked too new. I wish the production had just built sets. The grave site set was amazing, and probably the most successful of all the jungle locales. The motorcycle chase was thrilling and heart pounding. I felt like a lot of it was stunt work, and didn’t feel like I was constantly being shown wide shots of all-digital characters and vehicles like in the jungle chase. The early shot of Colonel Dovchenko ducking to reveal the Soviet soldiers was so obviously a composite, it sparked fear about the rest of the film that was quickly confirmed. The CG work was incredibly shoddy, and I can’t believe it came out of ILM. Why couldn’t they have gone out in the desert and have simply shot those dusk scenes? Absolutely heartbreaking.
Some of the leaps of reality David Koepp made in order to bring characters into the story or out of or into the chases or fight sequences were too ridiculous for Indy’s world. Mutt and the Monkeys, the sudden appearance of Marion Ravenwood, the ants pulling the Soviet soldier into the nest, and Indy’s continuous trust of Mac in the face of his double-dealing come to mind.
I appreciated the appropriate amount of attention that Marcus Brody and Henry Jones Sr. were given. Shia “The Beef” did a great job, as did Harrison Ford. Their relationship was great to watch unfold. Karen Allen was good, but wasn’t given anything to do. Kate Blanchett played her Katherine Hepburn character in a black wig. Indy should have killed Mac when he betrayed him. Indy should have killed SOMEONE in this film. I don’t think anyone even died from a gunshot except for the poor gate guards in the beginning.
The film was just awful. Only the mentioned center section had anything redeeming about it, (and honestly, I really enjoyed those sequences).
Like the Star Wars franchise, modern technology has obliterated the legacy of another of my childhood pleasures. Next time, let’s try it without all the needless digital interventions.
Tags: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Movies, review