So yeah, I liked Indiana Jones 4.

I had my doubts, but when I finally sat down and watched Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull, I was thoroughly entertained. My only two complaints, and they are small, is that one of the actors, John Hurt, was a tad too silly for my taste, and that at times the actual crystal skull they carried around with them looked like a ball of Saran Wrap. Small Potatoes.

Now, beware of spoilers!!! Don't read from this point on if you have not yet seen this movie and don't want any of the surprises spoiled!

I've been hearing a lot of people complaining that the film has too much CGI (computer-generated imagery), or that the action was too over the top and that it was "too hard to suspend my disbelief." Suspend your disbelief??? It's an Indiana Jones Movie for Pete's sake! The first one had demon ghosts flying out of the Ark, melting off people's faces. The second had a guy who ripped still beating hearts out of people's chests, and rocks that would glow when they got near each other. And the third had the ghost of Sir Lancelot or whoever the hell that was at the very end. They are cliff hanger movies. They spawned from the old weekly Saturday matinee movie cliffhangers from the 1930s and 1940s; Flash Gordon, Jungle Jim, Dick Tracy Detective, just to name a few. As far as too much CGI? What can one say? Remember when you used to be able to tell it was a puppet, or a guy in a rubber suit, or you could see the strings? Well, sometimes you notice the CGI. To some it's a deal breaker, but to me, I can accept it if the locomotion is realistic and the effects actually contribute to telling the story. Sometimes the old ways, puppets and strings, might be better if done right, but for Indy 4 it just wasn't a big issue for me. The giant ants I thought were great. I was expecting the usual image of the bugs chewing someone to the bone, leaving behind only a skeleton, but instead the ants carried the guy into a giant ant hill . . . that was more effective in that it left the untold terror of what could be happening up to the imagination. Shia Lebeouf swinging like a monkey in a tree? Okay, a bit silly, but remember Tarzan, another cliffhanger character of which some of the Indiana Jones movies are based on? Some thought it was ridiculous, that it was too much of George Lucas's tomfoolery! Hogwash, I say! Remember the airplane scene from Temple Of Doom where Indy, Short Round and uh . . . Kate Capshaw used a river raft as a parachute? Or the crazy roller coaster mine ride? Cliffhangers, people.

And now what may or may not have been the biggest surprise. You may have heard it somewhere, you may have figured it out for yourself, or you may have not known until you saw it . . . or maybe you are about to find out right now and you shouldn't be reading this . . . Shia Labeouf's character, Mutt, is Indiana Jones son! Indy finds this out when he is reunited with Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen), who is the mother. What I liked about the whole father/son story here is that they didn't dwell on the whole "Hey son, had I known I would have been there for you all these years . . . " sentimental bull crap. Instead Indy instantly calls him son and yells at him for quitting school. Classic. The chemistry between Karen Allen and Harrison Ford was great as well as it was in the Raiders Of The Lost Ark. It was nice to see them together again, and she certainly didn't pause when it was time to kiss the bride at the end. And as far as the complaints about Harrison Ford needing to hang up the hat, that he's too old for that part, oh com on! You are taking this movie way too seriously. He was great as an aged Indiana, and they actually played off his being older in some of the wisecracking one liners. A tip of the hat to Spielberg and Lucas. They made a mighty fine Summer blockbuster. Tripods Up!

A Ho Hum Movie Summer

So far I've seen Iron Man, Speed Racer, and The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. I enjoyed Iron Man the most, which surprised me since I thought it would suck. Robert Downy Jr. was great as Tony Stark/Iron Man, and the story unfolded without the long winded dramatic bull crap that made me hate the Spider-Man films. Okay, Spider-Man 2 was decent, but the others . . . . pure crap. Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker? Organic web shooters??? Oh don't even get me started. Jon Favreau did it right with Iron Man, he directed a great comic book movie. And Gweneth Paltrow was not at all annoying.



With all the bad reviews and negative hype, I actually even enjoyed Speed Racer. My Chief Photographer recommended I rent the old cartoons and watch them first, which I did, and I think it definitely added to making the movie experience a positive thing; for the movie adheres to some of the cult classic cartoon's silliness and over the top action. Watching the original cartoons made me wonder if the Wachowski brothers, the directors of the Speed Racer movie, got most of their ideas for camera angles and camera movements for their earlier films (The Matrix Trilogy) from the Speed Racer cartoons. If you don't know the cartoons, you will probably sit uninterested and annoyed in the theater as you watch this. Seeing the cartoons is a plus!



I saw the latest Narnia installment as well. It was just okay, but the ending battle sequence was great. I gotta say though, the oldest two of the four kids, they bug the hell out of me. I can't put my finger on it, but the older brother is such a pretty boy little prat I just want to push him into a puddle of mud. And the older sister constantly has this tough girl scowl that makes her look, and forgive my shallowness, it makes here look ugly as all hell. Ugh, and to think Prince Caspian actually enjoyed kissing her. The special effects were better than the first, and the creature make-up and effects were great too. I think I liked the first Narnia movie better.



So far, it's been a pretty ho hum movie Summer, aside of Iron Man. And my hopes for Indiana Jones 4 to be an epic masterpiece of adventure movie making have come to a depressing shortfall now that the first critics reviews are out. None of them are good. Hey, the critics have been wrong once before (Ebert hated Back To The Future).