Indiana Jones and the Last of the Summer Wine
23rd May 2008 – 7.10 amI saw Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull last night and I wasn't impressed. The opening action sequence made me realise how long it has been in watching a film in the cinema since I was last so aware that a stunt double was trying to hide his face from the camera, but that seemed to be an issue just with the opening sequence. The other action sequences, or 'the film' if you prefer, had plenty of action in them, just not much action from the characters themselves. Most of the excitement seemed to come from being sat down and needing to duck every now and again whilst something exciting flew over their heads, causing all sorts of danger and destruction.
What with all the bullets being fired from automatic weapons, often at close range, it was not only surprising that no one got hit it ended up being boring. There was no sense of danger in being shot at, and that simply highlighted that there was little sense of the characters being in danger at all. They were just coasting along, being pulled and pushed by various vehicles and people, ducking occasionally, and finding themselves in the next location ready to start again. The scenes following clues and artefact hunting were so abbreviated that the characters again were coasting, not really performing any detective work or research but stumbling over their next lead just from walking or crawling in to a room.
If there wasn't a suitable room to hold an obvious clue then we could rely on John Hurt's character, or 'Skippy' as I came to think of him. An man incomprehensible through apparent madness, he spews the occasional string of words that can be translated by Indiana. 'What's that, Skippy? The Mayan civilisation is behind this rock? We'd better walk around it then!'
It wasn't just the characters though, we were all there just for the ride. We were just expected to enjoy seeing Indiana Jones on another adventure and marvel at the action that happens around him. This is emphasised when people on screen remind us that 'It's Indie' whenever we're wondering how he is going to get out of the current scrape in which he finds himself. This is just a nostalgia trip, a last outing to commemorate a hero to many people.
The end of the film was incongruous with almost everything that followed, and seemed tacked on to present a Lucas fairy tale. I wouldn't have been surprised if the scene dissolved to reveal that it had all been just a dream, or the fantastic tales of a pensioner in a nursing home.
This is the Indiana Jones Experience in a theme park, and it's being opened by the hero himself showing us how everyone can share what it's like to be him without any of the danger. Sit back and remember the good times you had with Indiana Jones in this living monument to a man of adventure.
Those are just my impressions though, my friends thought it was great. To show that my opinions cannot be trusted, I hated Kill Bill and the same friends thought it was the best film for years.
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