A friend of mine has a great theory that the "Indiana Jones" movies subscribe to the law of diminishing returns. No one in their right mind argues that "Raiders of the Lost Ark" is the pinnacle, one of the greatest adventure movies of all time, and the movie that solidified Harrison Ford as an icon, no matter how much he may loathe the title (and it really freaking seems like he does anymore). Then "Temple of Doom" which you can file under extremely interesting failure if you're a hater and brilliant departure if you don't, and "Last Crusade" which didn't really hurt anyone, but didn't dazzle them either, with a few exceptions.
So what do you expect from this one - brilliance or disaster? I have a feeling we're looking at both. They've done little to hide the fact that the movie's McGuffin (engine that drives the plot, like the Ark of the Covenant or the Holy Grail) is an alien artifact, nor have they hid the fact that there are countless "oh God I'm Old" jokes to be expected. To both, I say "Ug." If that's all there is, leave me out.
But that isn't all there is, obviously. Forget the fact that Steven Spielberg knows what he's doing, even if George Lucas somehow forgot how to infuse joy into a movie. Harrison Ford, in the brief previews, seems to be having a good time.
Hallelujah and it's about damned time.
If all that comes out of this movie is a charge from John Williams score and Harrison Ford turning in a performance where he seems to care about providing the audience with a sly, salty yet goodhearted hero, than the movie will be a success with me. You can throw all the aliens, Communists and Shia LeBoofs (yes, I know it's misspelled, but doesn't that seem like how it should be spelled to you?) at me you want, if Harrison's got a gleam in his eye, I'm a happy guy.
Now put Spielberg back into the picture. I happen to think the third act of his career probably isn't his strongest, but it's got to be his most interesting. What does a man who can make any movie he wants to do? He makes edgy sci-fi that takes chances so often they sometimes fall flat on their face, he makes personal stories about terrorism, he makes incredibly frothy comedy/adventure bio pics and he indulges, maybe too much, in high concept. And then he goes back to the well. What an interesting guy. I can't wait to see what he's so excited about.
Other reasons to get excited about this movie:
-Kate Blanchet may be dressed like Natasha from the Bullwinkle cartoons, but she has yet to turn in a truly bad performance.
-Ray Winstone. The guy is just great all around, see "Sexy Beast" and "The Proposition" among others.
-Karen Allen is back and looked like she hasn't aged a day.
-The afore mentioned John Williams.
It's enough to make you excited, provided you temper expectations and don't mind an ET reference or two. Hell, I might even forgive them as long as I get Harrison Ford back from the self imposed career hell he seems to be in.
To close, here's a little piece of brilliant:
1 comment:
I'm approaching the new Indy-flick from a different angle than you. I can't for the life of me imagine it to be anything but great.
Then again, I love all the other films in the series. 'Raiders' the most naturally and 'Doom' the least, but I really don't agree with the classic Doom-was-a-failure-stamp that seems to have been accepted as a truism.
And Spielberg is still in my book the greatest director of the world. I'll agree that he doesn't always choose the best scripts to work from, but I think a genre-script of this kind should be somethig Koepp could do in his sleep without making it suck.
Now, it could be that I'm just a naive Indy-fan, but damn it I find it impossible not to be positive about this one.
Cheers!
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