Saw the preview yesterday.
Loved it.
The story is good, the actors are fantastic – above all Harrison Ford, but I was also very fond of Karen Allen – and it just feels right. This is Indiana Jones. The movie may not have a strong enough climax (it’s exciting, but it never builds to the levels of Temple of Doom or Last Crusade), it may be a little too short, Cate Blanchett’s accent may sometimes pop out a little (though she’s wonderful otherwise), all kinds of shortcomings may be found… but in the end, it’s an amazing, fun ride, and 100% Indiana Jones.
Which is what the fans, such as myself, were hoping for. What people who enjoy cinema were hoping for. As for the naysayers, they would have complained no matter what the film was like; for them, it’s more about portraying themselves in a certain light than about the movie. The same mindless snobbery that affected the Star Wars prequels is likely to happen here, too: people who haven’t even payed attention to the movie, who haven’t spent half a second of thought on it, but want to prove how “grown up” they are by dismissing things that are new. “In my time, movies didn’t have special effects, they had models, which are real, yes, they’re actually the size of the actual actors…” That kind of thing. And then there are movie critics, who generally hate anything that is fun and intelligent, and especially hate it when something is successful more than once. Ahh! Evil!
Go see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. You’ll have fun. You’ll have moments to remember. What more can one ask of a good adventure movie?
