Well the wife and I finally secured a sitter and were able to catch this flick last night so I figure I best post some thoughts while the movie is still fresh. We actually had sneak preview tickets to go attend a special screening with other lucky ticket holders and the reviewing press on May 19th but the theater was overbooked and we thought about the hassle of standing in line for hours and I finally decided that "I'm getting too old for this ^^^^."
We did that for Revenge of the Sith and it was a euphoric experience but I decided for Indy we can wait.
So we go last night and very shortly into the film I realized one thing. I'm ready for film to say its final goodbye and let HD reign. We saw Iron Man and Prince Caspian on glorious DLP screens and was let down by the presentation of Crystal Skull. The whole reel was scratched and caused those frustrating black lines to run through the picture for the majority of the flick. At one point my wife leaned over and asked if the film was supposed to look like that (she was familiar with the "slightly damaged" look of earlier Spielberg films; Saving Private Ryan, Minority Report, etc.) but alas I had to tell her that no, its just our lowsy print, and to just pretend that we really were watching a film that had been around since the 50's.
But the screen has huge, the sound was cranked to ten and the movie, well, in spite of the presentation I liked it. A lot.
I *loved* Indy's characterization in this movie. He really came off the way I hoped he would; the Indy equivalent of Clint Eastwood in Unforgiven. He was assured, cocky, weathered, and *damn* competent. At first I assumed we'd see him up to all of his classic dirty tricks; biting, cheating, hiding behind children, etc. But then I realized that while those are classic down and dirty survival techniques they're also acts of *desperation*. This Indy was beyond that. He wasn't kinder or gentler, he just didn't need to fight so dirty because he's that good at staying alive. I liked that he was never on the verge of panic over dying like in his earlier adventures (hanging on the edge of the pit in the opening of Raiders or "We are going to DIE!" in Temple of Doom.) He was obviously concerned over the nuke going off but never came close to losing his cool. And if a nuke won't panic him, you know for the rest of the flick that NOTHING will. I LOVED that.
Let me address the nuke for a second. I have NO problem with how he survived it. Is it technically realistic? Hell no. Unless you take into account the *clearly established* world these movies take place in. Regardless of anyone's real life opinions on God, the Indy movies operate under the assumption that the God of the Bible is very much real. The Ark and Holy Grail proved that. Of course we know that the "grail" was never reported in the Bible to have any powers but the movies obviously suggest that it does because it was used by Christ.
God obviously favored Indy at the end of Raiders and with one more battle in proximity of the Ark with enemies who had no regard for preserving it (you even clearly see its box get damaged) I take the fridge as God saying, "Here Indy, one last miracle for not abusing my ark." So he was preserved in the fridge like Jonah in the whale and on with the rest of the movie. Within the context of the story and miracles that have ALREADY been shown (and accepted without question by the audience I might add) the fridge works. If it had occurred at the end of the movie (like Indy's surviving the wrath of God when the ark was opened) I don't think people would have had a problem with it. "Oh yeah, these movies always end with something supernatural." But put it at the beginning and then suddenly its absurd and unrealistic. Not quite.
I'd rank Crystal Skull slightly below Raiders and Doom and far above Last Crusade.
I loved the graveyard scenes. He was such a badass. I have no problem with him not firing his pistol. He didn't need to! He wasn't afraid or PC, he pointed it at people and they ran away! People just somehow got that this wasn't an old man to be messed with. I think some people need to get out of Spielberg's head and just note what's appropriate in the context of the story. Luke Skywalker was pretty heavily associated with blasters and X-Wings after Star Wars but in The Empire Strikes Back guess what, he didn't shoot *anything* with his blaster or X-Wing! He pointed his gun at the swamp when R2 was swallowed and once at a fleeing Boba Fett and in 28 years I've seen NO ONE cry foul over that.
My two favorite shots in Crystal Skull were when Indy crested the rise and saw the mushroom cloud (WOW! One of my favorite shots in the entire series!) and in one scene during the jungle chase along the cliffs I got an awesome sense of vertigo.
The ending was a slight WTF and had shades of the finale of Ang Lee's Hulk and The X-Files movie which I don't consider a plus in either sense so in that sense it didn't end on quite the high note as the other three movies but I liked the wedding epilogue.
One reason I think I was able to enjoy this more than some is that for me, the perfect Indy movie was made right out of the gate--Raiders of the Lost Ark. That's about as close to a perfect all around movie as I've seen in *any* genre. As far as I'm concerned the last three movies have been celebratory victory laps providing some extra thrills and laughs at the same time. I don't need a them to finally get an Indy movie "right", I just like to see Dr. Jones on another adventure with funny dialogue and ingenius action sequences. Its still possible for an Indy movie to "fail", Last Crusade almost did and the various Mummy and Sahara flicks actually did. But Indy hasn't, and for that I'm glad.
Terrific entertainment and a worthy curtain call to the series if that's what it turns out to be.
) for him not messing with the ark.
