May 29, 2008
Pamplemousse is perhaps a bit harsh about this movie, but doesn’t mention the thing I found most disappointing about it: namely, its blatant ripping-off of bits from other successful action adventure movies. For example (and in particular), The Mummy, (those disgusting scarab beetles, which become giant red ants in this movie, the Benny character who can’t help going back for more gold) The Mummy Returns, (jungle, pyramids, dart-blowing weird tribespersons), National Treasure 1 and 2 (subterranean multi-national treasure house, tilting stone disc, arrestingly dangerous methods of illumination) Star Gate (pyramids were in fact built by aliens) and Star Trek number whichever (the one where Captain Kirk discovers he has a son).
The original Indiana Jones movie was really innovative and changed action-adventures movies forever, and the aforementioned other movies all owe it a debt, so this copycat stuff is a big let down; one expected better.
Set twenty years after The Last Crusade, this movie shows us an older Indie, but apparently none the wiser – at sixty five we are asked to believe that he’s still capable of beating the crap out of bad guys thirty or forty years his junior, and would rather sink in quicksand than grab a snake to be pulled out. The older Indie appears craggy, but suspiciously unwrinkly – I suspect his lines have been cine-magicked out – we are even given an opportunity to inspect the Ford torso, which appears to be in pretty good shape for a chap about to draw his pension.
Where, however, was the wit and warmth of the character in the previous movies? Part of the erstwhile charm of Indiana Jones was that he appeared to be a genuine underdog, a man of integrity who did not expect to come out on top, who enjoyed improvising but anticipated a certain amount of pain – but here it’s as if he knows that everything’s going to work out and he’s kind of sleep-walking through it.
The other people were very good, however. Definitely a special mention for the steely-eyed Cate Blanchett as the evil Ukrainian baddy; it was lovely to see Karen Allen again, just as feisty and sparky and foul-mouthed as in the original movie; but most of all, Hell-oo to newly grown-up Shia LaBoeuf, who was rivetingly charismatic as the engagingly named Mutt Williams. LaBoeuf is now twenty one, and the rest of his face is catching up with his very impressive nose – he is tall, broad-shouldered, not classically handsome, but discerning teens would climb over Zak Efron anyday to get to him. He has the priceless quality of being able to appear a real, three-dimensional, feeling, suffering, person in even the silliest movies (Charlie’s Angels Full Throttle, Transformers), and his appearance in this one certainly rescues it from a plummet into the Don’t Bother category.
I would say it’s a Must-See, but I can’t see people going back to see it again and again.
The original Indiana Jones movie was really innovative and changed action-adventures movies forever, and the aforementioned other movies all owe it a debt, so this copycat stuff is a big let down; one expected better.
Set twenty years after The Last Crusade, this movie shows us an older Indie, but apparently none the wiser – at sixty five we are asked to believe that he’s still capable of beating the crap out of bad guys thirty or forty years his junior, and would rather sink in quicksand than grab a snake to be pulled out. The older Indie appears craggy, but suspiciously unwrinkly – I suspect his lines have been cine-magicked out – we are even given an opportunity to inspect the Ford torso, which appears to be in pretty good shape for a chap about to draw his pension.
Where, however, was the wit and warmth of the character in the previous movies? Part of the erstwhile charm of Indiana Jones was that he appeared to be a genuine underdog, a man of integrity who did not expect to come out on top, who enjoyed improvising but anticipated a certain amount of pain – but here it’s as if he knows that everything’s going to work out and he’s kind of sleep-walking through it.
The other people were very good, however. Definitely a special mention for the steely-eyed Cate Blanchett as the evil Ukrainian baddy; it was lovely to see Karen Allen again, just as feisty and sparky and foul-mouthed as in the original movie; but most of all, Hell-oo to newly grown-up Shia LaBoeuf, who was rivetingly charismatic as the engagingly named Mutt Williams. LaBoeuf is now twenty one, and the rest of his face is catching up with his very impressive nose – he is tall, broad-shouldered, not classically handsome, but discerning teens would climb over Zak Efron anyday to get to him. He has the priceless quality of being able to appear a real, three-dimensional, feeling, suffering, person in even the silliest movies (Charlie’s Angels Full Throttle, Transformers), and his appearance in this one certainly rescues it from a plummet into the Don’t Bother category.
I would say it’s a Must-See, but I can’t see people going back to see it again and again.