So, in preparation for watching “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” Brooke and I watched the original trilogy over the last few weeks. Needless to say, those movies are still really, really good.
The movie takes place 20 years after “Last Crusade,” and Indy is still a professor teaching history. He quickly gets wrapped up in an adventure that will take him down to South America in search of the lost city of El Dorado (kind of…), where a “Crystal Skull” will give him (or the bad guys…the Soviets, this time around…) ultimate power. There are plenty of references to previous movies, especially onces Marian Ravenwood (Karen Allen) shows up with her son, “Mutt” (Shia LaBeouf). There is even a touching scene to tell us that Marcus Brody and his father, Henry Jones, Sr. have both passed away (explaining their absence from this film).
Somehow, I just don’t think the new one lived up to the originals. Don’t get me wrong – this was a good movie and is well worth seeing in theaters…and I will definitely be purchasing the DVD when it comes out…but somehow, it seemed like some of the original charm was lost in this new iteration. Most of this, I think stems from the integration of CGI effects, of which Steven Spielberg is well-known for. As in, it sure looked like half the movie (certainly once the intrepid party made it to the Amazon…) was done in front of a green screen…and it was blatantly obvious. And if I could tell now, I can’t even imagine how obvious it’ll be in another 20 years.
That’s what makes the originals so good to me, I think. In an age of special effects-laden films that will not stand the test of time, the action sequences from the original Indiana Jones trilogy were done with wires, thrown punches, real tanks, actual bugs/rats, etc. The CGI effects, while good in a “2008” sort of way, don’t strike me as “timeless,” which is different than I feel watching the original trilogy. I feel like I could watch them in another 20 years and they’ll still look just as good as it did when they were first released.
And the effects aren’t even touching the whole “story” aspect of the…um…story. I won’t delve too much into it, but the whole “El Dorado” angle would have been perfect for an Indiana Jones movie. But…an “artifact” from Roswell plays a prominent role in the film…which kinda shifts the plot into a place I’d rather not see it. It all kind of makes sense…but in a more “sci-fi” sort of way, rather than a “historical” sort of way…
So yeah, in the end, with all that said, it was still a good movie and worth watching. Maybe I’m being a bit too nit-picky…maybe watching the original trilogy just before seeing the new movie was a bad idea…but I just don’t think this one holds up (or will hold up) as well as the others have over the past 20-27 years…
At least it wasn’t as bad as “Episode I,” right?
