Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull [use spoiler tags, please]

[LSPoorEeyorick]

Originally Posted by GC

Mutt combs his hair, that means he's cool

Really? Because I took that to mean that he wasn’t cool whatsoever. That he thinks he’s cool, but as we know, he’s nothing compared to Indy in his prime. It seemed to me that we were supposed to be looking at him through Indy’s eyes, and in doing that, he came across as some kid who thought a lot of himself, and who had no idea what majesty and danger the ancient world held. And this is even before he screamed like a ninny in the graveyard. So, actually, Mutt didn’t bother me at all, and then I developed an affection for him grew once it became clear (though I’d suspected) that he was the fruit of the Marion/Indy loins.

Originally Posted by mousepod

The skull was a really obvious telegraph to the Alien climax. Well, that and the fact that the opening sequence involved a recovery of an alien's body.

It was so obvious, in fact, that I thought we were totally in red-herring territory. Because, I thought to myself, Spielberg wouldn’t be going back to that again, right? So I went merrily on my way to enjoy the film – which I did – as a big, silly, summer movie. Yes, yes, so much action was implausible. Yes, yes, a lot of CGI. Yes, yes, can’t recreate the magic of Raiders. (Which, by the way, I think has a lot to do with having limitations. Limitations, be they technological, budgetary, or otherwise, often makes for a more passionate and ‘real’ work of film art. Stunts are chancy and gritty, so are sets… when you have money, you forget that chancy and gritty are what make your adventure move.) But, you know, I went in expecting that, so I was along for the ride.

It was a fun romp. I loved the graveyard scene, the dry sand (and that terrible snake rope – I actually screamed. By the way, Sophie, who has worked as a lab tech, said that a snake once bent a needle when she was trying to inject it – so maybe they did research it.)

I was particularly happy when Marion came along. She I love her feisty nature, and I thought it was believable that they were still in love after all these years. I found myself caring about their quirky little nuke-you-lar family, and that’s what carried me right up until it became clear that alien-red-herring wasn’t being served for dinner.

And then I was lost. As I told some people last night, I have some angst built up from AI, which fascinated me with its terrible, terrible badness. (My college paper about it was talking about the truly useless and un-Kubrickian use of aliens.) It’s his go-to ex-machina, and I wish he hadn’t gone that way.
I was pulled out right of the movie right on through the wedding finale, by which point I was looking at the seams. (Wow, what glowy backlit halos, what pasted-on grins. Are we in The Muppets Take Manhattan now?) But the excellent pass-the-hat gag made me very happy at the end, and I came out feeling like was entertained plenty.