Wasn't worst movie ever, but I was disappointed, and I went in with low, low expectations.


I don't think the problem is the film but with the fact that we all grew up.

It's over the top, totally, but then again so were the others if you think about it.

You're right, that could be part of it, but I think there's more to it being bad (to me that is) than just me being older.

Sci-fi and a couple other channels were playing the shit out of the original three movies the last few weeks and I watched all of them as sort of an Indy "refresher" because it'd been a while since I had last seen them. You're correct when you say they're over the top. They definitely all had their cheesey moments. But even going back and watching them as an adult I can forgive them their corniness because they're all still pretty entertaining. Decent plotting (for an action flick), good dialogue, good if even over-the-top action (for the most part; some things fell down, like the "parachuting life raft" in Temple of Doom), decent character development. Overall, they were just a lot of fun, even as an adult. So the cheese in those didn't bother me so much.

But this one's cheese was of a stinky variety.

As Fed said, some of the action sequences were not bad, but that's kind of what this movie came off like to me. The plot was barely there, seemed more like an excuse to just get from one action sequence to another. Don't get me wrong, action sequences can be great, but if that's all that a movie has to offer, even when they're well done they can get boring.

The dialogue was so stilted and horrible through most of the movie that even though I didn't look at the credits, it wouldn't surprise me in the least if Lucas wrote it himself, given how bad most of the dialogue in the latest SW movies was.

Gophers (or possibly prairie dogs, wasn't sure which they were). What was with the gophers left and right at the beginning? I wouldn't be surprised to see Lucas trying to peddle a line of cuddly gopher toys to kids. Sort of the Indy version of ewoks.

The kid swinging through the trees and becoming Lord of the Monkeys. What the fuck was that all about? Even in the over-the-top world of Dr. Jones, that was just plain lame, lame, lame. Came off like another excuse for Lucas to get something cute-n-cuddly thrown into the mix.

The kid constantly wanting to comb his hair. Probably shouldn't have, but that just irritated the shit out of me for some reason. Even Capshaw's vain, ditzy acctress character from Temple of Doom didn't worry that much about her hair.

And was Lucas doing a little masturbating there with the one scene in the diner where the "greasers" get in a fight with the "soshes?" Came off like they were doing a "hey, remember George made American Graffitti, remember, remember?" bit.

And too, there was the overall sense that Indy and company were never really in danger. I mean, in the other three movies you pretty much knew Indy would survive (and most likely his sidekicks would too), but they still did a good job of conveying a sense of "if he doesn't watch out, those nazis/thugees/even more nazis are gonna fuck his shit up." This time around though, not so much. The Russians came off like a mild itch that he was just having a hard time reaching to scratch because he was older and not quite so flexible any more. There was no real air of menace to them.

On the up side, I thought Ford still did a decent job. Even when the dialogue was stilted and awkward he came off like the Indy of the other movies. And Blanchett did a nice job too, even if I thought they had her pointlessly screaming "Jones!" way too much. I think she screamed that more than all the villains in the other three movies combined. And I did really like the one fight scene with the Russian guy amidst the ant swarm. That was very reminiscent of the other three movies, especially the fight with the bald nazi under the rotating plane.

And don't convey that I by any means think anyone should avoid seeing it. My friends liked it more than I did (though they too were still underwhelmed). I fully expect this is one of those movies where people's mileage will vary.