Last night heralded the return of one of the most iconic characters in cinematic history. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull premiered across the nation. As a longtime fan of both the movies and particularly the music, I thought it might be fun to do a blog movie review. So here goes.
(SPOILER ALERT: Don’t read any further if you don’t want plot elements revealed.) The movie takes place in 1957, almost 20 years after the events of the Last Crusade. The main enemies this time are Russians instead of Nazis, with the prize relic being a skull of alien origin. The skull was taken from a temple in the Amazon that chronicled alien activity across the globe. The rest of the movie involves the race to return the skull to the temple to discover its mysteries.
I went in not expecting the cinematic Second Coming as per George Lucas’ suggestion. That being said, I have mixed feelings about the movie. Firstly, Russians don’t make a compelling enemy to me. Communist Russia has always struck me as more of a misunderstood political ideology than the evil threat Senator McCarthy claimed it was. As a result, I didn’t really find myself hating the main baddies as much as the Nazis. Nazis for the most part seem to make everyone’s blood boil. I get more enjoyment out of watching a bad guy I can’t stand get bashed by the hero. The other element of the skull itself and the whole alien aspect doesn’t seem to be the best fit for Indiana Jones. Mixing history, antiquities, and science fiction is a hard mixture for me to accept for some reason.
From an action sequence standpoint, there are some fun set pieces that hearken back to those days of Indy riding horses, tanks, and trains. The motorcycle chase through the university campus was a fun sequence to watch. Another fun sequence that was more character driven was Orellana’s Cradle. The main action piece of the jungle chase was more of a mixed bag. While some stunts and shots were done with stuntmen and real vehicles, there were a few shots that were done electronically. One scene in particular involves Shia LaBeouf straddling two moving vehicles. The scene is taken from the point of view of someone lying on the ground looking up.
I know that CGI has come a long way and the line between what is real and what is computer generated is blurring, but certain camera angles are dead giveaways. There is no way to disguise a shot looking up at a man straddling two cars with the “camera” keeping pace as anything other than CGI. The spatial relationship of objects won’t allow for the suspension of that much disbelief. To, me it was an unnecessary shot that took me out of the spirit of the scene. There are just some modern filming techniques that I don’t care for and the reliance of CGI to create unrealistic points of view for a scene is one of them.
Don’t get me wrong, I loved the movie and I would go see it again. It was great to see Harrison Ford in a movie where he actually smiled and stammered comically at points. I also have to think the casting of John Hurt in his role was planned purposely. It was a clever nod to one of Hurt’s previous roles in another film.
Where the movie hits and misses at times, the music is all hit to me. John Williams went back and scored the movie very much in the vein of the first movie. That famous Indiana Jones theme is more prevalent throughout the movie. In the Last Crusade, it was used less because Spielberg did not want to use it all the time to “press the action button” as he put it. But after 19 years, that theme needed to be heard more to help the viewer re-establish the link to the character. Bravo John and Stephen! Other themes are heard as well. Marion’s theme and Henry Sr.’s theme are heard at various points when the character is on screen or referenced. The new theme for Cate Blanchett’s character makes nice use of horns in a strong fanfare like statement. The melodies relating to the alien element are appropriately eerie, with use of strings and dissonant chords. It does borrow some elements from other scores dealing with aliens, but Williams puts his definitive stamp on it.
So, there you have it. I would recommend seeing Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. There will definitely be times that you see some of the old magic that made this series a hit. If you are a fan of the previous films, you will enjoy this film. The extent to which you do enjoy it is based on your own personal taste in movies.
(SPOILER ALERT: Don’t read any further if you don’t want plot elements revealed.) The movie takes place in 1957, almost 20 years after the events of the Last Crusade. The main enemies this time are Russians instead of Nazis, with the prize relic being a skull of alien origin. The skull was taken from a temple in the Amazon that chronicled alien activity across the globe. The rest of the movie involves the race to return the skull to the temple to discover its mysteries.
I went in not expecting the cinematic Second Coming as per George Lucas’ suggestion. That being said, I have mixed feelings about the movie. Firstly, Russians don’t make a compelling enemy to me. Communist Russia has always struck me as more of a misunderstood political ideology than the evil threat Senator McCarthy claimed it was. As a result, I didn’t really find myself hating the main baddies as much as the Nazis. Nazis for the most part seem to make everyone’s blood boil. I get more enjoyment out of watching a bad guy I can’t stand get bashed by the hero. The other element of the skull itself and the whole alien aspect doesn’t seem to be the best fit for Indiana Jones. Mixing history, antiquities, and science fiction is a hard mixture for me to accept for some reason.
From an action sequence standpoint, there are some fun set pieces that hearken back to those days of Indy riding horses, tanks, and trains. The motorcycle chase through the university campus was a fun sequence to watch. Another fun sequence that was more character driven was Orellana’s Cradle. The main action piece of the jungle chase was more of a mixed bag. While some stunts and shots were done with stuntmen and real vehicles, there were a few shots that were done electronically. One scene in particular involves Shia LaBeouf straddling two moving vehicles. The scene is taken from the point of view of someone lying on the ground looking up.
I know that CGI has come a long way and the line between what is real and what is computer generated is blurring, but certain camera angles are dead giveaways. There is no way to disguise a shot looking up at a man straddling two cars with the “camera” keeping pace as anything other than CGI. The spatial relationship of objects won’t allow for the suspension of that much disbelief. To, me it was an unnecessary shot that took me out of the spirit of the scene. There are just some modern filming techniques that I don’t care for and the reliance of CGI to create unrealistic points of view for a scene is one of them.
Don’t get me wrong, I loved the movie and I would go see it again. It was great to see Harrison Ford in a movie where he actually smiled and stammered comically at points. I also have to think the casting of John Hurt in his role was planned purposely. It was a clever nod to one of Hurt’s previous roles in another film.
Where the movie hits and misses at times, the music is all hit to me. John Williams went back and scored the movie very much in the vein of the first movie. That famous Indiana Jones theme is more prevalent throughout the movie. In the Last Crusade, it was used less because Spielberg did not want to use it all the time to “press the action button” as he put it. But after 19 years, that theme needed to be heard more to help the viewer re-establish the link to the character. Bravo John and Stephen! Other themes are heard as well. Marion’s theme and Henry Sr.’s theme are heard at various points when the character is on screen or referenced. The new theme for Cate Blanchett’s character makes nice use of horns in a strong fanfare like statement. The melodies relating to the alien element are appropriately eerie, with use of strings and dissonant chords. It does borrow some elements from other scores dealing with aliens, but Williams puts his definitive stamp on it.
So, there you have it. I would recommend seeing Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. There will definitely be times that you see some of the old magic that made this series a hit. If you are a fan of the previous films, you will enjoy this film. The extent to which you do enjoy it is based on your own personal taste in movies.
0 comments:
Post a Comment