Wednesday, June 11, 2008

I think so, Brain, but burlap chafes me so

This week I saw Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. I'll start my nitpicking by saying that title is too damn long. The gist of my impressions are that George Lucas had his hacky little fingers all over the dialogue, and it would make a great Animaniacs* episode. The music was mostly enjoyable (unmistakably John Williams), but there were a few scenes where it was so comical that I half expected Yakko, Wakko & Dot to show up.

While I'm not inclined to lump this movie in with Temple of Doom (appropriately number two in the series), it doesn't hold a candle to Raiders or Last Crusade.

Surprisingly, I did not find Shia LaBeouf to be especially offensive, nor his character, Mutt, especially annoying. I wasn't sure; I'd only seen him in one other movie and I was underwhelmed. Anyway, I actually liked him in this. Of course, it was such a huge pleasure to see Karen Allen again. Unfortunately, there was about one twenty-third of a second wherein Marion and Indy had any chemistry at all, and then the moment passed and I was left feeling just kind of blah about their reunion. Their romance did nothing for me and the wedding at the end felt soulless. Damn.

I enjoyed seeing John Hurt, though I felt like he was wasted considering the amount of time he spent onscreen. But, it was nice to see him, and in a very wonderful way, he reminded me of my friend Todd (hey Todd!).

On a scale of one to ten, I give it an "almost could have waited for DVD." And, that seems to be all I have to say about it.


*for those not hip to Animaniacs, it's a 1990s Steven Spielberg exec produced cartoon, and it's very funny. The title for this post is a quote from the show; Yakko, Wakko & Dot are characters.