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May 23, 2008
After 19 years away, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, and Harrison Ford have recaptured that magic that has made the Indy trilogy so successful and have added a worthy sequel to a franchise that stands the test of time.
First, let me cover a few things I was not thrilled with. The start of the movie missed the typical Indiana Jones beginning focusing solely on him, and just sort of dropped you into a movie that was already in progress. Then there are the Aliens. Yep, there are Aliens in this movie. While I was not thrilled with it, I thought they at least did it well, and it didn’t spoil the movie. Lastly, I didn’t like Mac’s character. I don’t think Indy is stupid enough to be duped by the guy as many times as he is in the movie. That said… let’s get into the good parts.
The stuff we love about Indy films are here, the Paramount logo fading into a mountain-like object in the background, Indy’s phobia of snakes, the flight paths on the background maps with the old Pan-America Plane and Indy sleeping under his hat, and the numerous references to the first three films, including pictures of [ Sean Connery ], and [ Denholm Elliott ].
This latest Indy movie finds that perfect balance between action, humor, and humanity that made Raiders so special. It is not a goofy comedy, like Last Crusade seemingly was, though there is still plenty of humorous moments in this film, and the chemistry between [ Shia Le Boeuf ] and [ Harrison Ford ] is remarkable. It has a healthy plot building process, and we get to watch Indy and Marion’s love redevelop , in fact, the scenes with Marion and Indy together are some of the best parts of the movie. The action sequences are awesome, the car chase scene in the jungle is a fast-paced, thrill ride with a bit of a chill with the giant ants. While there was a liberal use of CGI in the movie, many of the action sequences are done old school, letting us remember back 20+ years ago to Raiders and why we loved it so much. I thought that they struck a great balance with the CGI, not too much, and not too little.
The entire cast is has perfect chemistry and everybody plays their parts incredibly well, even despite the fact that [ Karen Allen's ] last memorable role was in 1984 with Starman. Harrison Ford, obviously missed the role of Indy, and you can tell he is having the time of his life in his return to everyone’s favorite archaeologist. He we instrumental in getting this movie made as he spent years campaigning for this movie, and he puts his all into a strong performance. [ Cate Blanchett's ] heavy Russian accent is a bit over-the-top, but she ends up being just creepy enough, and intriguing enough to keep us interested in her character, and ends up being one of the better villains from the series.
A strong story and great performances don’t imply that this film isn’t flawless. It isn’t, but the flaws are few-and-far between and didn’t hinder my overall enjoyment of the film. The first 20 minutes are somewhat slow and while it isn’t necessarily boring; it is still entertaining, but it could have used several minutes of edits.
Bottom line, I loved this movie, and repeat viewings are assured. It is the Indy film that you’ve been waiting twenty plus years for, and the Lucas, Spielberg and Ford have proved that you can bring an American icon back from the dead and still have him wow the audience.
Indiana Jones is back, and oh how we’ve missed him.
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