Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Thick, Transparent Skull
Finally saw Indiana Jones 4. It exceeded my expectations. I expected it to be utterly abysmal, by virtue of everything I know about George Lucas, and because despite my best efforts to avoid spoilers I did know about the aliens (you can only spend so long contemplating the film's title without figuring this out). It's not that Lucas hasn't done anything good with Harrison Ford and aliens before--it's the violation of genre. Lucas and Spielberg collectively aren't good enough to bend genre at the outset, so, four movies into the series, I didn't find the idea of changing the game appealing. But I enjoyed the movie because, again, it was better than I thought it would be.
What were my expectations? Formulaic genre fiction with a thin plot, shallow characters, entertaining, mindless action, and a few clever jokes. This was delivered. Here are all my complaints: the adventure was less epic than Last Crusade, the jokes were fewer, and the actors had less chemistry (Last Crusade was a tough act to follow). Had this been Raiders of the Lost Ark, a monkey thrown from a moving vehicle over a cliff's edge would have fallen to its death. Despite what I would call a valiant effort on my part, I simply could not suspend my disbelief for the Tarzan scene. The monkeys were no help there, nor did the many inexplicably anthropomorphic gophers in the first act help usher me into the movie's world.
In the movie's defense, it was no more chauvinistic or campy than Temple of Doom, and no less gritty than Last Crusade. Spielburg didn't learn how to pace his movies until after Temple of Doom, so Crystal Skull never lagged in parts as the first two movies did. The aliens were not the farce they could have been, because they were simply a McGuffin, and while I'm no fan of McGuffins, they are a staple of this series. You can't really expect more than this from Spielberg or Lucas. They're wizards of least common denominators, and they've done a fine job once again of assembling two hours' entertainment for a mass consumer audience.