Indiana Jones!
I finally saw Indiana Jones! W00tage! Cue leather whip and hat, and a review...
I was a bit apprehensive about them bringing back Indy, when the film industry has such a hit and miss approach to sequels delivered a long time later (or indeed prequels, and you know the ones I mean)[1]. So, I was prepared to be critical - and came away quite delighted (if slightly disbelieving). I think the good things probably very much outweigh the bad...
Good things
1) It's just so 1950s. I adore the 1950s, so this is good. And we got treated to a bit of rock 'n' roll (Hound Dog at the beginning and Shake, Rattle and Roll later on), those spectacularly 1950s cafes, the motorbikes, the young people and their rival factions, the nuclear weapon testing, the fascination with flying saucers... I thought it was evoked beautifully. Maybe some people might think they went over the top in saying 'Look, this is the 1950s! We've given you lots of signposts!' but I'm such a fan of that decade that it just made me want to squee.
2) The second best (or maybe the very best) thing about the film has to be the wonderful Shia LeBeouf, who plays Indy's son (Mark, formerly known as Henry). I'd heard about Indy's son playing a big role in the film, and was worried he wouldn't live up to it - but he absolutely did. He looked every bit the 1950s biker teenager, he had a lot of front (and combed his hair a lot) and yet was often sweet and sincere, and he handled the action very well indeed. All those bits where Indy was too old and creaky didn't matter because his son was there to take on the action role - and where Indy sometimes seemed a bit stereotypified[2] or overacting, his son was there as the perfect antidote to it. He was something new, and something wonderful. He even reminded me a bit of River Phoenix playing Young Indy in Last Crusade - not visually, but in terms of cheek and adventurousness. Message to Lucas and Spielberg: please make spin-off movies and persuade Shia LeBeouf to do this more! The only thing that devastated me was the realisation that he's probably too young for me :(
3) Harrison Ford will always be one of my favourite actors, and he didn't disappoint. He didn't always have as much to say as he did when he was younger, but when he was on form in the good bits, it was just wonderful having Indy back :)
4) Watching Indy realise he was a father and react to that was lovely, largely because they quite subtly introduced this as a process whereby he turned into his own father (insisting that Mark finish school, calling him Junior at the end, and so on).
5) There was a reference to the TV series of Young Indy (go and buy the DVDs - they're expensive, but I guarantee you won't be disappointed), when Indy said about having been kidnapped by Pancho Villa. Yay, canon!
6) Aliens coupled with the practice of binding babies' heads to make them a funny shape made for a plausible enough storyline. It was the aliens being real bit that I couldn't accept ;)
7) Indy understands random languages and reads random scripts. Of course he does! Just as he always did. Can you see where I'm going with my career now? ;)
Not as good things
1) At the beginning, Indy is really quite shaky and does a bit of falling over and getting this wrong. Having this at the beginning just made it look like he wasn't quite up to the action any more, so I think they should have had that later. It's not that Indy doesn't get things wrong - in fact, that's part of Indy's character (as in the first three films). But it was too much at the beginning, I think.
2) I'm not sure about Cate Blanchett's character. West Ukrainian psychic scientist, former right hand woman of Stalin, likes fighting with swords... I'm just not sure she was iconic or scary enough. Though she looked good.
3) OK, aliens? Seriously? Somehow this jarred my suspension of disbelief in a way that glowing stones and the Ark of the Covenant being able to kill people and a 900-year-old knight in a booby-trapped temple with the Holy Grail (which could bring eternal life) never did.
4) That's a point, actually - how come Indy's dad is dead, when he drank from the Holy Grail? Or maybe it just gives you really long life unless you get fatally injured or something. Though we don't know how he died. *shrug*
5) The ending was a bit disappointing, I thought. I don't see why Marion is so special (she didn't seem more special than any of his other girlfriends in Raiders of the Lost Ark), and much much more of an anti-climax can you get than having Indiana Jones settle down at the end of the film? Also, they really really didn't play the beautiful, iconic theme tune for long enough at the end either. And Indy's son really should have got to keep the hat[3].
6) I thought the climax could have been better too. I found it hard to believe in the aliens, and it was all just a bit swirly and too much as if they wanted to recreate something along the lines of the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark (which, admittedly, was brilliant).
7) I didn't like Indy's not-really-double agent mate. I realise that's the right reaction to the character - but I didn't even like him as a baddie. He just didn't have much character in the first place, and felt quite two-dimensional. The bit where Indy tried to save him at the end didn't ring true, considering the continual betrayal. *shrug*
[1] A little bit of history: I'm exactly that age where Indy was one of the strongest cinematic influences on my youth, so this means a lot to me. So so many of my kinks (including the glove one!) come from the Indy films, which play not a small role in defining who I am and how I think.
[2] Don't be silly, of course there's a verb to stereotypify.
[3] Though he looks better in the biker cap thing.
(sorry, I don't have an Indy icon!)
I was a bit apprehensive about them bringing back Indy, when the film industry has such a hit and miss approach to sequels delivered a long time later (or indeed prequels, and you know the ones I mean)[1]. So, I was prepared to be critical - and came away quite delighted (if slightly disbelieving). I think the good things probably very much outweigh the bad...
Good things
1) It's just so 1950s. I adore the 1950s, so this is good. And we got treated to a bit of rock 'n' roll (Hound Dog at the beginning and Shake, Rattle and Roll later on), those spectacularly 1950s cafes, the motorbikes, the young people and their rival factions, the nuclear weapon testing, the fascination with flying saucers... I thought it was evoked beautifully. Maybe some people might think they went over the top in saying 'Look, this is the 1950s! We've given you lots of signposts!' but I'm such a fan of that decade that it just made me want to squee.
2) The second best (or maybe the very best) thing about the film has to be the wonderful Shia LeBeouf, who plays Indy's son (Mark, formerly known as Henry). I'd heard about Indy's son playing a big role in the film, and was worried he wouldn't live up to it - but he absolutely did. He looked every bit the 1950s biker teenager, he had a lot of front (and combed his hair a lot) and yet was often sweet and sincere, and he handled the action very well indeed. All those bits where Indy was too old and creaky didn't matter because his son was there to take on the action role - and where Indy sometimes seemed a bit stereotypified[2] or overacting, his son was there as the perfect antidote to it. He was something new, and something wonderful. He even reminded me a bit of River Phoenix playing Young Indy in Last Crusade - not visually, but in terms of cheek and adventurousness. Message to Lucas and Spielberg: please make spin-off movies and persuade Shia LeBeouf to do this more! The only thing that devastated me was the realisation that he's probably too young for me :(
3) Harrison Ford will always be one of my favourite actors, and he didn't disappoint. He didn't always have as much to say as he did when he was younger, but when he was on form in the good bits, it was just wonderful having Indy back :)
4) Watching Indy realise he was a father and react to that was lovely, largely because they quite subtly introduced this as a process whereby he turned into his own father (insisting that Mark finish school, calling him Junior at the end, and so on).
5) There was a reference to the TV series of Young Indy (go and buy the DVDs - they're expensive, but I guarantee you won't be disappointed), when Indy said about having been kidnapped by Pancho Villa. Yay, canon!
6) Aliens coupled with the practice of binding babies' heads to make them a funny shape made for a plausible enough storyline. It was the aliens being real bit that I couldn't accept ;)
7) Indy understands random languages and reads random scripts. Of course he does! Just as he always did. Can you see where I'm going with my career now? ;)
Not as good things
1) At the beginning, Indy is really quite shaky and does a bit of falling over and getting this wrong. Having this at the beginning just made it look like he wasn't quite up to the action any more, so I think they should have had that later. It's not that Indy doesn't get things wrong - in fact, that's part of Indy's character (as in the first three films). But it was too much at the beginning, I think.
2) I'm not sure about Cate Blanchett's character. West Ukrainian psychic scientist, former right hand woman of Stalin, likes fighting with swords... I'm just not sure she was iconic or scary enough. Though she looked good.
3) OK, aliens? Seriously? Somehow this jarred my suspension of disbelief in a way that glowing stones and the Ark of the Covenant being able to kill people and a 900-year-old knight in a booby-trapped temple with the Holy Grail (which could bring eternal life) never did.
4) That's a point, actually - how come Indy's dad is dead, when he drank from the Holy Grail? Or maybe it just gives you really long life unless you get fatally injured or something. Though we don't know how he died. *shrug*
5) The ending was a bit disappointing, I thought. I don't see why Marion is so special (she didn't seem more special than any of his other girlfriends in Raiders of the Lost Ark), and much much more of an anti-climax can you get than having Indiana Jones settle down at the end of the film? Also, they really really didn't play the beautiful, iconic theme tune for long enough at the end either. And Indy's son really should have got to keep the hat[3].
6) I thought the climax could have been better too. I found it hard to believe in the aliens, and it was all just a bit swirly and too much as if they wanted to recreate something along the lines of the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark (which, admittedly, was brilliant).
7) I didn't like Indy's not-really-double agent mate. I realise that's the right reaction to the character - but I didn't even like him as a baddie. He just didn't have much character in the first place, and felt quite two-dimensional. The bit where Indy tried to save him at the end didn't ring true, considering the continual betrayal. *shrug*
[1] A little bit of history: I'm exactly that age where Indy was one of the strongest cinematic influences on my youth, so this means a lot to me. So so many of my kinks (including the glove one!) come from the Indy films, which play not a small role in defining who I am and how I think.
[2] Don't be silly, of course there's a verb to stereotypify.
[3] Though he looks better in the biker cap thing.
(sorry, I don't have an Indy icon!)