As an archaeologist, it was pretty much mandatory fro me to see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, so over the weekend I did. While it has its moments - many of them being call-backs to the original three, the overall film is only OK, and I would say that the three 1980s films were better. Yes, even Temple of Doom.
There was also a nagging feeling that Indiana Jones is somehow out of place in the 1950s. The 30s and 40s? Sure, that's the period of pulp adventure, but the 50s somehow feels slightly off. If there's a fifth installment they better not push it into the 60s. More positively, Harrison Ford does quite well here, which is impressive when you remember that his last decent film was, what, The Fugitive? Actually, Scrubs fans will be pleased to see the Janitor pop up yet again in a Harrison Ford film.
Of interest to the archaeological crowd is the fact that our impeccably anti-Communist Dr. Jones declares himself to be a fan of Vere Gordon Childe.
1 comment:
I heard a film show on the radio where loads of people were emailing in with really derogatory things to say about it and the reviewer pointed out this was because the film was only "perfectly okay" and people were expecting it to be brilliant, you know, like what they remember from when they were kids. By contrast, people who hadn't seen the originals seemed come down on the side of "yeah, it was okay, what's the fuss all about?"
Funny thing, expectation.
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