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krpalmerWhen it at last started to get really convincing that we really were going to see a fourth Indiana Jones movie after all... a part of my reaction was, in fact, apprehension. The new Star Wars movies had worked out well to my satisfaction, and yet all the yelling and screaming might in the end may have left me a little convinced that it had been a near-run thing, and that continuing to "take chances" would eventually not work out well, even for me. It was exciting to see the trailers when they did turn up, but the apprehension was still there... and for that matter, a different kind of apprehension may have developed that this year was going to see another kind of "2002" experience, with everyone proclaiming that a younger, cooler box-office champion has already been crowned with iron. When I went to an opening-night showing of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, therefore, part of my motivation was to share in the "opening night experience" (the theatre was quite full), another part was to form my own opinions about the first Indiana Jones movie I would actually get to see in a theatre before others somehow formed them for me, and another part yet was "Let's just get this over with."
It was a bit of a surprise to see the Lucasfilm logo precede the "Paramount mountain," although that of course let the mountain fade into something else the same as ever. I did wonder for a long instant if the gopher hill that we saw would be prime bait for those (hypothetical cases) ready right from the start to declare the movie "a lesser experience"... and then, as the action rolled, I got more and more impressed and entertained.
I suppose that all the same, I was able to imagine how someone bound and determined to not be impressed could say something about how the stunts were, at least at certain times, "more fanciful" than Raiders of the Lost Ark, which I believe has always "stood alone" to some anyway. Even so, those hypothetical cases began to seem more and more bilious and inherently displeased by everything as I got used to this older Indiana Jones, and then to the character of Mutt Williams. There, I suppose, I'd been weighed down by my brother's rather violent allergic reaction to Transformers, but I'm sure that being able to accept the movie's own grand tone when it came to heroism helped. The return of Marion was great in my opinion, although having just rewatched Revenge of the Sith did prompt an odd thought or two as to whether that could be seen as a subtle counter-point to accusations of "anti-feminism" in that movie... As far as excitement goes, too, I could sense an odd sort of jittery feeling, familiar from the scenes in Revenge of the Sith leading up to Anakin's turn to the Dark Side, building up in me around the "anthill fight."
Having been informed of some incipient askance wondering about the movie's invoking the "Red Scare," I found that for myself the matter didn't seem to obsess the entire movie. (Of course, that could provoke the counter-argument that it could have been just left out...) I suppose, though, that it might have also been a brief distraction for me from my own askance wondering about the movie including "saucer men" and "ancient astronauts" (I can reflect on the old complaints that that sort of thing not-so-subtly degrades the real abilities of earlier eras) and "psychic powers" to boot. On the other hand, a one-hundred-percent materialist might well have been annoyed at divine power pouring out of the Ark of the Covenant all the way back in Raiders of the Lost Ark as well. For that matter too, not that long after telling myself that gold isn't attracted to a magnet (the film had seemed to me a little more out for effect than logic when it came to the magnetism of the "saucer men" remains), Mutt himself mentioned that, and I found myself somehow a little more impressed with the character and the movie.
The audience wasn't noisy, but did seem to enjoy Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull; I'm tempted to mention overhearing someone humming the Indiana Jones theme to himself leaving the theatre. I enjoyed it myself as well. Perhaps my biggest fear, from the moment I first contemplated the mere idea of a "fourth Indiana Jones movie," was that we'd see Indy take a sword blow in the face, thus setting up "really old Indy's" missing eye in the framing scenes of "Young Indiana Jones," and that didn't happen. (Of course, I was interested to hear the reference to the opening TV movie of the series... one of the bits of it I did watch.) At the conclusion, too, I was thinking "So Mutt wasn't given Indy's hat by Indy, but I think I can handle this..." and then, of course, I got one last surprise. I can see myself going to see all of it at the movies again, if only through the realisation as the credits rolled that half of the screen seemed out of focus... Of course, perhaps now I'll just find myself starting to get apprehensive about how The Clone Wars will work out theatrically.
It was a bit of a surprise to see the Lucasfilm logo precede the "Paramount mountain," although that of course let the mountain fade into something else the same as ever. I did wonder for a long instant if the gopher hill that we saw would be prime bait for those (hypothetical cases) ready right from the start to declare the movie "a lesser experience"... and then, as the action rolled, I got more and more impressed and entertained.
I suppose that all the same, I was able to imagine how someone bound and determined to not be impressed could say something about how the stunts were, at least at certain times, "more fanciful" than Raiders of the Lost Ark, which I believe has always "stood alone" to some anyway. Even so, those hypothetical cases began to seem more and more bilious and inherently displeased by everything as I got used to this older Indiana Jones, and then to the character of Mutt Williams. There, I suppose, I'd been weighed down by my brother's rather violent allergic reaction to Transformers, but I'm sure that being able to accept the movie's own grand tone when it came to heroism helped. The return of Marion was great in my opinion, although having just rewatched Revenge of the Sith did prompt an odd thought or two as to whether that could be seen as a subtle counter-point to accusations of "anti-feminism" in that movie... As far as excitement goes, too, I could sense an odd sort of jittery feeling, familiar from the scenes in Revenge of the Sith leading up to Anakin's turn to the Dark Side, building up in me around the "anthill fight."
Having been informed of some incipient askance wondering about the movie's invoking the "Red Scare," I found that for myself the matter didn't seem to obsess the entire movie. (Of course, that could provoke the counter-argument that it could have been just left out...) I suppose, though, that it might have also been a brief distraction for me from my own askance wondering about the movie including "saucer men" and "ancient astronauts" (I can reflect on the old complaints that that sort of thing not-so-subtly degrades the real abilities of earlier eras) and "psychic powers" to boot. On the other hand, a one-hundred-percent materialist might well have been annoyed at divine power pouring out of the Ark of the Covenant all the way back in Raiders of the Lost Ark as well. For that matter too, not that long after telling myself that gold isn't attracted to a magnet (the film had seemed to me a little more out for effect than logic when it came to the magnetism of the "saucer men" remains), Mutt himself mentioned that, and I found myself somehow a little more impressed with the character and the movie.
The audience wasn't noisy, but did seem to enjoy Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull; I'm tempted to mention overhearing someone humming the Indiana Jones theme to himself leaving the theatre. I enjoyed it myself as well. Perhaps my biggest fear, from the moment I first contemplated the mere idea of a "fourth Indiana Jones movie," was that we'd see Indy take a sword blow in the face, thus setting up "really old Indy's" missing eye in the framing scenes of "Young Indiana Jones," and that didn't happen. (Of course, I was interested to hear the reference to the opening TV movie of the series... one of the bits of it I did watch.) At the conclusion, too, I was thinking "So Mutt wasn't given Indy's hat by Indy, but I think I can handle this..." and then, of course, I got one last surprise. I can see myself going to see all of it at the movies again, if only through the realisation as the credits rolled that half of the screen seemed out of focus... Of course, perhaps now I'll just find myself starting to get apprehensive about how The Clone Wars will work out theatrically.