Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Espektro — Fri, 23 May 2008 15:30:47 +0000

Hey everybody!

I just watched the hyperanticipated Indy 4 on my local cinema and I want to share my impressions with you.

First of all I want to say I'm a huge die hard Indiana Jones fan since I was a kid. I never saw any of the movies on theaters, but thanks to my older brothers I got interested in the adventures of the most famous archeologist in film history. If I had to pick just one fictional character as my favorite, and surelly he is above all I can name, that will be Indiana Jones. I'd waited for a fourth movie since I was 10, looking on every movie magazine, newspaper or TV shows for clues indicating they (Lucas, Spielberg, Ford) were actually planning to do it.

The wait over yesterday.

And there, sitted alone in the darkness of the cinema (it was the morning show, so I did it in purpouse to avoid the massive arrivings at the afternoon), it started up.

BOOM!! Suddenly, I see russians cracking up into Area 51, throwing (literally) Indy in the middle of the scene, and the action started out. I gasped, I laughed and I feel " OH MAN!! THIS IS GONNA BE AWESOME!!" I just loved the way Spielberg introduces us into the new era setting for Indy. Elvis, Howdy Doody, Atomic bombs, Cold War, McArthysm...

A little tear rolled down from my eyes wen we know Papa Jones and Marcus just passed away. Of course I already knew this since months ago, we all ready knew that since the filmation begun the past year. But it was special to see Indy meditating about what his life has become and, as his college friend says, he came to a point were life starts to take things from you instead of giving. You're old, Indy, accept it. And that was the perfect beat to introduce us a new character: Mutt Williams.

We all ready knew Mutt was gonna be the son of Indy. It's funny how Lucas and the gang tried to hide the obvious. But I didn't want to be surprised with that, I wanted to see the evolution of a relationship betwen Indy and Mutt, one of the new things life was gonna give him instead of taking out. And then, this just falls into the abyss of exposition.

McKee was right, Marco knows what I'm talking about. With every single movie I see I came with the same thinking: McKee is FUCKING RIGHT!. After thrilling us with a great setting (I really didn't had a problem with Area 51, the alien body and parapsycologist-mind powered Irena Spalko), dumb but genuinely Indy gags and the melancoly of our aged hero, the inciting incident commits a great flaw: Indy mets Mutt, who happens to be the son of Marion, who was kidnapped by the russians because... (and this is how we start falling) a huge, complicated, elusive, strange exposition about an artifact called the Crystal Skull, seeked by a long time friend of Indy (wich rumored to be Abner Ravenwood) lost in the amazons, blablablablbalbablablabalbalbalBLA!

The second act lacks of all the thrilling and action of the first act. It's very confusing how Indy and Mutt resolves the not-so mistery of the wereabouts of the Crystal Skull, wich happens to be already discovered by profesor Ox wich for some reason we never know in the rest of the movie, he returned the artifact to the cemetary were Indy and Mutt arrived with only seing the floor of a cell!! X mark the spot, George! The X marks the spot!

And then we continue falling and falling. The chase in the jungle is less than memorable. Ox character is just too forced, the triple-agent shit of Mac character was the most anticlimatic device I'd ever seen. Marion is just a huge cameo. Not even the efforts of Ford to bring us a classic Indy acting can save him from bad dialogues and horrible story development. No arcs, no points solved, and no climatic obligaroty scene. Indy just brought back the skull with no significant final effort ( like the bridge scene in DOOM or the tank race/temple traps in CRUSADE) or intriging decition (like surrending at Belloq in Raiders to save Marion and the Ark).

Finally, the UFO shot could had been just as amazing like the ATOMIC BOMB shot in the first part, but the lack of story just ruined it up.

The lack of significant music in most of the movie (there are no memorable pieces like "SCHERZO FOR MOTORCYCLE" or "SLAVE CHILDREN CRUSADE") just finish to pull down the whole thing.

What happened? I really don't know. Maybe I'm just an echoe of fanboy whining and complaining arround the internet. But after reading the rules of universal storytelling redacted by Robert McKee, I understand how fucking important is to have a good, good script. Even for those who are as great and important as Lucas and Spielberg. David Koeph tried to use the good elements from other drafts presented over this years, but he just frankensteined the whole thing instead of thinking in arcs. No matter the elements, if they don't have arcs the story simply doesn't exists. I never expected this to be another Raiders (the perfect adventure movie of all time) but at least a good character development, wich was the aspect I loved from CRUSADE and made it my favorite, even above Raiders.

I heard they want to do a 5th film. If so, I just hope they can hire a more talented screenwriter this time (Marco! send your fucking curriculum to them right now!!! :D LOL). I know how hard to make a film is, and I respect them a lot, but as public and fan I just don't understand how after 20 years of developing they just didn't see this coming.

I give it 2 stars of 4, the first part of the movie is really, really good. Pure Indy. But the rest is dissapointing :(

Note: Again... McKee was right.