Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Scull

[alexandral]

Don't count me disappointed, my family and I enjoyed our family outing to watch "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Scull" yesterday. My daughter was a particular fan and she is already getting excited about the other 3 Indianas. My plan to distract her from watching "Bratz movies" and similar is working very well so far.

But to be honest, I have seen it all before. Like some people who get stuck wearing the fashion trend of their youth, it seems that Steven Spielberg got stuck somewhere in 80s with his film-making. The storyline is straight out of his past sci-fi films, the jokes have seen their better days and even the special effects are cheesy and dated. I would expect Steven to have enough money for something better than a crystal scull stuffed with foil.

On the plus side, it really seems that the cold war between USA and Russia is over. Even though stereotypes of stupid Russian baddies destined for certain death are still abound, Russian language isn't tortured and murdered anymore. Cate Blanchett spoke a very decent Russian (and Ukrainian, thank you to spankmayer for pointing this out!). And she was a very good baddie indeed, making it into my "Top ten of evil fictional characters". I have an irresistible urge to imitate the way her character Irina Spalko spoke (and my daughter says I already speak like Irina) and wear similar clothes of grey utilitarian goodness. I am particular in love with the belt and the gloves:



What else? Harrison Ford , like good wine, grows old nicely and gets better with age, weary and sarcastic.







On the minus side, I wasn't impressed by Karen Allen's and Shia LaBeouf's characters. I think movie could have benefited from omitting of their storyline.

To conclude: this was a good fun to go with a family but not something I would have enjoyed watching by myself.

Comments

[spankmayer.livejournal.com]

))) sorry to mention, but Irina speaks not Russian, but Ukrainian, since she is from Ukraine.
Russian soldiers speaks Russian very good, since the actors are Russian)

I did not like the movie too and completely agree with you review, it is really out-of-date

[baleanoptera.livejournal.com]

Hmm..the more I read, the more I ponder putting this movie off until its DVD release. Movietickets are ridiculously expensive here (in £ it would be something like £10 a ticket), and so I plan my cinema trips carefully. ;)

But gosh, Cate Blanchett is gorgeous. That woman looks good in everything.

[petzipellepingo.livejournal.com]

I am particular in love with the belt and the gloves:


And that Louise Brooks hairstyle ain't bad either...

[scottishlass.livejournal.com]

it seems that Steven Spielberg got stuck somewhere in 80s with his film-making.

In a recent interview, Spielberg said that it was deliberately made, so that there was not such a big break in cinematography/style of directing/SFX between the Indy movies of 20 years ago and this one. They even used equipment from 20 years ago (the celluoid etc.) so that it had the look and feel.
I saw it and I liked it, if you ignore Harrison being older, all 4 could have been made in one go in the 1980's.

[soniag.livejournal.com]

I'm starting to think that Cate Blanchett was my favorite part of the movie! I was rather hoping she would be "abducted" at the end, instead of . . . well, you know. I appreciated her lust for knowledge!

I liked Shia -- just can't help myself. But I have to admit that Karen Allen was not quite what I expected. She had brief moments of spunky heroism, but mostly all she did was look moony and lovestruck.

The special effects were disappointing. BUT I still had lots of fun as I was watching!

[lage-nom-ai.livejournal.com]

imilar clothes of grey utilitarian goodness

Heeeeeeeee!
*hugs*

[steph0202.livejournal.com]

I must admit there were a few bits of this movie that didn't really impress me that much being a big fan of the originals. Um, Mutt swinging throught the trees like Tarzan?

But I really enjoyed his character although I agree with you about Karen Allen being not much use at all.

[miss-dian.livejournal.com]

I adore Cate Blanchett. I may watch this just for her since I'm not an Indiana Jones fan :D

[teh-haley.livejournal.com]

My plan to distract her from watching "Bratz movies" and similar is working very well so far.
Excellent job :D
also, other Indianas are very good - my favourite one is The Last Crusade, exciting and funny, I watched it so many times I know it by heart, and my mother loves it, too! But the previous ones might be a little too 'impressive' for Sasha, I guess...one of them still scares me. Maybe it's just me!
I don't know whether I'm watching this or not. I'm afraid I can be disappointed, even though I'm curious.