Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Mediocrity: Special Edition...


The colossal disappointment that was "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" comes out on DVD today...

Rent it, or purchase it at your own risk. Me? I've seen George Lucas take my childhood hero into the temple of inept screenplays once.

I don't plan on it again...

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

*sigh* I liked it a lot!

RayChase said...

I enjoyed it as well. Go back and watch the original 3. Outside of Raiders, all the sequels dip into moments of silly goofiness (which seem to be the main complaints with the lastest)..Indy 4 was fun...far from perfect but fun..I'm buying it

Anonymous said...

hate for Lucas is the in thing.

Splat! Blogger Poster Robot said...

Im sorry,

But I loved the film. Many call it far fetched, but it's escapism and its no more plausible than Doom or Ark.

Im not a fan of the new Star Wars films, but another Star Wars this is not!

Doopey said...

I liked it too.

Anonymous said...

Amen to ruining Indy...watch the newest Southpark if you haven't. Great story line about this.

Anonymous said...

The first two Indiana Jones movies were classics, in their own way, but both were products of their time, and the age of their creators. There was no way Indiana Jones and The Temple of the Franchise was going to be as good as either of those movies. And nothing was going to be Raiders, just like nothing was ever going to be Star Wars again.

That said, it's an all right movie. Not great, but all right. The end seemed especially arbitrary to me, otherwise I generally liked it. Was it Raiders of the Lost Ark? Not remotely. Was it a fun popcorn movie if you could just take it without expectations? Yeah.

Then again, so was Speedracer, and it tanked at the box office.

You don't have to watch it. I'm not adding it to my collection. But I will rent it, watch it again, and that'll probably be the end of that, unless I do another marathon at some point (I did a marathon of the first three about six months for Crystal Skull came out).

On the whole, reasonably good fun. Loved seeing Karen Allen back. That alone made it a good movie. They never could make it great, but it was, on the whole, pretty fun. If they do another, I'd like to see a return to the supernatural theme, even if that isn't Lucas's interest. Bring Salah back, set it in the middle east, tote Karen Allen along--bring back a few old girlfriends for comedic tension . . . it'd be fun.

Re: Southpark. This movie really wasn't that bad. And 4th graders would not hate on that movie like that. Seriously. I barely cracked a smile through that whole episode. You want to talk inauspicious mid-season debuts? That just didn't do it for me. Except the end, with Lucas and the Stormtrooper. And the Stormtrooper running around afterwards . . .

Spokker said...

No more negativity on this blog!

Anonymous said...

I thought it was lame. they could have done sooo much better with this movie. Sad indeed.

HEADKAES said...

Personally, They lost me when Mutt started swinging through the trees with the monkeys... I looked past the conveniently placed lead lined fridge capable of surviving an atomic blast (a difficult task by any stretch of the imagination), and about a half dozen other implausibilities... For some reason, that's where I finally threw up my hands and gave up...

I agree 100% with Honor's assessment, but I think we as fans are partly to blame. We kept asking for another Indy movie from the same guy who already ruined one franchise, what did we expect?

For those out there who liked it, that's totally cool. I'm honestly glad so many folks enjoyed it. I seem to be in the minority. I guess I was hoping for another Raiders... I got my hopes up, then got them dashed to bits. Now I'm really hoping they don't do a fifth.

Oh, and Anonymous, It's not hate for Lucas that drives our feelings, it's the knowledge that he's capable of SO MUCH more. It just seems like he's phoning it in now.

Anonymous said...

Fight on, Honor. "Mediocrity" is exactly the right word for this film.

What's sad is, a culture dining on fastfood burgers no longer recognizes what a great steak SHOULD taste like.

Anonymous said...

Well said. People have been inudated with terrible films for so many years that they think Indy 4 was decent. Indy 4 was not good. The Indy Series is a classic (1,2,3), Indy 4 is not a classic.

Anonymous said...

"Anonymous Anonymous said...

Amen to ruining Indy...watch the newest Southpark if you haven't. Great story line about this."

Now we all need to band together and get Lucas and Spielberg arrested.

Anonymous said...

HERE'S WHAT RUINED IT-

Figured I'd bold that cuz I want people to really read this and consider it hehe...

Real simple- In the 1st three films, there was an artifact powered by an 'upper' force/being same as this one. In Raiders, it was god, Temple- Shiva, and Crusade- Jesus. In ALL of those films, you saw the POWER of the being in action but DID NOT see the being itself. In Kingdom, YOU SEE THE BEING!

That is what took the feel away from the film and destroyed it.

Look around.... how many people you know would've been coo with Kingdom had they simply not shown the alien?...

Anonymous said...

I'm about ready to give up on this blog with the constant criticism of Lucas's works.

Whatever happened to the real, no-nonsense, inside look at Disney?

Anonymous said...

Guy can't post what he wants on his own blog eh?

BTW, the post is Disney related being Indy is tied into the themeparks...

Anonymous said...

"Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'm about ready to give up on this blog with the constant criticism of Lucas's works.

Whatever happened to the real, no-nonsense, inside look at Disney?

October 15, 2008 5:07 PM"

George? Is that you? Steven and the storm trooper are waiting for you in the livingroom.

Anonymous said...

Its time to put away the rose colored glasses. George Lucas is finished as a filmmaker in the artistic sense. You can't fault him for his past and current successes though. He still makes tons of money at the box office, but he make lousy movies.

Let's praise him for doing well for himself. Star Wars and Indiana Jones are well done, but ultimately forgettable because that's what they are... popcorn movies that make you forget about the world and then forget about what you've just seen.

Anonymous said...

Boy, people hold the originals in high regard. I remember how dissapointed I was walking out of Temple of Doom. It was not the movie I thought it was going to be. After repeated viewings and several years, I have grown to really like it for what it is. But to consider Last Crusade as better than Crystal Skull is silly. I have heard the complaint of no sense of peril or tension in Skull but there was none in Crusade either. X marks the spot? Plane attached to blimp? Meeting Hitler at a book burning rally? Burning plane driving through a tunnel? Indy pretending to be an Irish tapestry expert? Give me a break, I'm liking Crystal Skull much better the more I think about it.

Anonymous said...

Crystal Skull was terrific and everyone I watched it with loved it.