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19 years have passed since audiences last saw Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones. Now Indy has returned, but for what purpose?
19 years for this?It is nearly impossible to find the best words to describe the latest adventure of Dr. Henry "Indiana" Jones Junior. The Indiana Jones trilogy has been heralded as brilliant and timeless. While the Indiana Jones films are indeed treasures of the 80s, they still remain nothing more than popcorn flicks. Harrison Ford is a brilliant and iconic actor. 19 years for this Mr. Spielberg?It is nearly impossible to find the best words to describe the latest adventure of Dr. Henry "Indiana" Jones Junior. The Indiana Jones trilogy has been heralded as brilliant and timeless. While the Indiana Jones films are indeed treasures of the 80s, they still remain nothing more than popcorn flicks. Harrison Ford is a brilliant and iconic actor. However, Indiana is a superhuman archaeologist who survives Nazis, an Indian cult, and Nazis again not to mention the many traps that doom lesser characters. Dr. Jones has survived many implausible situations in his remarkable career. However, in this latest outing, Indy survives the utterly ridiculous. Such is the problem of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. The film just feels completely unbelievable, even by the standards set by the earlier trilogy. The entire cast goes through the motions through CGI-laden set pieces. Crystal Skull lacks any sort of real danger or suspense. Everything one expects to happen to the characters happens. The film is more predictable than the Paint by Numbers books children played with when Indiana Jones was relevant. A script made by committeeThe main issue that can be seen as this new Indiana Jones adventure is that the story, dialogue, and all other aspects of the script seems to have suffered from the age old axiom, "too many cooks spoil the broth". According to Imdb.com the story was given treatment by Jeff Nathanson and George Lucas before being handed over to David Koepp to turn into a screenplay. All these individuals have done great work in the past. Yet, like people do, they have failed a great deal as well. Combining all this talent and associated egos (come on, everyone has one), it is not surprising to see Kingdom of the Crystal Skull fall short. Also, if you would believe the cries of the Internet, Mr. Lucas seems to have long ago lost his ability to focus on character, suspense, and emotion. While it is incredibly common for many writers to collaborate on projects, especially on something so revered by movie going people, there seems to have been no clear trajectory for this film to take. The film starts out by briefly catching the audience up to speed on Dr. Jones' life as the movie takes place in 1957, well after the previous trilogy. The film then ponders about the Cold War, hints at some great adventures Indy went on during the course of World War II, then drops this angle completely. The film then veers away from the mythological grounding of the first three Indiana Jones movies and wanders into some strange science fiction storyline that a lot of users on SlashFilm.com seem to blame George Lucas for. Last words It is foolish to place blame on any single person for any conceived failings that Kingdom of the Crystal Skull displays. There is not enough space to go into detail as to why the film fails. It just does. It is recommended to wait for the DVD release and save your money at the theater. The film could have been something great, but it is too predictable.
The copyright of the article Indiana Jones in Sci-Fi/Fantasy Films is owned by Brian Nathanson. Permission to republish Indiana Jones in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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