I watched Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull for two main reasons – Harrison Ford & Steven Spielberg. I’ve been Harrison Ford’s fan ever since his dashing presidential role in Air Force One. So even though I’ve never watched an Indiana Jones movie before, I was prepared to enjoy the forces of Ford & Spielberg together in action.
The film kicks off with a sort of apology as Jonesie goes: “We were a lot younger then” when beckoned by the bad guys to embark on a fresh, fool-hardy adventure. Come on, I dont care if the hero is an older guy! And I dont know what was the purpose of incorporating the line in the script but all it did was: it made me realize that the hero isnt exactly a spring chicken. Not that it matters when Harrison Ford is concerned.
There was a scene in which Ford reminisces, looking at Sean Connery’s picture and calls him dad. So I’m guessing Connery was the original Jones and his son is the latest adventurer with the same surname, in the very same tradition à la – Phantom, the Ghost Who Walks.
Which brought me to the question – who under the canopy is Indiana Jones? As the movie progressed, it became increasing clearer to me that he was a kind of James Bond as well as a mentor to a young rebellious Fonzie like character straight out of the Happy Days set in the film.
What I also learnt was that Indiana Jones was more than just 007. This movie was somewhat of a James Bond meets Lara Croft, Tomb Raider meets Tarzan meets Apocalypto meets ET mishmash. Although I dislike movie endings that have an alien theme just so that they can explain all the mysterious forces at work in the first place.
The movie has its funny moments and I liked watching it once. Once being the operative word. I went to watch an ex-president in action and in return I got a hat-fixated, dusty clothes wearing, whip carrying character, albeit still with the killer smile that never gets old.
I couldn’t stand more than 10 minutes of it and I went on to play with my Wii
So much dust in the movie! I wondered how they shot it.
My father!
You dont say!
I like this post for 2 reasons: I like Harrison Ford and also for the mention of The Fonz. The movie was just plain sad. I guess the subtle hints to Ford’s character’s age was just weak explanation for why they needed to bung in a greaser character to move the plot (if it existed). This movie is just shit for one and only one sufficient reason – Nobody messes with The Fonz!
Yeah, The Fonzie character – my brother mentioned that while we were watching the movie.
Nobody messes with The Fonz all right! While he dances in his own time, of course
So you seem to know nothing about the Indiana Jones legend.
But you did make some absolutely true comments which any Indie fan would vouch for. One was the stupid greaser guy. Second was the alien angle. I knew the worst was coming, from the first sequence itself when we saw that weird hand in the box. We’ve seen similar frail wood-like hands a tad too many times in Spielberg movies.
Spielberg seems to be obsessed with aliens. I’m just thankful that he didn’t introduce aliens in “Saving Private Ryan”
Cate Blanchett was a waste. I expected something more than fake RRRRussian accent from her.
Indiana Jones is just 007 meets Tomb Raider. The rest is just because Spielberg is high on weed.
Ah, you said it all Deepak! Some very true things I missed out in the post. Cate Blanchett’s accent was the beginning & end of her role in the movie amazingly.
And so right about Spielberg being obsessed with aliens. Although next thing you know, we’ll have a bollywood movie trying to capture the essence of yet another firangi ‘alien movie’.
Spielberg high on weed is exactly how I’d describe the rest of the movie