I was very disappointed when I heard awhile ago that they were going to do another sequel to Indiana Jones. The trilogy was one of the better action movie series that came out of the 80s, and this seemed like a very cheap attempt at capitalizing on former popular movies, not unlike Rambo and Rocky which also needed to be left back in the 80s. Yet here we are with the 4th in the series, and despite despising the idea, I had to go and give them my money to warrant the movie in the first place.
My main complaint of the movie was the subject line. Now don’t get me wrong, I actually though it was a good idea to get out of Africa and India and do it in the Americas. I also thought going on the Mayan theme was a great idea. It really seperated this movie from the previous movies. They could have easily gone back to Africa yet again to do something, there certainly is a wealth of artifacts to discover there, but they didn’t and chose a new place to go which I thought was great. But the real plot, what was behind the crystal skulls, was dumb and very unlike the series as a whole. Which I suppose you could take to further seperate it, but it just didn’t feel right. It felt out of place. I wish I could go into this further, but they went to great lengths to not advertise this aspect of the movie and I need to respect that. Overall, I felt it was a chance for George Lucas to further flex his CGI might, and like the prequel trilogy of Star Wars, it just largely didn’t work here.
There were several minor complaints I had about the movie as well. Indiana Jones has largely been known for it’s cheeky humor, but in this movie it went over the top. People were constantly running over ground hog holes, and at one point Shia Lebeouf was the king of the monkeys swing through the trees tarzan style (literally he was king of the monkeys, it was ridiculous). These points in the movie largely made me roll my eyes and slap my forehead, and yes i actually did in the middle of a somewhat packed theater slap myself in the forehead from the idiocy of the movie.
Shia Lebeouf is another point of contention. I actually do like the guy, I think he is funny. But he really isn’t an action hero, and further, he didn’t fit his part as “Mud” Jones, the James Dean meats Fonzie 60s motorcycle jock. Don’t get me wrong, I think he did a fine job with what he had, and I think he matched up really well with Harrison Ford. He just didn’t fit the part and I felt that was a shame. Then again, where are you going to find someone in his 20s who fits that part in this day and age. I also wasn’t entirely in love with the concept of bringing Marianne back from the first movie. It did feel like a cheap attempt to bring in nostalgia, but it wasn’t a bad storyline even if we all knew what it was going in.
All the negative being said, I did think much of the middle of the movie was great. Basically once they got to South America and started looking for the Crystal Skull up until the time they returned the Crystal Skull, was grade A Indiana Jones. The two temples in this movie were very clever and well thought out and had me on the edge of my seat which is really what you want to do. I also was partial to the motorcycle chace through the University before they went down to South America, it was good as well.
Overall, I do think this was a disappointing Indiana Jones. I rank it #4 of the 4 movies, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Last Crusade, and Temple of Doom being my 1, 2, 3. Was it worth making this film? I think so. I think the parts that WERE Indiana Jones largely redeemed the parts that weren’t. If they had done the plot line differently, I really think this movie may have passed up Last Crusade as #2 on my list, but the plot line was just really bad. I did not think National Treasure 2 did as good as their first by a long shot, but i do think they did the City of Gold much better, and it wasn’t as over the top as Indy (even though that movie too is kind of cheeky).