Wow. This was supposed to one of the most anticipated movies of the year. I can sum it up in one word: Matinee. Save your money and watch a matinee showing. The movie started out with promise and just went down hill from there. Everything from the gophers, to the refridgerator and tarzan just kept eating away at the goodness. Then the end happens and pretty much ruined it for me. Overall the actors did a good job. I enjoyed Ford and Shia. For some reason people seem to have a hardon for hating Shia but I like him. Ford easily slips back into the role of Indy. The dialog is classic Indy as are the sound effects. The soundtrack is familiar and comforting as are the punching sounds and the crack of the whip. All these things made me want to like the movie. I *really* wanted to like this movie. Unfortunately, I can’t.
***SPOILER TIME*** (highlight to read)
So Indy can hide from a nuclear blast in a fridge and not get radiation poisoning from looking at the mushroom cloud. Okay I can accept this. He is Indiana freakin’ Jones after all. Of course Speilberg and Lucas just love the CGI so there are some gophers and monkey and ants. (Though the ants were actually really creepy.) Lots of fighting, wise-cracks and good Indy fun. Eye-roll factor was raised exponentially by Mutt swinging from the jungle vines a la Tarzan in a feeble attempt to make a connection between him and Indy’s use of the whip. Then, instead of following with the theme of the series (religion) they decide to switch from Mayan religion to aliens. And not just aliens, but interdimension aliens. Aliens that the Mayans worshipped. Instead of just making the crystal skull being an artifact the Mayans created, it’s actually and alien skull. And when the alien skull is brought back to the “temple” and reattached to the body of the alien, well bad things happen. And the icing on the crap cake? The “Close Encounters” spaceship leaves by creating a nice interdimensional portal and destroys everything.
***END SPOILERS***