Monday, July 21, 2008

There is a Brain in that Skull

Now that I am the proud father of little ones, I only get to the movies once or twice a year. As a Father's day treat from my father, this year's movie was Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Since my father is the one who gave me his love of movies, especially epic adventures like Indiana Jones and Star Wars, I was thrilled to see this installment with him and happy that it lived up to its predecessors.


The movie definitely beat Temple of Doom, keeping it out of the bottom spot in the Indiana Jones collection. Interestingly, the adventure took place in South America, an area of archaeological history which is often overlooked. Conveniently, child sacrifices were glossed over but I can agree to that conceit since contemplating the murder of children is too deep for an action/adventure film. The moral of the story was not as powerfully depicted as in The Last Crusade, but it was pertinent to modern life. Finally, Harrison Ford did pull off the action star role despite his age while the car chases and fight sequences were all of Raiders quality. Crystal Skull also made the required slights against Indy's age, as well as references to the previous movies. I don't think this movie will win over anyone who wasn't an Indy fan, but as a guy who owns a fedora, I'm thrilled the series ended well.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I agree. It was a wonderful way to end? the franchise. My 10 year old son has acquired an Indy action figure with 'whip action'. The torch (or the whip) has been passed...

JimmyV said...

It would be interesting if there was a spin-off based on Mutt. Since the hat didn't get passed, I don't think they will do it but I could be wrong.