May
21
“Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” Pre-Release Jitters
Filed Under Blockbusters, Movies
I’m locked in for the 12:01 a.m. screening of “IJATKOTCS” tonight at the ArcLight Sherman Oaks. I think I’ve read enough middling reviews of the film to set my expectations appropriately. I’m already disappointed, and the lights haven’t even dimmed in the auditorium yet. Roger Ebert loved the movie more than Mola Ram loved ripping people’s hearts out of their chests before lowering them into a hot pit. But the four reviews I’ve read on CHUD.com — three of which namecheck “The Lost World” when comparing this film to another of Spielberg’s lesser follow-ups — are mixed/negative.
I really want to like the film. I was an Indy fan long before George Lucas’ other franchise was even on my radar. I’ve been waiting for movie four in this franchise for over a decade now. I tracked its incredibly long development stages from back when it was script called “Indiana Jones and the Monkey King,” written by Chris Columbus. Then there was the script for “Indiana Jones and the Sons of Darkness,” which was to have introduced Indy’s heretofore unmentioned brother, with Tom Selleck and Kevin Costner both up for the role. I almost thought Frank Darabont’s much-loved script from a couple of years ago was going to be the one that would be realized on screen. Spielberg loved it, as did Harrison Ford. But Lucas stamped it with his veto and hired the guy who’d written “Rush Hour 2″(?!) to give it a polish.
Ultimately, it’s a patchwork script by David Koepp (the writer of “Lost World”) that’s been produced. Koepp’s a competent writer, whose name and is all over the serviceable franchise-starters of the past 15 years. He can massage out whatever story problems may exist in a script, but he can’t elevate the material to something more than just popcorn fare; compare his script for “Spider-Man” to Alvin Sargent’s for “Spider-Man 2.”
Can the new Indiana Jones movie overcome nearly two decades of anticipation, a passable script and gobs of ho-hum reviews, somehow giving me my money’s worth after all? To be honest, I loved “The Lost World” and saw it at least 5 or 6 times the summer it came out, and not just because David Koepp’s eaten during the T-Rex rampage in San Diego.
(*Updated*) Read my review here.
-Brad Lohan
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for the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, it seems like the recipe of a good Indiana Jones film would be 1 part Nazis and 1 part biblical artifact; the Soviet army does a pretty good job of replacing the Nazis, but the other ingredient…