Indy IV, people! INDY IV!

[annathepiper]

First and foremost, folks: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull DOES NOT SUCK.

It's not in the league of Raiders of the Lost Ark--but then, expecting it to be is just crazytalk. ;) However, it does hold up pretty well against Temple of Doom and Last Crusade; how well, I'm still debating. It is pretty much Big Silly Fun, which is about what I was expecting.

There are a couple of "oh for fuck's sake, no" moments that are too silly. But there are also some genuinely LOL-worthy moments, the chase sequences are good, Shia LeBeouf is decent, Cate Blanchett is quite cool (although not quite as cool as she should have been), there are some nice nods to not only the events of the previous movies but also the years between, and most of all... it was ZOMG so cool to see Indy and Marion in the same movie again. Karen Allen in particular seems to share the glee, as she spends a good chunk of the movie with this giddy grin on her face, as if she's thinking, "YAY I GET TO BE MARION AGAIN!"

They went a little overboard trying to prove to the audience that Indy is still perfectly physically capable despite his age--he has a couple of things happen to him that should have damn well killed a younger man, much less a 65-year-old. ;) However, they also do acknowledge his age nicely in other ways. And I gotta admit... from a few camera angles, in certain scenes... yeah. Harrison's still hot. Even for an old dude. ;)

mamishka, casirafics, and I had a bitchin' good time last night having dinner and then linecamping for the midnight showing of the movie. We had excellent Mexican food (for those of you who are local, we went to the Mexican place on the top floor of Pacific Place, downtown) and tasty drinkies (during which I learned that yeah, two margaritas do make me rather loopy, but it wears off fairly quickly), and after that was done joined the already lengthy line at the Cinerama.

There were already about 75 people in the line ahead of us--some of them had TENTS. And lawn chairs. And blankets. They had clearly been there for a while! But once we spotted the group in costume, we knew we were among our Tribe.

We had a delightful conversation with the people in line just behind us, as we all hung out amusing ourselves watching the DVD of bonus materials out of the original DVD box set of the first three movies. It was very noisy there on the street, so Mimi, clever panda that she is, turned on the English subtitles in her DVD program and we watched stuff that way.

It is worth noting that much amusement was expressed over the juxtaposition of the Indy IV poster against the one for the forthcoming animated Clone Wars flick. Double deja vu, that. Sadly, I cannot muster up nearly the same enthusiasm for the Clone Wars flick as I did for this one... but it was still pretty neat to see the posters side by side.

They let us in fairly early, which was nice of them, and while we were waiting the costumed group's fully costumed Indy guy kept coming down in front and showing off his whip skills. Which were, I must note, pretty impressive! Dude even had a whip made by the guy who makes the official Indy whips--who turns out to be local! Very, very cool.

Lots of high spirits in the crowd, which is of course why one goes to these things. And happily, they didn't inflict any commercials on us while we were waiting--or during the previews. We got a Dark Knight trailer, which triggered a big wave of cheers. And I was simultaneously disappointed and relieved that we did NOT get an X-Files trailer.

This post will remain spoiler-free; I'm going to do another one with a full blow-by-blow breakdown. So feel free to comment right now on this one if you haven't seen the movie yet--and when you do, look for my next post!

Comments

[erinlin.livejournal.com]

JUST got back from seeing Indy- I agree, a very, very cool movie. ^_^

[annathepiper]

Woo! Glad to hear you enjoyed it too!

[tiggymalvern.livejournal.com]

The Mexican is Pacific Place is awesome. Great drinks and great food.

[annathepiper]

The shrimp dish I had was quite tasty indeed. So were the margaritas. :9

[wrog]

it does hold up pretty well against Temple of Doom

um...

[annathepiper]

I think it does; both movies certainly are kind of erratic in their quality, with some cool elements and also some silly ones. I've seen plenty of reviews of Crystal Skull that describe it as cartoony, which is fair, but I'd assert that that same adjective can be applied to Temple of Doom.

You may of course disagree, which is fine. Or, you may be thinking, "that ain't sayin' much" if you're not a fan of ToD. It's difficult for me to tell on a one-syllable comment. ;)

[wrog]

Well, let's put it this way: If the next Star Trek movie to come out were to be described as "holds up pretty well against Star Trek V", would that make you want to see it?

[annathepiper]

Well, the only issue with that is, Temple of Doom is significantly better than Star Trek V. ;)

[wrog]

quite possibly true, but, I would say, irrelevant to the question at hand

[annathepiper]

No it isn't, not if you're trying to assert that "Crystal Skull holds up well against Temple of Doom" is equivalent to "New Trek flick holds up well against Star Trek V". That's like saying "this tasty apple I just ate reminds me of another not half-bad apple I ate" is equivalent to "this smoldering pile of feces reminds me of another smoldering pile I stepped in years ago!" ;)

[wrog]

except that the Doom/TrekV comparsion is more like comparing

• dried-out, year-old clump of cat feces sitting on a square of rug you were going to replace anyway
• similar quantity of recently emitted cat feces smeared all over your favorite couch

the former is significantly better in many respects but may yet not quite reach the threshold of Things That One Actually Wants to Eat.

[annathepiper]

*shrug* Okay, so, you don't like Temple of Doom; that's fine. I clearly like it way better than you do. (Don't get me wrong, I have always believed it's the weakest of the original three Indy flicks, but I don't think it sucks, either.)

But do also please note that I noted that the new one also at least in my initial estimate holds up okay against Last Crusade, too. So don't let your not liking ToD bias you unnecessarily against the new one. :)

[wrog]

But do also please note that I noted that the new one also at least in my initial estimate holds up okay against Last Crusade, too.

fair enough. Doom nearly killed the franchise. Crusade saved it. and this one's #3 or maybe #2.5 out of 4. got it.

I'm guessing it's to take a few more weeks before it shows up on the Thursday Morning Screaming Baby Movies anyway

[annathepiper]

Yeah, I daresay it'll be a bit for ya! I'd say, catch it at a matinee if you wish to see it; that sounds about right for your likely enjoyment level. :)

[bloody-keri.livejournal.com]

I'm glad to hear you liked it! We're planning on seeing it this weekend, IF we can get in!

[annathepiper]

Cool, hope you get to see it, and hope you enjoy it. :)

Indy whips

[jessicac.livejournal.com]

David Morgan, in Bothell. Tim has one of his whips.

Re: Indy whips

[annathepiper]

Very cool. :)

[motherofpearl51.livejournal.com]

I didn't get to see INDY until last Saturday. I agree with you. Not as good as Raiders, much better than TOD. Holds up well against Crusade. I liked it. A fun ride.

[annathepiper]

I've seen it now a second time--and spazzkat said something particularly interesting about ToD which made that movie make a lot more sense. To wit, when watching ToD, think "radio drama". Amazingly, that makes the dialogue sound quite a bit better.

And I'm thinkin', yeah, this movie makes a nice coda to the others.