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annathepiperSomewhat belated, but then, I've had a pretty complicated and distracting weekend... but hey, there's little that a good dose of Indy can't help. ;)
This is the blow by blow spoiler post for Indy IV, people. If you haven't seen this movie yet, for the love of God, don't look behind the cut!
Many cheers erupted for the Lucasfilm logo at the beginning during the showing last night. What got me was that we hear "Hound Dog" playing over the radio in one of the cars in the opening sequence. <3
Said opening sequence is almost entirely excellent--set in the same warehouse where the Ark was stashed. It's quite effective that Indy's entrance is actually him being dragged out of the trunk of a car... which led into the part we saw in the trailers where he drops his hat, puts it back on again, and we see the silhouette. But I hadn't realized from the trailer that he was surrounded by Russians at the time. ;)
This is also where we get a new side character introduced, Mac, somebody with whom Indy apparently has quite a bit of wartime history. It is not terribly surprising that he turns out to have been selling Indy out to the Russians either; yeah, new guy in the plot? He's probably the double agent. ;)
Cate Blanchett chews scenery right and left, and she and her Russian henchmen are suitably intimidating. This is one of the bits where we get some really interesting hints about Cate Blanchett's character, Irina Spalko, which unfortunately aren't really properly followed up on later--chick's apparently psychic, and she tries to read Indy's mind and can't. We also get the first hints that this plot involves aliens, including the obligatory passing reference to Roswell. It must be noted at this point that Mimi and I were rather amused that this whole movie was kind of a cross between Indiana Jones and the X-Files... but really? Moving from "paranormal + Nazis" over to "aliens + KGB" really isn't that much of a jump, and it still worked for me. Even if I kept wanting to insert bits of the X-Files theme into the soundtrack.
They do of course tear the hell out of the warehouse. And of course we actually do get a glimpse of the Ark, and Indy goes right past it without ever realizing it was there. Beautiful.
As part of his escape from the Russians, there's a bit where he has to survive a nuclear weapons test getting launched at the base. The one good part about this is the visual dichotomy between crufty old Indy and the sterile 50's-flavored layout of the mock village set up on the test site; that was pretty neat. However, how Indy manages to survive the blast does require some pretty hefty cables to suspend your disbelief.
The immediate followup to this is where we get some pretty cool hints of what's been going on with Indy in the years between this movie and the first three. He gets brought in by the U.S. military, snarked at as a potential collaborator with the Soviets, and immediately defended by an officer who calls him "Colonel Jones"--which immediately made me go "wait, what?" This and other indicators later on in the movie show us that Indy apparently did get involved with intelligence efforts during WWII. Pretty neat.
Next, we get a big ol' wave of nostalgia as there's an extended bit with Indy at his college--and where he gets in trouble with the staff when the FBI come and ransack his office. He is strongly urged to go on leave for a bit, and we see that the Dean is actually on his side, as the dude has to resign rather than turn against him. Aw. <3
We also have a nice little bit with said Dean and Indy at his house--where we get a sad reference to both Indy's father and Marcus Brody having passed away in the intervening years. This is one of the good bits where Indy's age is acknowledged well; the Dean has a nice line to him about how they've gotten to the point in life where life takes things away from them rather than giving them to them. Ford has some nice understated wistfulness as he's looking at his father's picture. Sniffle.
Shia LeBeouf's entrance, looking for Indy to help him track down his lost professor as well as his mother, is decent. However, let's get this out of the way:
Who the hell thought it was a good idea to name Shia's character "Mutt"? Oi.
Ahem. That said, Mutt is a fun character. He is suitably competent as Indy's sidekick, contributing sensible observations early on and good physical backup later. I get a fun vibe off of him as a kid who really is a scientist at heart but who is trying very, very hard to be cool, hence his biker look. He also has an amusing obsession with combing his pompadour into perfect order.
And hee, yeah, absolutely no surprise whatsoever that he is Marion and Indy's kid. ;>
We learn it before Indy does, in fact--at least, the Marion being his mom part--as Mutt asks him if he remembers "Marion Williams".![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
mamishka and I found it just a trifle dubious that Indy didn't immediately clue in on the name "Marion" by itself, though we can cut him slack for not pinging on "Marion Williams". Which, of course, raises the amusing question of when exactly Marion got married, and to whom.
Indy and Mutt do hit it off pretty well, although Mutt is initially dubious that this crufty old professor can be any use to him. As they're discussing what happened to the missing professor Oxley, they're cornered by a couple of KGB guys who try to muscle them out of the little diner where they're eating. How they get out of this leads to an amusing eruption of a brawl between jock kids and biker kids in the diner--and a very fine chase sequence as Mutt hauls Indy onto the back of his motorcycle and roars off across the college campus. The tail end of this, in the library as a flummoxed student takes a moment to blurt out a question to Indy, is HY-LARIOUS.
There's another good bit back at Indy's house as Mutt snarks on his age: "What are you, like, 80?" And Indy gives him a really dirty look. Muaha. Once they set out on the inevitable journey (with the inevitable map! Yay!), it's fun to watch Mutt grow steadily more aware that holy crap, the old man actually knows his shit. ;) This culminates beautifully in the bit from the trailers when the two of them are searching a tomb and Mutt blurts, "You're a... teacher?" And Indy barks in reply, "Part time." Hee!
Once they actually find the crystal skull of the title, the alien connection gets racheted up another notch--and oh hey, cue the Russians back in, as Irina and her henchmen catch up with Jones and Mutt and take them prisoner.
Irina is determined to make Indy try to make sense out of the ravings of Oxley, whose mind she's managed to break by his extended exposure to the skull. She tries to expose Indy to it too, but Mac stops her before she kills him, showing at least a little interesting ambiguity about what he's up to.
Threatening Mutt doesn't get Irina anywhere with Indy, so she tries another tack--by bringing out MARION!
The look on Indy's face at this point is beautiful, but even better is his reaction when Mutt calls Marion "mom" and they embrace, and Indy keeps double-taking over their dialogue: "He's... he's YOUR SON?" And Marion, demonstrating that being older has not made her any less snarky, barks immediately back, "Oh for God's sake, Indy, it's not that hard!" Hee!
And: "Aw, Marion, you had to go and get yourself kidnapped!" "YOU haven't done so hot yourself."
In short order we do have the inevitable escape attempt, and as she and Indy get caught in a moment of peril in quicksand, we get the other half of the reveal of Mutt's parentage. Muahaha. Even here, Indy doesn't immediately clue in. "His name is HENRY!" "Nice name!" "He's your SON! Henry Jones the Third!"
Okay, now Indy gets it. ;>
And as they're recaptured and thrown into a truck, we have a fabulous little conversation that starts up, beautifully, with a reaction shot that tells us Mutt has just been informed that Crufty Old Professor Guy is in fact his father. He is unsurprisingly resistant to this idea, though I was relieved to see that he didn't actually get completely hateful and hostile. There's fun here as we learn more about what happened to Indy and Marion after Raiders, and some great further lines:
"Colin Williams? You married him?! I introduced you!" "You lost your vote about who I married when you left a WEEK BEFORE THE WEDDING!"
And, "There must have been other women in your life." "A few. But they all had the same problem." "What?" *beat* "They weren't you, honey." Awwww. <3
This leads into the next good trailer bit where Indy, Marion, and Mutt take control of their truck--and Marion and Mutt make it into the front seat, Marion with that big giddy "OH YEAH I really like this guy!" grin on her face as Mutt asks her "What's he going to do now?" and she laughingly tells him, "I don't think he plans that far ahead!" Cue the bazooka breaking out of the back. Also beautiful.
And now, protracted and mostly bitchin' cool chase sequence, the highlight of which is Mutt and Irina swordfighting across two moving vehicles. Very, very cool, and appropriate that the slower, older Indy is not the one doing the more nimble stunts; for that, the young Shia was definitely required. This is also the sequence with the other "oh for fuck's sake" silly moment where Mutt gets snagged by vines right out of the truck, and winds up Tarzan'ing his way through the trees to catch up with the convoy... um, no. Also, too many gratuitous CGI monkeys. That said, though? Very cool sequence all around, leading right up to the eruption of ants that take out a couple of the Russian henchmen, and Marion swooping in at the last minute to save the men--by taking them OVER A CLIFF in the amphibious vehicle she's driving, right down into the river. WHEE!
The bit where their vehicle goes over not one, not two, but THREE massive waterfalls is pretty spectacular, even if it's another instance of "oh for fuck's sake that should have killed them". But hey, by this point in the movie, things are at a high enough gear that I just don't care. ;)
Once they're on dry land again, no surprise AT ALL that the Russians get to track them courtesy of little red flashing markers somebody is dropping them to mark the trailer. No surprise that this turns out to be Mac, either.
The whole sequence with getting into the hidden temple is good, and the final reveal of the chamber with the crystal alien skeletons is pretty nifty. So's what happens when they finally put the skull back on the body it was taken from.
There are a few shaky aspects about the climax, to wit:
1) Wait, what, these are pan-dimensional beings? Not just from outer space? Was having them be pan-dimensional really necessary? o.O
2) Wait, what, sudden appearance of spaceship?! Where the hell did it come from? Was putting the skull back the signal to phone home and have the skeletons picked up?
3) Wait, what, these thirteen skeletons all got slorped into one body? How'd that work.... well okay, that did look pretty neat, I must admit. ;)
4) Wait, what, Oxley is sane again all of a sudden? And he knew that the crystal beings were pan-dimensional? How'd he pick that up? Off the skull?
All that said, though, it was a pretty spectacular climax, visually. Even if it needed another pass through the editing, plot-wise. ;) Watching Cate Blanchett explode while she was begging the aliens to gift her with their knowledge was neat... and that one intense look from the alien being was interesting, in that final moment, as if it somehow had realized that she was unworthy or something.
And after all the splody is said and done, absolutely NO SURPRISE WHATSOEVER that Indy and Marion finally get married. Aw. <3 That did just make me smile, even if it's kinda domestic for Indiana Jones.
And that bit with the hat at the end, where Mutt picks it up and is almost about to try it on, but Indy snatches it back from him at the last minute... HAR. Not so fast there, son. Not so fast indeed.
Still musing about how I feel this movie holds up against Temple of Doom and Last Crusade. I am pretty sure I'm going to have to go see it again to formulate a real and proper opinion!
This is the blow by blow spoiler post for Indy IV, people. If you haven't seen this movie yet, for the love of God, don't look behind the cut!
Many cheers erupted for the Lucasfilm logo at the beginning during the showing last night. What got me was that we hear "Hound Dog" playing over the radio in one of the cars in the opening sequence. <3
Said opening sequence is almost entirely excellent--set in the same warehouse where the Ark was stashed. It's quite effective that Indy's entrance is actually him being dragged out of the trunk of a car... which led into the part we saw in the trailers where he drops his hat, puts it back on again, and we see the silhouette. But I hadn't realized from the trailer that he was surrounded by Russians at the time. ;)
This is also where we get a new side character introduced, Mac, somebody with whom Indy apparently has quite a bit of wartime history. It is not terribly surprising that he turns out to have been selling Indy out to the Russians either; yeah, new guy in the plot? He's probably the double agent. ;)
Cate Blanchett chews scenery right and left, and she and her Russian henchmen are suitably intimidating. This is one of the bits where we get some really interesting hints about Cate Blanchett's character, Irina Spalko, which unfortunately aren't really properly followed up on later--chick's apparently psychic, and she tries to read Indy's mind and can't. We also get the first hints that this plot involves aliens, including the obligatory passing reference to Roswell. It must be noted at this point that Mimi and I were rather amused that this whole movie was kind of a cross between Indiana Jones and the X-Files... but really? Moving from "paranormal + Nazis" over to "aliens + KGB" really isn't that much of a jump, and it still worked for me. Even if I kept wanting to insert bits of the X-Files theme into the soundtrack.
They do of course tear the hell out of the warehouse. And of course we actually do get a glimpse of the Ark, and Indy goes right past it without ever realizing it was there. Beautiful.
As part of his escape from the Russians, there's a bit where he has to survive a nuclear weapons test getting launched at the base. The one good part about this is the visual dichotomy between crufty old Indy and the sterile 50's-flavored layout of the mock village set up on the test site; that was pretty neat. However, how Indy manages to survive the blast does require some pretty hefty cables to suspend your disbelief.
The immediate followup to this is where we get some pretty cool hints of what's been going on with Indy in the years between this movie and the first three. He gets brought in by the U.S. military, snarked at as a potential collaborator with the Soviets, and immediately defended by an officer who calls him "Colonel Jones"--which immediately made me go "wait, what?" This and other indicators later on in the movie show us that Indy apparently did get involved with intelligence efforts during WWII. Pretty neat.
Next, we get a big ol' wave of nostalgia as there's an extended bit with Indy at his college--and where he gets in trouble with the staff when the FBI come and ransack his office. He is strongly urged to go on leave for a bit, and we see that the Dean is actually on his side, as the dude has to resign rather than turn against him. Aw. <3
We also have a nice little bit with said Dean and Indy at his house--where we get a sad reference to both Indy's father and Marcus Brody having passed away in the intervening years. This is one of the good bits where Indy's age is acknowledged well; the Dean has a nice line to him about how they've gotten to the point in life where life takes things away from them rather than giving them to them. Ford has some nice understated wistfulness as he's looking at his father's picture. Sniffle.
Shia LeBeouf's entrance, looking for Indy to help him track down his lost professor as well as his mother, is decent. However, let's get this out of the way:
Who the hell thought it was a good idea to name Shia's character "Mutt"? Oi.
Ahem. That said, Mutt is a fun character. He is suitably competent as Indy's sidekick, contributing sensible observations early on and good physical backup later. I get a fun vibe off of him as a kid who really is a scientist at heart but who is trying very, very hard to be cool, hence his biker look. He also has an amusing obsession with combing his pompadour into perfect order.
And hee, yeah, absolutely no surprise whatsoever that he is Marion and Indy's kid. ;>
We learn it before Indy does, in fact--at least, the Marion being his mom part--as Mutt asks him if he remembers "Marion Williams".
mamishka and I found it just a trifle dubious that Indy didn't immediately clue in on the name "Marion" by itself, though we can cut him slack for not pinging on "Marion Williams". Which, of course, raises the amusing question of when exactly Marion got married, and to whom.Indy and Mutt do hit it off pretty well, although Mutt is initially dubious that this crufty old professor can be any use to him. As they're discussing what happened to the missing professor Oxley, they're cornered by a couple of KGB guys who try to muscle them out of the little diner where they're eating. How they get out of this leads to an amusing eruption of a brawl between jock kids and biker kids in the diner--and a very fine chase sequence as Mutt hauls Indy onto the back of his motorcycle and roars off across the college campus. The tail end of this, in the library as a flummoxed student takes a moment to blurt out a question to Indy, is HY-LARIOUS.
There's another good bit back at Indy's house as Mutt snarks on his age: "What are you, like, 80?" And Indy gives him a really dirty look. Muaha. Once they set out on the inevitable journey (with the inevitable map! Yay!), it's fun to watch Mutt grow steadily more aware that holy crap, the old man actually knows his shit. ;) This culminates beautifully in the bit from the trailers when the two of them are searching a tomb and Mutt blurts, "You're a... teacher?" And Indy barks in reply, "Part time." Hee!
Once they actually find the crystal skull of the title, the alien connection gets racheted up another notch--and oh hey, cue the Russians back in, as Irina and her henchmen catch up with Jones and Mutt and take them prisoner.
Irina is determined to make Indy try to make sense out of the ravings of Oxley, whose mind she's managed to break by his extended exposure to the skull. She tries to expose Indy to it too, but Mac stops her before she kills him, showing at least a little interesting ambiguity about what he's up to.
Threatening Mutt doesn't get Irina anywhere with Indy, so she tries another tack--by bringing out MARION!
The look on Indy's face at this point is beautiful, but even better is his reaction when Mutt calls Marion "mom" and they embrace, and Indy keeps double-taking over their dialogue: "He's... he's YOUR SON?" And Marion, demonstrating that being older has not made her any less snarky, barks immediately back, "Oh for God's sake, Indy, it's not that hard!" Hee!
And: "Aw, Marion, you had to go and get yourself kidnapped!" "YOU haven't done so hot yourself."
In short order we do have the inevitable escape attempt, and as she and Indy get caught in a moment of peril in quicksand, we get the other half of the reveal of Mutt's parentage. Muahaha. Even here, Indy doesn't immediately clue in. "His name is HENRY!" "Nice name!" "He's your SON! Henry Jones the Third!"
Okay, now Indy gets it. ;>
And as they're recaptured and thrown into a truck, we have a fabulous little conversation that starts up, beautifully, with a reaction shot that tells us Mutt has just been informed that Crufty Old Professor Guy is in fact his father. He is unsurprisingly resistant to this idea, though I was relieved to see that he didn't actually get completely hateful and hostile. There's fun here as we learn more about what happened to Indy and Marion after Raiders, and some great further lines:
"Colin Williams? You married him?! I introduced you!" "You lost your vote about who I married when you left a WEEK BEFORE THE WEDDING!"
And, "There must have been other women in your life." "A few. But they all had the same problem." "What?" *beat* "They weren't you, honey." Awwww. <3
This leads into the next good trailer bit where Indy, Marion, and Mutt take control of their truck--and Marion and Mutt make it into the front seat, Marion with that big giddy "OH YEAH I really like this guy!" grin on her face as Mutt asks her "What's he going to do now?" and she laughingly tells him, "I don't think he plans that far ahead!" Cue the bazooka breaking out of the back. Also beautiful.
And now, protracted and mostly bitchin' cool chase sequence, the highlight of which is Mutt and Irina swordfighting across two moving vehicles. Very, very cool, and appropriate that the slower, older Indy is not the one doing the more nimble stunts; for that, the young Shia was definitely required. This is also the sequence with the other "oh for fuck's sake" silly moment where Mutt gets snagged by vines right out of the truck, and winds up Tarzan'ing his way through the trees to catch up with the convoy... um, no. Also, too many gratuitous CGI monkeys. That said, though? Very cool sequence all around, leading right up to the eruption of ants that take out a couple of the Russian henchmen, and Marion swooping in at the last minute to save the men--by taking them OVER A CLIFF in the amphibious vehicle she's driving, right down into the river. WHEE!
The bit where their vehicle goes over not one, not two, but THREE massive waterfalls is pretty spectacular, even if it's another instance of "oh for fuck's sake that should have killed them". But hey, by this point in the movie, things are at a high enough gear that I just don't care. ;)
Once they're on dry land again, no surprise AT ALL that the Russians get to track them courtesy of little red flashing markers somebody is dropping them to mark the trailer. No surprise that this turns out to be Mac, either.
The whole sequence with getting into the hidden temple is good, and the final reveal of the chamber with the crystal alien skeletons is pretty nifty. So's what happens when they finally put the skull back on the body it was taken from.
There are a few shaky aspects about the climax, to wit:
1) Wait, what, these are pan-dimensional beings? Not just from outer space? Was having them be pan-dimensional really necessary? o.O
2) Wait, what, sudden appearance of spaceship?! Where the hell did it come from? Was putting the skull back the signal to phone home and have the skeletons picked up?
3) Wait, what, these thirteen skeletons all got slorped into one body? How'd that work.... well okay, that did look pretty neat, I must admit. ;)
4) Wait, what, Oxley is sane again all of a sudden? And he knew that the crystal beings were pan-dimensional? How'd he pick that up? Off the skull?
All that said, though, it was a pretty spectacular climax, visually. Even if it needed another pass through the editing, plot-wise. ;) Watching Cate Blanchett explode while she was begging the aliens to gift her with their knowledge was neat... and that one intense look from the alien being was interesting, in that final moment, as if it somehow had realized that she was unworthy or something.
And after all the splody is said and done, absolutely NO SURPRISE WHATSOEVER that Indy and Marion finally get married. Aw. <3 That did just make me smile, even if it's kinda domestic for Indiana Jones.
And that bit with the hat at the end, where Mutt picks it up and is almost about to try it on, but Indy snatches it back from him at the last minute... HAR. Not so fast there, son. Not so fast indeed.
Still musing about how I feel this movie holds up against Temple of Doom and Last Crusade. I am pretty sure I'm going to have to go see it again to formulate a real and proper opinion!
no subject
Date: 2008-05-29 05:01 pm (UTC)