Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

My wife and I saw this film last weekend and one of us really loved it. That would be my wife. I think it is a bad sign when the best part of the movie is the poster by Drew Struzan (though there have been many films where Drew's artwork was the highlight of the production).

My problem with the film mainly is that unlike the other Indiana Jones films, this one just went too far beyond reality with the stunts. I don't mind outrageous stunts and saves, so long as there is a 1 in 10,000 chance that it would actually work in real life. But this thing had a couple of 1 in a billion chance saves (refrigerator) that happened too often (waterfall, waterfall, waterfall), which resulted in me being pulled right out of the film. I thought it started well, but was a real mess by the time they reached the same lost temple they had in National Treasure II. Big stunts are one thing, but they must be grounded in some sort of consistent reality. The big stunts in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull drift into the realm of magic, and if the heroes are going to be magically saved then why should we care about any supposed danger in which they are placed?

David Koepp has written so many great screenplays for Spielberg in the past, that you have to think the problems came from the Lucas story rather than the Koepp screenplay. I have a feeling Koepp was not given the freedom to change things as much as he has on other films because Lucas holds such a tight reign on the story. Lucas has a proven track record of missing the mark by wide margins when it comes to story.

There were also some gaffes in the special effects during the long (too long?) jungle chase, where the digital construct was glaringly obvious for a second or two. Not a lot of time for a miffed effect, but long enough to once again destroy the illusion of reality and sabotage the great work that was on display there most of the time.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull did $311 million the first weekend world-wide, but I see a very steep drop coming as not many people will want to sit through this again. Actually the news is already bearing this out as Sex and the City is demolishing it so far this weekend. That's too bad because this could have been a great little action/adventure film if only some restraint could have been exercised.