Standing in line with predominantly teenagers should have been an indicator. The drunk loudmouth kicking my chair and the shoddy costumes should have raised a red flag. Yet, nothing set off the alarms like a CG groundhog. The second the computer animated critter popped out of the ground and barely doged the wheel of a speeding car blaring Elvis, everyone who grew up hanging off of every whip-crack Harrison Ford emitted, felt their hearts drop into their stomach.
Part of the beauty of Indiana Jones was Spielberg's serial film influences and his genuine appropriation. Environments that appeared to be comprised of backdrops and constant studio lighting (full spotlighted faces) gave Indy his old world charm. Set in the fifties, the design and the political ideas were spot on with the actual aesthetic and general mindset of America in the 1950's. In the latest Indiana Jones film, Spielberg keeps his decade specific language constant, everything from Howdy Doody to Indy telling the reds, 'I like Ike'. We can still look forward to the significance of Indy's hat, the faithful theme whenever anything action packed or as meager as getting up off the ground occurs on the screen, and there's even a quote to Indiana Jone's fear of snakes.
However, the constant thrills that are to be expected from Indiana Jones while present are overshadowed by the sheer ridiculousness of the plot. Yes, there are fantastic fight scenes. Yes, Indy does what Indy does best. Yes, there are aliens and CG ants.
Big headed aliens and flesh eating computer animated ants.
The action, no matter how compelling, just doesn't stand up in the face of how terribly obvious and out of place the special effects are. There seems to be too much of need to impress the contemporary audience through flashy graphics (such as interdimensional flying saucers). There is no shame in adapting to meet the standards of a younger audience, however one should not lose themselves in appealing to a younger generation. Spielberg pulls a George Lucas here--he takes a perfectly good idea and blows the entire thing trying to imitate the flashiness of modern day Hollywood.
Surely someone has to notice that computer graphics are difficult to incorporate successfully in live action films. The first two Lord of the Rings, for example, are two of the few movies in the last ten years to almost seamlessly include computer graphics in the environment and beside the actors. Yet, in the third installment of the trilogy, the animators seem to go over the top and lose their subtlety. Sadly, subtlety is not in the vocabulary of the animators of Indian Jones.
The film is not horrible. The acting is actually the saving grace of the film. Harrison Ford, being one of the last true, dreamy, man's man actors in Hollywood, cannot deliver anything but excellence. Even the kid from Transformers does a good job (I'd remember his name, but I'm too caught up in the fact that he was on Disney's Even Stevens). Go see the movie for Ford's sake--being long in the tooth and still moving like the same Indiana Jones deserves merit.
2 comments:
But didn't you admire how they managed to squeeze every last piece of ancient art covered in Survey I into that one room, at the top of a Mayan pyramid? And, I mean, would Ramsey not have been having a fit? Toltec, Mixtec, Maya, Zapotec, and Aztec art ALL. IN. ONE. PLACE. With extraterrestrials. And Communists. And fucking Shia Labeouf. It was amazing.
Yeah the entire movie I just kept thinking "Ramsey would eat this up!" especially the Lost Backroom of a Museum room full of Babylonian and Etruscan and Egyptian rummage.
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