The Jury Is Still Out

Suzanne and I started watching the most recent Indiana Jones movie last night. We would have finished it but viewing had to stop in favor of the latest episode of 18 Kids and Counting. (Am I a married man? Yes, I am. How can you tell? A film featuring fistfights, UFOs, and chase scenes was put on hold at my house so we could watch a tv show about a gargantuan family wandering through a corn maze.)

Aaaaannnyway, the jury is still out on Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. It got mostly tepid reviews and no one I know was particularly enthusiastic about it when it came out. Having lowered expectations, I haven't been terribly disappointed yet. The two things I noticed are: #1 - There seems to be an awful lot of nudge-nudge-wink-wink going on. The opening chase scene between the army trucks and the hot rod is obviously a reference to American Graffiti which was directed by Indiana Jones'es writer/producer George Lucas, the audience gets a glimpse of the titular ark from Raiders of the Lost Ark in the warehouse scene, and there are plenty of references to Indy's age and how things aren't as easy as they used to be. All of this seems to be a jokey way of acknowledging history and winking at the viewer as if to say, "We know it's been a while - stay with us though and we'll try to make it fun."

The other thing I noticed is Spielberg's now-frequent collaborator, cinematographer Januz Kaminski. He's shot just about every Spielberg film since Schindler's List and his style is a little too grainy and sophisticated for the Saturday-matinee-cheesy-cliffhanger nature of the Indiana Jones films. His style makes the most innocuous scene seem heavy and ominous. When Spielberg is doing something like Minority Report, it works perfectly. When he's doing something that involves Shia Labeouf as a motorcycle-riding character named "Mutt," not so much.



Anyway, once we finish it (you know, once my wife lets me use the tv again), I'll give a full report.