here is my review of indiana jones and the kingdom of the crystal skull, c+p'ed from my post in the lackadaisy forums. and sorry for the lack of punctuation. i did this in a hurry because i'm missing my name is earl:


it was definitely better than temple of doom. but not as good as raiders. but then again, i wasn't expecting it to top the greatest adventure movie of all time. i wasn’t expecting it to be a citizen kane, i was just expecting it to be a slightly above average, riproaring summer blockbuster (at least better than 'temple'. so at least that way i wouldn’t be that disappointed.

and because of my lower expectations, what i got was a love letter to me from mr steven spielberg and mr george lucas. it was a highly enjoyable return of a beloved legend of our childhoods. i found it to be on the same level as last crusade, which many people (including maybe me) think of as the most enjoyable of the trilogy. the whole roswell/close encounters plot was a needed raising of the bar. as we, as movie goers, have be desensitized to treasure hunt adventures with so many pretenders in indy's absence from the silver screen. the return of indiana jones, after 19 years of expectations, would need a little more of a treasure than simply the gold of el dorado. but after aliens, if they continue to make indy sequels, how are they going to raise the bar even more. it's like the actual 'alien' series. after thet're through with the alien vs predator series, they say it's unlikely they'll go back to make more alien sequals. but i for one, put my faith in lucas and spielberg, hoping that they'll surpass my expectations, as they have (in my eyes) regained their credibility as filmmaking gods.

and as for people who are having a tiff over the fact that indy is no longer a trilogy: star wars has six films, and what do we call the star wars saga? the original trilogy and the prequel trilogy, 2 trilogies separated by a handful of decades. so if they continue to make indy films, i'll just think of the saga as 2 trilogies: indy classic and new indy.

i don't know what’s happening with the summer blockbuster this year so far: speed racer, while not raking in many eyeballs, prove to be an enjoyable, riproaring popcorn flick. iron man set a new standard for superhero films, and indy 4 (as i said) rocked my socks off. maybe it's just the contrast from last years cinematic disaster summer (shrek 3, spider-man 3, pirates of the carribean 3 etc). but all this success has just made me worried about the rest of the summer, with dark knight and hellboy 2. is there enough celluloid awesome to go around? we'll just have to wait and see.

so then. on the whole indy 4 surpassed my expectations of a simple, CG fuled, 2000s blockbuster popcorn flick, and became a welcome addition in on of my favourite movie series of all time.

ladies and gentlemen: this has been the GP, and i bid thee good day.