{"id":120,"date":"2008-05-28T07:07:00","date_gmt":"2008-05-28T07:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/fiction\/2008\/05\/of-windy-indy-and-the-crystal-skull.html"},"modified":"2011-06-30T20:00:39","modified_gmt":"2011-06-30T20:00:39","slug":"of-windy-indy-and-the-crystal-skull","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/fiction\/2008\/05\/of-windy-indy-and-the-crystal-skull.html","title":{"rendered":"Of Windy Indy and the crystal skull"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Indiana<\/a>\"\"This film is doing good business. I attribute that to all the hype generated prior to it\u2019s release. It can\u2019t possibly be the film. And I say this, after nodding off to sleep a couple of times during it. Between \u201cIndiana Jones\u201d and \u201cNational Treasure 2\u201d (which I watched on DVD during the same weekend) it\u2019s been too much of a bad thing. <\/p>\n

Indy reappears on the screen after a gap of 19 years \u2013 too long, some would say \u2013 but let\u2019s give the (old) man a fair chance. We have him going off on another one of his spur-of-the-moment adventures, jauntily doffing his hat, smiling that lopsided smile, this time to Peru, because really that country seems a perfect hunting ground for skulls and finding exotic looking tribal natives. Thick, uncut forests increase the appeal of the locale. The objective is to find Professor Oxley (John Hurt) who\u2019s on a hunt which involves crystal skulls and the \u201cCity of Gold\u201d. <\/p>\n

Accompanying Indy are a varied group of people. To start with there\u2019s a young guy called Mutt (Shia LeBeouf) and then his Mum drops in (Karen Allen). They then find Professor Oxley as well as the bad guys \u2013 who else but the KGB itself ? Cate Blanchett plays Irina Spalko, who along with her Soviet comrades is on a hunt for the crystal skull as well. <\/p>\n

There\u2019s no accounting for tastes of course, but this feels a little jaded. Oh, and when before have I heard the \u201cCity of Gold\u201d theme ? Hmm…, not so long ago actually; National Treasure 2 had the same thing going on. Hidden levers, large stone entrances which close and open mysteriously on large gears, make rumbling sounds, water flooding, endless treasure which you\u2019d be a fool to take (guess what happens to the greedy ?) you name it, and we have the clich\u00e9d thingy already. Been there done that. Why do it again ?<\/p>\n

And where\u2019s the excitement ? What\u2019s making me getting me out of my seat yelling \u201cGo, Indy\u201d ? Nothing, really. I sat pretty quietly though-out the film, except the parts in which I dozed. This film does not work at the very basic level. It might have all the elements of an action-adventure-drama, but lacks the most important ingredient of all \u2013 the excitement, the zest, the nail-biting thrill that\u2019d keep me on the edge of my seat, rooting for Indy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIndiana Jones and the kingdom of the crystal skull\u201d (IJATKOTCS) is a throw-back to the 80s (it\u2019s set in 1957). In some parts of the film I could detect an aging affect. The clothes and the makeup is old-style. The forgotten KGB is back again. The internet is a thing of the future, and technology ? Unheard of. We are back to the basics. <\/p>\n

Except the basics don\u2019t work anymore. Not when we have contenders like \u201cThe Bourne Ultimatum\u201d and the \u201cDie Hard 4.0\u201d. This Indy installment is very down-to-earth, they use their hands, fists, guns and tanks. Un-sophistication is it\u2019s middle name. The stunts are very, very average. You might not guess that technology existed. Speilberg and Co. might want to go all purist on me, and not use techno-gizmos for the stunts, but that also means I\u2019d rather go with Bourne. <\/p>\n

\u201cIJATKOTCS\u201d is hyped up as the next big adventure, but in parts this feels like a kiddie film. I\u2019m OK with goofy \u2013 I draw the line at stupid. Granted that Jones is pretty goofy and fairly awkward (that\u2019s his character really), but in this film, sequences seem a little too contrived to draw out those laughs. It\u2019s inspired slapstick, and while I cringed, my kids laughed at the silliness. <\/p>\n

Yes, anything goes in this film. I\u2019m all for theatrical liberties; after all many were taken in the previous Indy installments. But however many genial allowances I might make for a film, I do make distinctions between \u201cfuzzy\u201d and \u201cretarded\u201d. One stoops . . . to conquer. And Indy stoops all right, ( at 65, I bet his arthritic knees don\u2019t quake), but he does not conquer. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s time, Indy, to hang up that fedora.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This film is doing good business. I attribute that to all the hype generated prior to it\u2019s release. It can\u2019t possibly be the film. And I say this, after nodding off to sleep a couple of times during it. Between \u201cIndiana Jones\u201d and \u201cNational Treasure 2\u201d (which I watched on DVD during the same weekend) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"twitter_17000648_17000648":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movies"],"aioseo_notices":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false,"post-thumbnail":false,"sow-carousel-default":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"amodini","author_link":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/fiction\/author\/admin"},"uagb_comment_info":1,"uagb_excerpt":"This film is doing good business. I attribute that to all the hype generated prior to it\u2019s release. It can\u2019t possibly be the film. And I say this, after nodding off to sleep a couple of times during it. Between \u201cIndiana Jones\u201d and \u201cNational Treasure 2\u201d (which I watched on DVD during the same weekend)…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":663,"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120\/revisions\/663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}