Indiana Jones

[ernestine]

I just saw it today and I'm not quite sure how I feel about it. The ending was pure velveeta cheese, but I enjoyed it. There was lots of great action and I felt like Harrison Ford was still believable and likable as Indy. (Except for the first scene with him. He WAY overacted it to the point where I was a bit embarrassed for him. But he quickly got it together and found his footing as the character again.) Karen Allen was iffy. I loved that they had an older woman with no plastic surgery play the love interest. I loved that she had wrinkles and messy hair and was kind of pudgy. I thought she looked great, but it was a bit jarring because it's not something I'm used to. Having an older leading man with an older leading woman doesn't happen much these days. I liked Shia. At first he was just annoying, but he grew on my by the end. And I thought the opening scene was just so random!

Spoiler alert... I thought they took away most of Marian's fiestiness. They should have had her punch Cate Blanchett's character or fight. Instead, she spent most of the movie making googly eyes at Harrison Ford, or with a vacant grin on her face. She most definitely was the weakest link acting wise, and that's a shame, because she's my favorite of all the woman in the Indy films. I really disliked Indy's friend who was a bad guy, then a good guy, then a bad guy again. Indy was stupid to keep trusting him and taking him at his word.

I liked the ants best of all, but I really thought most of the movie made no sense. Maybe it made sense on paper, but on screen? I couldn't figure out what the heck was going on for most of it. And the alien's were weird. They wanted them to bring the skull back so that they could destroy them? Um... ok....

I liked it, but having just finished watching the first trilogy, this is definitely the weakest link. I guess this is kind of a rambling post. I was predisposed to love this movie, and I definitely didn't hate it, but it's disappointing that I didn't love it more.

[Atreides]

I just came back from seeing it and liked it a lot. My favourite setpiece was the chase/fight scene in the jungle. Just awesome. And Cate Blanchett rocks my world. I thought everyone on-screen was pretty cool, actually.

[bklynred]

Aaah! You guys are so early--I can't see it till Saturday. Sigh. I'll try to hold out on spoilers.

[Karrit]

I saw it last night and overall I enjoyed it. Though I didn't love, love, love the movie, I still love, love, love HF as Indy, and I was just happy to sit there munching popcorn and watching him. It was also kind of fun to catch all the references to the previous movies and characters.

Minor spoiler gripes: All the stupid groundhogs at the beginning of the movie. For a bit there, I thought they would start dancing like the one in Caddyshack. How come Indy's refrigerator was the only one in that fake town to get blown out into the desert?

Shia was ok. IMHO, he doesn't have the screen presence to carry this movie series forward. I really, really hope they just let the series end here.

[Deleted]

I just saw this last night. It was the weakest film in the series. It's still a good movie, but it's not great. Just like the last Spiderman film, this didn't live up to the other films. But I will have to say that Steven Spielberg can still put together stunts and scenes that are better than the younger generation of directors. He still has it.

HF is still great as Indy. I totally believed that when you get hit by him, it hurts.

The idea that Shia can carry the franchise is stupid. He was the sidekick in the film. No way can he become the next Indy star. No way.

I thought that Karen Allen was the weakest link, but I just saw the original indy film and she was the weakest link there as well. Her final scene in the film with Harrison was so awkward. I didn't feel any chemistry at between them.

To be honest, I know this is sacraligious to say this, but though I find Cate Blanchett to be a brilliant technical actress, I don't always connect with her emotionally. That was the case here. She was good, but there was something robotic about her in this film. It worked for the character, but I just felt that once again, I get to appreciate her work at a distance.

[bklynred]

BTW, Yahoo has a viewer rating of B- and Rotten Tomatoes[/color] has it doing 79% fresh, which is good, but not razzle-dazzle spectacular. Does that seem on par with what viewers have seen so far?

[Deleted]

I seem to have the same opinion as everyone else here, it was an enjoyable movie but definitely the weakest of all four. Karen Allen seemed to do okay to me though. And the ending was corny as all hell.

But damn does Harrison Ford still look damn good in that fedora/leather jacket combo.

[gingerdangerous]

I just got back from seeing it with a very enthusiastic New York audience- the best way to see an action movie on opening night- and I thought it was awesome! All of the chase/action scenes were edge of your seat exciting, the only bizarre part that didn't work for me was a part with Shia in the jungle but I can't seem to make spoilers work so nevermind, haha. I guess I am in a minority but I loved Karen Allen, I thought she was adorable and had one of the prettiest smiles I've ever seen. All in all it was a great summer flick, I would recommend.

[Deleted]

I'm kinda biased in favor of Karen Allen, she lives near my parents and owns a sewing shop in the area. She gave a really nice interview to the local paper and she came across as a genuinely sweet and nice woman. And it was really cool to see a normal-looking and age-appropriate woman be the love interest of the big action hero. Even if all the lovey-dovey parts were cheesy.

[jynni]

I saw it for the second time last night and something struck me - is that while it's nothing spectacular - it's a very good movie. It doesn't attempt to be mind blowing and blockbuster awesome, it just wants to be a really good, fun movie. It's just another Indiana Jones story, not really a sequel, just another of his adventures to tell. It's obvious he's had many since Crusade and will probably have more, we just happen to get to see this one.

I think for that reason, it works even better for me. I personally thought it didn't miss a beat in keeping with the look and feel of the rest of the series. It carried on as if there had been four more Indy movies made since Crusade and this was just one more - no akward character re-introductions or desparate attempts to try to top any of the other movies (because really, it's just not possible and I think Spielberg and Co know that).