The reviews are in -- and they say the film delivers the goods -- even
though it would've been near impossible to be considered great. I've
always believed on some technical and even story-telling levels,
Spielberg, despite his excruciating weakness for sentimentalism -- is
constitutionally incapable of churning out consistently rotten
pictures. For every three disposables, he comes up with one that
demonstrates he's getting younger, not older.
I've seen reviews everywhere today; the one in the more popular
Hollywood Reporter (at least here in CA) is mixed, but the one posted
below from Variety, is more extensive about the difference between
product expectations vs. actual performance.
It dares to suggest the film's opening 20 minutes are akin to "Saving
Private Ryan," setting a new bar for dynamic action pictures. It even
says Karen Allen's character Marion..."is perhaps the greatest
Hawksian female performance in anything OTHER than a Howard Hawks
film." Too bad her screen time is appallingly short. No spoilers, but
one curious review I saw wondered if this was a Spielberg-Lucas
attempt to marry "Indiana Jones" with "Close Encounters of the Third
Kind."
-kuz.
===================
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
A Paramount release of a Lucasfilm Ltd. production. Produced by
Frank Marshall. Executive producers, George Lucas, Kathleen
Kennedy. Co-producer, Denis L. Stewart. Directed by Steven
Spielberg. Screenplay, David Koepp; story, George Lucas, Jeff
Nathanson, based on characters created by George Lucas, Philip
Kaufman.
Indiana Jones - Harrison Ford
Irina Spalko - Cate Blanchett
Marion Ravenwood - Karen Allen
George "Mac" McHale - Ray Winstone
Professor Oxley - John Hurt
Dean Charles Stanforth - Jim Broadbent
Mutt - Shia LaBeouf
Col. Dovchenko - Igor Jijikine
By TODD MCCARTHY, Variety
Sunday, May 18, 2008 – Cannes
One of the most eagerly and long-awaited series follow-ups in
screen history delivers the goods -- not those of the still
first-rate original, 1981's "Raiders of the Lost Ark," but those
of its uneven two successors. "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of
the Crystal Skull" begins with an actual big bang, then
gradually slides toward a ho-hum midsection before literally
taking off for an uplifting finish. Nineteen years after their
last adventure, director Steven Spielberg and star Harrison Ford
have no trouble getting back in the groove with a story and
style very much in keeping with what has made the series so
perennially popular. Few films have ever had such a high mass
audience must-see factor, spelling giant May 22 openings
worldwide and a rambunctious B.O. life all the way into the
eventual "Indiana Jones" DVD four-pack.
------------------
As has been well chronicled, Spielberg and exec producer George
Lucas went through no end of writers and story concepts before
plausibly updating the action precisely the same number of years
as have elapsed since "Last Crusade," to 1957, smack dab in the
middle of the Cold War.
U.S. versus USSR dynamic spurs the dynamite opening action
sequence, in which a convoy of Russian soldiers camouflaged in
American army vehicles rolls into a remote desert nuclear
testing base in search of a coveted object.
Helping them in this effort will be their prisoner, Indiana Jones.
------------------
With an energy and enthusiasm bespeaking years of pent-up desire
to get back to this sort of fun filmmaking, Spielberg sets the
period spirit with a rock 'n' roll-fueled drag race and, with
the characters' entry into the legendary Hangar 51, intimations
of an other-worldly presence.
As the aging issue is tossed off with a joke or two, the
sixtysomething hero quickly proves that the passage of time will
not be an inhibiting factor all these years later, as Indy
trades smart remarks with the formidable Soviet officer Irina
Spalko (Cate Blanchett) before jumping into action the equal of
any of the great setpieces the entire series has previously
offered.
In Spalko, the film has a villain worthy not just of Indiana
Jones but of a James Bond film, one who's madly intelligent as
well as appreciative of an opponent she views as a near-equal.
With her trim gray uniform, silver rapier, Louise Brooks haircut
and piercing blue eyes, Blanchett provides a major treat
whenever she's around.
------------------
The 20 nonstop opening minutes include a striking variation on
the many cookie-cutter middle-class housing tracts featured in
Spielberg films, this one populated exclusively by plastic
figurines enacting a cliche of a '50s Yank lifestyle while
awaiting the nuclear test to come, one Indy must quickly figure
out how to survive.
Even that's not the end of the scene, which runs the length of
the sort of Saturday matinee adventure serial that inspired the
series in the first place.
Like the bravura opening sequence of "Saving Private Ryan," this
smashing launch sets a standard the rest of the film has some
trouble living up to.
------------------
When Professor Jones returns to his university, he's informed by
his dean (Jim Broadbent, replacing the late Denholm Elliott)
that he's being suspended due to FBI doubt over his loyalty.
Indiana Jones suspected of commie sympathies? And this after
he's already told Spalko that "I like Ike."
Another iconic aspect of the decade rolls in with a kid named
Mutt (Shia LaBeouf), a leather-jacketed biker who travels with
comb and switchblade.
Between a contrived fistfight and extended motorized chase
around the leafy college campus, Mutt sets the grand adventure
in motion by offering evidence of the possible location of the
Crystal Skull of Akator, an object of great archeological and,
possibly, psychic and other-dimensional fascination.
------------------
In a nostalgia-producing air travel montage like those in
previous series entries, Indy and Mutt make their way to Peru,
where the action relaxes in some rather rote creepy-crawly cave
shenanigans before the guys lay their hands on the crystal skull
itself, an oddly shaped clear cranium that all agree is not of
human origin.
But it's shortly snatched by Spalko, who believes the skull
possesses psychic power that would prove decisive in mind
warfare, no doubt ending the Cold War then and there.
------------------
All this gibberish is merely designed to justify the battle of
wits and weapons, which continues apace as the Russians collect
two further prisoners, Indy's old cohort and crystal skull
expert, the now insane Professor Oxley (John Hurt), and Mutt's
mom, none other than Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen), Indy's
flame from "Raiders" and clearly the woman he was always meant
to be with.
Coming at pic's midway point, it's a welcome reunion, although
written to escalate too quickly into intense bickering; a few
more initial beats of mutual recognition, to permit the
resonance of their relationship to seep back into the
characterizations, would have give the rematch more heft.
------------------
But it's off and running again, with a race through the jungle
as the good guys and bad guys jump between vehicles, duel with
fists, sabers and machine guns, are assaulted by monkeys and
ravenous giant ants and, in an undoubted preview of a
forthcoming theme-park ride, plummet down three imposing
waterfalls.
For pure action thrills, this sequence rates close to the first
one, yet there's one more to come, a mixed-bag wrap-up that
transports the Indiana Jones series into a realm it's never
occupied before but is well familiar to Spielberg and Lucas.
------------------
For all the verbiage expended just to keep the story cranking
forward, David Koepp's script accomplishes the two essentials:
It keeps the structure on the straight and narrow, and is true
to the character of Indiana Jones himself.
Thanks to this and Ford's full-bodied performance, Indy comes
through just as viewers remember him: crafty, capable,
impatient, manly and red-blooded American.
He looks great for his age, although it's never pretended he's
younger than he is, and Mutt pays him the ultimate compliment
when he says, "For an old man, you ain't bad in a fight."
Allen also looks real good and radiates the same winning smile
and tomboyish enthusiasm that made her "Raiders"
characterization so critical to the film's complete success; her
Marion is perhaps the greatest Hawksian female performance in
anything other than a Howard Hawks film.
------------------
LaBeouf eventually earns his stripes after a somewhat forced
beginning, and Ray Winstone, along with fellow Brits Hurt and
Broadbent, fills out the roster of newcomers as a duplicitous
mercenary who switches sides with each change of fortune.
Technically, film is every bit as accomplished as one expects
from Spielberg and the series.
Of the director's key original collaborators, editor Michael
Kahn and composer John Williams return in full form.
Production designer Guy Hendrix Dyas provides some striking
creations, particularly the ancient circular chamber that houses
the climax.
First three series were lensed by the great British d.p. Douglas
Slocombe in bold, clean images, and while Spielberg's
now-regular cinematographer Janusz Kaminski has mostly succeeded
in reproducing this look, which is very different from his usual
style, he still can't prevent himself from letting in some
characteristic flared light and hazy backgrounds.
------------------
Camera (Technicolor, Deluxe prints; Panavision widescreen),
Janusz Kaminski; editor, Michael Kahn; music, John Williams;
production designer, Guy Hendrix Dyas; costume designer, Mary
Zophres; sound (Dolby Digital/DTS/SDDS), Ronald Judkins; sound
designer, Ben Burtt; supervising sound editors, Burtt, Richard
Hymns; visual effects supervisor, Pablo Helman; visual effects
and animation, Industrial Light & Magic; stunt coordinator, Gary
Powell; assistant director, Alan Somner; second unit director,
Dan Bradley; second unit camera, Flavio Labiano; casting,
Deborah Zane. Reviewed at Cannes Film Festival (noncompeting),
May 18, 2008. MPAA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 122 MIN.
Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com
___________________________________________________________________
How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List
Send a message addressed to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L
The author of this message is solely responsible for its content.
