Greetings everyone, this is the Reckoning Reviewer here, and once again, I am going over an unappreciated movie. This time it is none other than Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. When this movie came out there were both positive and negative reactions, and mostly confused about the content of the movie. The most negative one I've seen, is a reaction that I absolutely hate in which Brad Jones and his fellow tools say random words that make no sense, and make me want to Falcon Punch him in the face. The only one who I liked in that scene was the robot. Mostly because he was the only one who wasn't an asshole. But why I could make this blog about how much I despise Brad Jones, I have a movie to defend. Now let's start with reasons why people don't like it.
Why people dislike it:
Nuking the Fridge:
Okay, this is a rather funny one. It has had jokes pointed at it again and again. It even has its own meme. It all started with this scene where for some reason a nuclear explosion was about to happen. To survive it, Indiana Jones goes into a refrigerator. There has been controversy as to whether or not he could actually survive this. Even if the fridge could survive the explosion, it's more than possible that Indiana's bones would've all been broken because of the hard landings. I don't care about the laws of physics, I just find it really interesting, and kind of funny that it's a meme. And Steven Spielberg himself defended George Lucas from fans and admitted that it was his idea. Well he did come up with ET, so we can believe the weirdness. Plus, doesn't Indiana Jones survive impossible stunts anyway? Remember the floating raft from Temple of Doom? How about the tank scene from Last Crusade? Anyway, this is nothing new.
Aliens:
Now this film has aliens in it. We can believe that, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg are both like gods when it comes to aliens in movies. I don't know why people are so pissed about aliens, but I guess it's something like this. The first three Indiana Jones movies had some religion in them, and I never really understood those religions, and fans consider aliens more sci-fi than religious. I'm sure aliens have their own religions too, so it counts. If you think aliens are too unreal for Indiana Jones, let me remind you that there was always some dark magic in the first three movies. You call THAT realistic?! But seriously, I don't mind the aliens, they're better than those dudes in Temple of Doom.
Some of the Animals in the Movie:
I have no idea who started this, but it is just a ridiculous thing to talk about. Don't accuse me for making something up, I'm just going by what people have been saying they don't like. Okay, it's a very stupid thing to talk about. There were prairie dogs, monkeys, killer ants. I think it's because most of the animals were in CGI, or they had something goofy about them. I think this is just a little thing, nothing to be concerned about. I would've liked to see a big lipped alligator in the movie, but didn't get my wish. Why am I even talking about the prairie dogs and monkeys? This is messed up! I'm going to stop NOW!
Okay, I went into strange territory for a second. Seriously, there must be some really stupid people out there to think that prairie dogs and monkeys are a bad thing in movies. But now that I got those psychopaths out of the way, let me talk about why I like it.
Why I like it:
I seriously do like the Indiana Jones movies (except for Temple of Doom, that one sucks), and I thought that this one really did capture the old feeling of the adventure from the original films. Harrison Ford is still great, and I like Shia LaBeouf who was also in the Transformers movies. I guess some people might say I'm too nice, but seriously, I bashed the Cinema Snob at the beginning, I'm not always so happy. But seriously, give the film a chance, it's just like the other Indiana Jones movies except with old jokes and...nuking the fridge.
Okay, now I think I'm going to review Wolverine next week.
Personally, I think Crystal Skull is an excellent Indiana Jones movie. I mean, it's not Last Crusade, but only Last Crusade is Last Crusade so that doesn't count.
The aliens were a deliberate stylistic decision that makes perfect sense - Indiana jones has always been about pulp adventure, and the original movies are set in the 30s and are based on the supernaturally-flavored adventure stories of that time. Crystal Skull on the other hand is set in the 50s at which point aliens were all the rage.
I think that if anything, that's the strenght of Crystal Skull: It allowed its hero to age, and it allowed the zeitgeist of his world to age with him. But at the same time, it is undeniably an Indiana Jones movie. That's sort of the theme of the movie: Some things change, some things remain the same.
Nuking the fridge? That was obviously a spoof on the old advice that one could survive radioactive fallout by hiding in a refridgerator. (Which made some sense at the time because old timey fridges where lined with led.) Sure, surviving an actual nuclear explosion is absurdly over the top, but so was the raft scene in Temple of Doom. It's Indiana Jones, it's supposed to be kinda silly at times.