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Post by Marwood on Jul 1, 2023 17:04:51 GMT
So, Indiana Jones finally arrived for what will almost definitely be his last adventure on the big screen and to tell the truth, given the gap between this and Crystal Skull and the reviews I’d read prior to seeing it, I wasn’t expecting much and so I can’t say I was disappointed with what was served up.
While the de-aging effects used in the opening scenes are better than the ones used in The Irishman, after a minute or so I started noticing that his eyes didn’t look quite right and you could hear the years in his voice. The main problems with it IMO were that it takes an awfully long just to go places that aren’t particularly exciting, and given the leading man is 80 there are no big action set pieces and we are served up some deep sea diving and parachuting scenes that come across as out takes from Roger Moores 80s Bond films and when we finally learn of Mads Mikkelsen master plan of what he intends to do with the Dial, it was all a bit meh.
Waiting for this to end (at least two other people in the screening walked out well before the end), I would have given it 5 out of 10 but the last 5 minutes and the people who make an appearance just about dragged it across the line to 6.
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Post by Marwood on Jul 2, 2023 18:35:43 GMT
Looking back at some of the comments on other forums in previous months: no Tom Selleck doesn’t show up in this to save the day, and Phoebe Waller-Bridge doesn’t fly back using the Dial and become Indiana Jones either 😝)and as they’re not spoilers I’m not hiding these comments)
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Post by alessia on Jul 4, 2023 15:59:12 GMT
ahah I fell asleep on Sunday (yet again!!- must stop going to cinema after lunch on a Sunday...) during the scene with the horse, but managed to stay awake for most of the rest. I agree it takes ages to get to the point, and it's too long. Phoebe WB looks like she's having the time of her life, and I enjoyed Mads Mikkelsen - he can do no wrong even when he's playing the nazi. and Toby Jones.
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Post by mkb on Jul 5, 2023 23:23:16 GMT
Saw this tonight and it exceeded my pessimistic expectations. It's about 45 minutes too long. One suspects that much more was in the script from Jez Butterworth et al, and that nervous producers have edited down to a finished product that favours the action scenes over the more interesting character interactions. Where was the back story about how Helena became the person she was? It didn't fully add up. Young Helena and her father barely feature, which was a missed opportunity, and her intriguing relationship with Moroccan gangster Rahim is dealt with in seconds. But the lengthy action scenes are well done. You have to remember that the Indy movies are meant to be an homage and throwback to the serials from Saturday Morning Minors (which were still showing when I went in the 70s). The all-American hero would face appalling jeopardy as a cliff-hanger to each episode, but, somewhat incredulously, overcome the baddies at the start of the next to fight on again, each ridiculous set-piece being even more jaw-dropping than the last. The latest Indy instalment is as good as Raiders in its embrace of the genre, and rather appropriately, follows pretty much the same story arc (just as Top Gun did last year with its sequel, and people seemed to love the comfort-blanket warmth that reminiscence brought). De-aged Ford and Mikkelson are stunningly realistic, even from the front row in the iSense auditorium. And John Williams provides a beautiful new play-out suite over the ten-minute end credits that's worth staying for. The epilogue brought a tear, mainly I think because I have aged as these characters have aged, and I feel like I've been there with them. Four stars. |
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Post by sukhavati on Jul 12, 2023 2:17:54 GMT
FWIW, I enjoyed the film, but agree that it was far too long. I did not like the character of Helena; found her to be amoral considering her father and godfather's professions. I think they could have cut the action sequences by a third each, including the prologue, which seemed rather extended.
I was trying to think back to my original reaction to Raiders in 1981, and I remember feeling somewhat giddy at one action sequence after another, but the originals didn't seem to drag out.
{Quibbles}
Before I changed majors and took up Art History at university, I was a theatre major and focused on costume design. I found the production design in the tomb scene disappointing.
With Raiders, the ancient Egyptian interiors were spot on in the details, including the wall paintings, sculptures, and props. I don't specialize in Pre-Columbian, but Crystal Skull seemed to get the details right in the temple as well. Here, other than the Athena/Minerva sculptures, the details in the tomb were substandard, as were the pieces in storage in the university "archives." Substandard plaster pieces that were obvious new fakes. Spielberg wouldn't have let those details pass, even if there was going to be a destructive action segment coming up. A number of the sculptural props in the tomb chamber looked incomplete, and the bas relief on the sarcophagus didn't look Greco-Roman. Also, it's inconceivable that an honored individual in a Greek city-state would have had a burial without a lid on said sarcophagus. I'm sorry - were Ford and PWB too weak to remove a foam core prop lid? Just didn't work for anyone who knows anything about archaelogy. And what on earth were those portholes in the tomb set - were those meant to have been recovered from the ancient plane crash scene?
Speaking of which, I loved that short segment in the past. The costuming was done well, the cgi recreations of the battle, defenses, and ships was well researched, and it explained the dragon references earlier in the film. It was fun for me as an art educator. They also did well with casting the residents of Syracuse/Sicily. It was a crossroads of the ancient world, and the ancient residents would have been mixed race with people from the Near East, northern Africa, and Europe. Just a little touch in casting I noticed that was absolutely spot on.
I had some serious reservations about the new version of the classic Indiana Jones costume. He's the central character, why get it wrong? I believe the original hat, jacket, and whip are in the Smithsonian. All good and fair. The new jacket was not the same as the original's prototype A2 jacket, that was later standard US Army Air Corps issue. The new one was obviously unused. Wasn't there anyone on the costume crew, designer included, who was not savvy enough to age the bandbox new pieces worn by Ford? In the original three films, the jacket and hat were clearly well used and broken in. Here, all the pieces were stiff and uncreased to show regular wear, and despite what Sallah said, they hadn't been stored away under a bed for years and years. Little things like that very quickly take me out of a film universe. This is when two years of immersion in learning to costume to a script's specifications and character has affected my ability to enjoy historic periods in film or on stage...lol...
Ultimately, I was very glad to see the familiar faces, I think losing one former character was a good idea, since I didn't like that character in the first place, and cheers to Glasgow for being a believable substitute for NYC. I think if the pacing had been tighter, if there had been more winking humour included, it could have been a top notch film. It was nice to revisit these old film friends - honestly, there was not one special effects laden film preview that I'm tempted to see later this year. The story and motivations in this film weren't necessarily clear outside of get the MacGuffin, but Jones is a character with an emotional history behind him, along with professional knowledge including the grasp of details on recall that an archaeologist of his experience would have had. Ford still embodies the character, and I'm glad he got his Hollywood ending. |
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