Whiplash

If you plan to go see Indiana Jones 4 and don't want to completely ruin the experience, don't read this post. This will ruin the experience.

Like so many, I was waiting for Indiana 4 like it was the second coming (well, the fourth). I educated myself about the coming movie from making-off clips published online, and later from review in magazines.

The movie works surprisingly well, and Harrison Ford does an awesome role as Indiana - so good infact, that sometimes I kind of forgot how old he is, and felt definite connection between this and the earlier movies. Also, the young kid does a really good role, and really fits his role wery well.

There's a lot of good old style Indiana Jones humor, and though special effects have taken their place in the movie, a lot of the original feeling is still there.

That was the good things.

Special effects... It is amazing how much you can do these days with computers; to really fool the audience into believing in all the spectacular things. Basically since Terminator 2 and Jurassic Park, we've seen completely realistic CGI's in movies. With Lord of the Rings, the technology peaked for a while, and what they did in the moview was simply awesome (aside from a few Legolas shots).

Well, then came the new Star Wars movies. They proved that even with big money your CGI can suck.

The came several other movies.

I am Legend.

With a budget like that you'd expect to get much more than what they had in I am Legend. If there is anything that ruins that movie (a good one too) it's the fake-looking CGI. They don't fit. They don't look real. They don't work the magic they're supposed to.

Well, guess what? Indiana Jones has plenty of that going on. CGI that doesn't seem real.

The storytelling of the movie was quite clumsy. You don't really feel the movie as such: you don't get into it. It feels distant. There is way too much action compared to actual storytelling. You know, kind of like the over-long sword scenes in Pirates of the Caribbean 2 and 3. There are life-or-death situations and it seems no one is even worried by it. It's acrobatics. Clever shots without any depth into them.

The plot of the movie is not anything to shout about. It sucks. I mean, the story around the plot is ok, but the plot itself... I mean, who cares about a stupid crystal skull? Especially once you start learning the plot has more to it than supernatural.

From the reviews I learned that there would be some lame references of how the South American Indians were in contact with aliens, and how they helped the Indians to build their cities and temples, and brought them technology.

Well, you can rest assured and curse the gods for Indiana Jones 4 has references to aliens. In fact, it HAS aliens. Aliens and paranormal. Way to go Lucas, thank you!

And to make it worse, the aliens are made in that crappy CGI!! If there is one way to ruin a perfectly good movie series, it is changing everything about it and letting people hope you didn't ruin it too badly. Well, I hoped. No reward. The movie has crappy CGI and aliens. Way to go Lucas, thank you!

I can only imagine how much better the movie would've been if they had just tossed all post-1990 technologies away from movie-making, and concentrated on the plot instead.

In the Making-of documentary of the original movies, Lucas and Spielberg say Temple of Doom was the least good of the three. So my question is, why would you try to repeat Temple of Doom - instead of Raiders of the Lost Ark, or Last Crusade?... And even failing in repeating Temple of Doom.

Well, it's a nice movie still. Just don't fool yourself into thinking it's another Indiana Jones.

National Treasure was better. And it hurts me to say that. It really does.

Thank you Lucas. First you ruined Star Wars, now you ruined Indiana Jones. Luckily that leaves very little for you to ruin anymore.