At heart, I sometimes think, I’m twelve years old. When this image appeared on the screen at the theater yesterday, I giggled with absurd, breathless anticipation, leaned toward my son, and said, “It’s been so long.”
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull exceeded my hopes. Granted, those hopes had amounted to: Please don’t suck. But, in fact, the movie is whipcracking, rocket-sledding, blow-dart-shooting fun.
Reasons: Indy. Marion! A lead-lined fridge. An awesome mushroom cloud. And a chase scene that features a motorcycle and a library. Yes: there’s hot book action. Watch me clap my little hands together with glee.
In the end, however, I had to acknowledge that twelve-years-old was a long time ago. The Husband and I left the theater laughing about how we knew the rest of the audience was much younger than we are. Every time a plot twist unfolded, we’d seen it coming for forty-five minutes. But around us a hundred middle schoolers gasped in shock.
But isn’t that what Saturday afternoon serials were supposed to be about?
7 responses so far ↓
daveg // May 24, 2008 at 7:21 pm
You’ve summed up pretty much exactly how I felt about the film Meg. The cinema I was in was packed with families, sometimes three generations of them. How many movies can get that kind of audience?
It reminded me that the last time I saw Indy in the cinema, I was 8. Back the I was thinking “Cool, a chase with horses and tanks!”. Now I was thinking “Cool, a sword fight on two moving jeeps!” with what felt like the exact same type of smile on my face.
And I lost count of the amount of people humming the theme tune when we were leaving. I don’ t think I’m going to have as much fun watching a film for quite a while.
Also, Cate Blanchette rocked as the baddie!
Monita // May 24, 2008 at 7:33 pm
Oh, Meg, I’m so glad to hear you say it didn’t suck! And I made my poor 10-year-old sit through the Indiana Jones marathon with me last weekend so he’d understand “The Tao of Indy.” And he actually liked it! Or so he said before I untied him from the chair… Anyway, we can’t wait to see it.
Patti // May 24, 2008 at 9:28 pm
We’ll be going very soon. My brother and I went to Raiders and Temple of Doom with Dad (not my mother’s kind of movie) and had a blast. There’s tradition to uphold here and I’m very glad to hear that it doesn’t suck. I sat through Pirates of the Caribbean 2 desperately trying to nod off to sleep in the faint hope of making it go away. Not even Johnny Depp could save that one.
susan // May 24, 2008 at 9:50 pm
A lead-lined fridge! I can’t wait.
I’m a little apprehensive about the motorcycle and the library…. I hope there was a disclaimer that no books were actually injured during the filming of this movie.
Dan // May 25, 2008 at 12:32 am
So Meg, was the Marion Ravenwood character as awesome as she was in “Raiders”?
To be honest, I was originally going to wait for the DVD…but I think I may have to reconsider…
Jay // May 25, 2008 at 12:48 pm
I think Crystal Skull is the weakest of the franchise(i´d rank them in the order they were made), but enjoyed it nonetheless…given the fuzz that had been made about the script and the waiting time we had to endure due to countless script re-writes, i think the script should have been more intricate and some of the dialogue and jokes more polished…..but Indy4 still is great matinee fun and i can see Shia stepping into Indy´s shoes…or rather hat.
Meg // May 25, 2008 at 2:05 pm
Monita, you had to untie your son from the chair? He’d seen the whole Indy ouvre, but didn’t figure out a dozen ways to escape on his own? He wasn’t paying attention.
Dan, Marion is still great. I would have welcomed more banter, more action featuring her… but I was very happy to see her back.
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