"Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull" (Review)

I revisted the previous three films before watching this one and found that they were much less interesting than I remembered, so take that into account. Because of this, I wasn't terribly let down by this movie, although it has it's flaws. First the good, though.

Great performances by all involved. Ford seemed to need a couple scenes before he felt like Indy, but got into his groove soon enough. The film acknowledged the character's age with good effect, though Ford still seemed to do a very surprising amount of his own stunts. (That or the face replacement was REALLY slick!)

Cate Blanchett was especially enjoyable as the quintessentail "communist Russian bad lady".

The film was served well by modern special effects and the sets were great in number and textured in design. Some great visual material.

On to the bad. As my wife pointed out, "no one ever seemed to really be in danger. It was like they were at an amusement park going on a bunch of fun rides." This is true. The logic of this film, even more so than previous Indy films was: If it's cute or funny, it doesn't have to be believable. Unfortunately, if you don't appreciate the "cute" or "fun" sense of humor in this movie, you'll just be frustrated at the obvious lack of realism. A refrigerator, a snake, some groundhogs, ants and a "tarzan" scene all come to mind. (You'll see what I mean.)

The film also departs from its supernatural roots to explore themes of science fiction. This is probably because of the time period the story is set in (indicated by an iconic image of Indy and a mushroom cloud early on) and didn't bother me much, but know going in that the concept driving the movie is different from the norm.

The movie is very aware that it is a sequel and often seems more interested in reminding us of previous films than in making a new one. It's not as overdone as it might have been, but it's enough to be slightly less than charming in the big picture.

In terms of Truth to be found, one idea came to mind about the franchise as a whole. By giving legitimacy to the Bible(Raiders, Last Crusade), an African tribal legend(Temple of Doom), and now the Crystal Skulls, what philosophically must be true according to the worldview of these films? Seems to me it must mean that all ancient religious stories are true, or none of them are. Smells like relativism. Nothing intentional I'm sure, and these movies have never felt preachy. Just a little observation.

The film might also lead to some interesting discussion about the ancient Mayan calendar and its prediction of the world's end just a few years from now.

Quality- 7.5

Veracity- 6.5

Technology Is Cool Except When It Sucks

Today I was really hoping to have a new background for this blog. I went to Pyzam.com and started looking through their stuff but the website was having issues and I've now run out of time.

Anyone know of another good place to get cool backgrounds for blogger? Something representing comics would be sweet! (not a specific hero, but superheroes/comics in general)

Hopefully I'll have something soon!

The Second Coming!!

Don't miss the second coming of the "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe" cartoon network animated series. Volume two will be released this Tuesday and I'm already starting to foam at the mouth....

...seriously, my wife has just called 911. They think it could be rabies, but my money is still on this DVD.

J.S. Earls Interview!

Hey, if you dig cool comics with kickin' art, check out part one of the interview I did with J.S. Earls, creator of "Pistolfist".

J.S. also did official comic adaptations of some of Ted Dekker's work. If you dig comics, this interview is not to be missed!

It's on the podcast this weekend, which I'll be posting sometime tomorrow (Saturday).

Enjoy!

Nocturnal Thoughts

In a effort to scratch the console RPG itch, I've decided to give Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne a try. Pretty long title, huh? I haven't tried this one before because I was not impressed with Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga, and this one seemed similar.

Despite my reservations, I've been enjoying the game for the most part. It's dark and serious, with a touch of the right kind of humor.

The only problem I'm having is with the load times. I suspect it may be my PS2, but it could also be scratches on the disc. I've readjusted the laser lense on my PS2, but without much improvement. I know the game can load faster than it has been for me, because I've seen footage on YouTube that proves it. So as my 7-day no hassle return policy ticks away, I have to figure out if the slower load times are hampering the experience enough for me to take it back for a refund.

So far, the good qualities of the game are outweighing this factor, so it's likely I'll keep the game. Or maybe I'm just desperate for a good old fashioned turn-based battle system RPG.

The Amazing John Daker!!

This is one of my favorite videos. The first time it made me incredibly uncomfortable. Every time since it makes me laugh. Enjoy!!

Prince Caspian (Movie Review)

Andrew Adamson returns to direct this second adaptation of C.S. Lewis' classic fantasy series, with pretty good results. I've read and enjoyed all of the books, but it's been about 15 years. Since then, however, I've listened through most of the series in audio drama format in the series produced by Focus Radio Theatre. (I can recommed this series both for its production quality and faithfulness to the original books.) After seeing "Prince Caspian", I flipped back through my copy of the book to check my memory and verified that some pretty significant changes were made.

I'll admit that I saw the changes coming. First, there were several action sequences added to the the first movie and second, the "Prince Caspian" story, like many of the books in this series, is not "action packed". It's driven by the exploration of events and ideas. It's not a thickly spread allegory, but is still undeniably an allegory. The original story also doesn't have the four main characters interacting with Prince Caspian until near the end of the book, when he is King Caspian. About half of the book is a flashback as a dwarf catches the children up on events that have taken place in their absence.

Disney may have thought that the four children are the centerpiece for these stories, and so didn't want to stray from them too far. This would explain the tremendous amount of plot juggling done to keep the kids active in the story from start to finish. Purist fans of the books will likely be bummed that much of the allegory is lost, replaced by standard movie plot elements. As one who enjoyed the symbolism found in the first film, I missed its absence in this one.

Although there were significantly fewer moments of Biblical symbolism, there were one or two that still proved very meaningful.

(SPOILER WARNING)
Lucy had been spotting Aslan throughout their journey, but the other kids couldn't see him, and didn't believe her when she told them he was out there in the forest. Eventually, Lucy finds Aslan and complains that she had a difficult time with the other kids not believing her. Aslan then asked her, "Why did that keep you from following me?" To which Lucy replied "I was afraid to follow you alone." A true reflection of what it means to be a genuine Christian. Following Jesus, especially when our friends and family do not, can take us far outside of our comfort zone. People can think we're crazy or stupid. But the challenge to press on remains.
(END OF SPOILER)

The material added, although not wonderful, isn't bad. Some battle sequences and witty banter here and there round out the script nicely.

In terms of straight up film quality, this movie is pretty good. Not amazing, but definately enjoyable. It continues in the visual style of the first film, giving a serious "adult" tone to the film despite its PG rating. Colors are muted and dark. Violence is present, but without any gore. Several cuts and shooting angles are designed to represent violent moments, but without showing anything that will "upset the kiddies". The sound effects do a great job of implying violence, making it gripping for adults, but visually, this movie is pretty kid friendly. Adamson continues to take cinematic inspiration from Peter Jackson's Lord Of The Rings trilogy. The battle scenes, while not as intense, certainly have some of the epic scale of the Rings flicks. If this trend continues, I'd imagine these movies will become a great "LOTR junior" for kids that aren't ready for Jackson's movies yet.

The performances are all sufficient, but no one's getting any trophies for this one. A favor the director could do for everyone would be to recognize that "ideas", not drama, are the strengths of these stories. You absolutely need the drama, but give us a little more to think about, too. Additionally, there were some action sequences and other moments that didn't serve the characters or move the story forward, resulting in a slow pace just once or twice.

Special effects and scoring were great. No big steps forward from the first film, but that's okay. Things looked and sounded great in the first film, too!

To sum up, I'd say that the absence of potentially richer symbolism combined with the "kid friendly" action make this one weighted a little more for kids this time around, and so not as interesting to me. That said, it's still a very good movie and one I will use someday to prepare my kids for "daddy's even better movies".

Quality: 8.0

Veracity:8.0