June 16, 2008

• Summer Movie Reviews (thus far)

  It’s over a month since my last update. No excuse this time. Some things have happened, and things are going well. But, I just didn’t feel like updating. I’ll try to do two this week, starting with this.

  To begin, I don’t see a lot of movies. But, over the last few weeks I’ve managed to catch a few that have come out, since we’re at the start of the summer movie season. Some are good, some aren’t, some I’m still looking forward to, and some were rather disappointing. Let’s go…

  Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
  Overall: if only they hadn’t tried so hard (wait for Netflix)

  I grew up watching Indy. It’s one of those things me and my father were able to enjoy together. I even liked Temple of Doom, even though it gave me nightmares for a decade. Though, part of that might be because when I acted up, my dad, instead of hitting me, just held his hand over my chest and started going “mukti deghi kali ma, kali ma shapti he, kali ma, kali maaaaa!” And then I ran up to my room crying. Ok, no, really, back to the subject, off the bad stereotypes, and onto some funny ones.

  So, Crystal Skull. Let’s start with some of the things I did like… Harrison Ford’s age, for one, was handled well. There were still stunts, but his ‘age’ showed when he couldn’t pull them off (like falling back on the whip in the warehouse). Also, the bad guys were sufficiently ridiculous. I mean, it’s Indiana Jones; if the Soviets were not some silly Boris & Natasha stereotype, I would’ve been disappointed. Next, some action sequences were pretty fun: swordfighting, the escapes, running away from ancient Mayan warriors… Finally, Central America was a good change-of-pace from the previous ones in the Middle East or India.

  Now, the things I didn’t like… The two minor things were the vine-swinging scene, and Indy surviving a nuclear blast and 500-foot fall in a fridge. But those I could overlook. The worst aspect dwarfed everything good about the movie and, unfortunately, made the entire movie rather… lousy: the aliens.

  It was odd at first. I mean, God shoots ghosts out of an ark? Fine. Evil cults with power drawn from the god of death? Fine. The cup of Jesus that grants eternal life? Fine. But aliens? Hell no…

  Then I realized why aliens (or “transdimensional psychic beings”, whatever) are so out-of-place in Indy. It’s supposed to be about the fantastic and inexplicable. Aliens are out of the realm of the fantastic and into science fiction. And, in sci-fi, things are explained–perhaps by unrealistic pseudoscience, but they’re explained nonetheless. But Indy is about the adventure, not the random artifacts or explanations behind them. Crystal Skull tried to put way too much importance on the crystal skull, trying to make it “believable”, rather than just leaving it unbelievable. If they’d just said the crystal skull was magic, it would’ve been better. Leave it at that.

  Anyway, overall… It was ok. But, they tried too hard, and ended up making it a really weak movie that didn’t feel like Indy by the end.

  Iron Man
  Overall: great action, even better costume (see it)

  Now Iron Man… This was last on my list of movies to see so far. Then, everyone started saying good things about it. Constantly. So, I decided to see it… and was really impressed. There isn’t a whole lot to say here. I mean, the action sequences are great. The hero is great. Robert Downey Jr. makes a perfect Tony Stark. And the costume… is the best superhero costume in any hero movie ever made. Oh, and a nice bonus is how some of the baddies were part of an Afghan warlord’s outfit, yet they didn’t start getting all stereotypical.

  It should still be in theaters. Check it out if you can.

  Prince Caspian
  Overall: too much fighting, too little story (don’t bother)

  I really liked the first Chronicles of Narnia movie (I even drew up a plan for conquering Narnia in response). So I was hoping that this would be somewhere near as good. But the weird thing is… this had too much fighting and not enough story. And I usually say the exact opposite about movies. Basically, it was trying to be too much like Lord of the Rings, I felt, instead of being its own thing. So, they tossed in as many (3 or 4) epic battles as they could, even at the expense of having background and story in it. The characters didn’t interact much, and what little story there was felt just like filler in between battles.

  It was still ok, and I enjoyed it enough. But… feel free to pass on it. It’s not worth that much.

  Kung Fu Panda
  Overall: holding my sides from laughing (see it)

  Not sure where to begin… I mean, Kung Fu Panda is really funny, and really entertaining. I even had high expectations going in (especially with the list of voice actors), and it didn’t let me down. The action scenes were enjoyable, the background story was classic–without trying to take itself too seriously–and it was really funny.

  So, go see it. It might be a family movie, but it’s still really good.

  Dark Knight
  Overall: will see it, perhaps multiple times

  It’s not out yet, but I’m almost certain it’ll be my favorite movie this summer. It’s certainly the one I’m looking forward to the most.

  That’s all for now. I’m not sure what else I’ll try to talk about at the end of this week. I might make another cricket-related update. KF

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