Two reviews in one day, I must be going for some kind of record.
It has taken me six years to watch the latest in the 'Indiana Jones' franchise and I have a very good reason - I never really liked them that much. Before 'The Big Bang Theory' pointed it out, I had already realised that in 'Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark', the character of Indiana Jones, served no purpose and the story would have ended the same had he been in it or not. Then in 'Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade' I had to ask myself, why did the chalice need protecting if it could never have been removed from it's hiding spot? All in all, the 'Indiana Jones' films are full of massive plot holes and very stereotypical character typing and really bad acting. In fact, the only thing that interested me, is that, supposedly, during the scene where Indiana Jones just shoots a man instead of fighting with him, Harrison Ford actually had diarrhoea and wanted to end the scene quickly so added in this short kill, in order to run off to the toilet.
Anyway - back to this, the most recent and hopefully last, instalment of the franchise. Let's start off with the fact that, at the start of the film, it seems to be too focused on the elements of its prequels - we can see in the bad graphics and stale acting that it just wants to BE it's prequels, instead of breaking new ground and being it's own version of the prequels. Then, after almost two hours it finally becomes original and then kind of stupid in that it jumps it's storyline to focus on ... Aliens. That's right - according to their logic, the Mayans and Aztecs were influenced by their building and lifestyle by giant crystal boned aliens ...
And yet - I urge you to get past all this negativity, because ... I actually enjoyed it - yes that's right, I spent 300 words telling you of this bad film and series, only to tell you that I enjoyed it ... In fact, I enjoyed it that much that when my laptop started to run out of battery at 2:45am, I got up, plugged it in on the desk and spent the next half hour finishing the film, in the cold, in my office space.
You may be confused and to be honest, so am I - I should hate this film, I hate the elements ... I think Harrison Ford was too old for the role, I think Shia LaBeouf was a bad cast for the sidekick, I think that Cate Blanchett as an evil Russian was stupid and the introduction to a love interest in the form of Karen Allen was pointless ... The aliens storyline was unnecessary, the skeletons of aliens was too far-fetched, John Hurt as a mad scientist who suddenly gets better was idiotic and the lack of proper whipping was annoying. The film was too long, the graphics were too dated, and the references to the old films was not needed and not wanted ... But still I felt after I had watched it, that I would watch it again if the opportunity arose and I still feel that way.
I want to know if anybody else has noticed this strange phenomenon - if so leave a comment and tell me what you think it is that makes this utterly rubbish film, actually a good watch?
Overall - in my head I say this is a 2 / 10 and you should stay away ... In my heart I say it's a 7 / 10 and you will thoroughly enjoy it. Go figure.
