ENGAGING CULTURE

I’ll tell you, few things gets my heart pounding more than a nostalgic theme song score playing during a film. Nothing is more iconic than John Williams’ music when it comes to Indiana Jones, unless you count the humor, the adventure, the whip, and the hat. I can remember watching the trilogy over and over growing up. But since I was just a twinkle in my father’s eye when Raiders of the Lost Ark hit the screens, I have never had the pleasure of seeing the iconic hero cast larger than life before me. It is for that reason alone that I am so excited about Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

See the trailer in HD at Apple.com

From the trailers, the tone of the film looks campy and fun. I remember being scared out of my shorts by the face-melting scene of “Raiders” not to mention not being able to sleep after seeing the High Priest Mola Ram and his surgical fingers performing half of a heart transplant in “Temple of Doom”. It was no surprise that growing up my favorite of the series was the more lighthearted and funny of the trilogy. It looks to me like this latest installment won’t be giving giving my kids nightmares when they watch it on DVD in a few years.

The look of the film seems to have stayed the same, no over the top CGI (though I have heard mention of Shia Labeouf’s character being chased by an army of CGI monkeys). And it seems like no one has missed a beat during the 19-year layoff from the “Last Crusade.” Ford still seems quick with the quips and good with a whip. There’s plenty of action, but Spielberg is sure to show the silhouetted professor place said hat upon his head before we even catch a glimpse of the man himself.

I really must thank Spielberg and the gang for stepping up to the plate and making this film, for the most part, in the style of the originals. Worries were definitely setting in with the rejection of Frank Darabont’s script and some early images involving bad graphics. However, the old style font and the visuals of real live film stock brought me back to ease into the proceedings with faith in what could occur. All the action hijinks are here—car chases, crawling though cobwebbed tunnels, running against time down ancient architectural structures, and some good old fist fights complete with way too loud sound effects just a hair off timing-wise (vintage Jones).

I give tons of credit for the bringing back of Karen Allen as Marion and I’m reluctantly excited for the inclusion of Shia LaBeouf as Mutt Williams because, in the back of my mind, I know that he is really going to be Jar Jar Binks reincarnated to steal the happiness of my childhood once again. I have only seen him in a lackluster performance in Transformers, but all the early reviews are saying that he pulled it off, so I am willing to admit when I am wrong.

However, as is the pattern with the previous movies they tend to delve into the mystic and the religious. And with all of the significant biblical artifacts having already been found, they turned to the mysticism of our day, science fiction. I can’t blame them for this, science fiction is the genre to produce right now, people love it. But I personally would have left it to Mulder and Scully and found some ancient Egyptian artifact that hasn’t already been dug up by the Mummy franchise. I hope that they got it right, I think they did since I’m already hearing talks of Indy 5.

With the combination of new star power in Shia Labeouf, a fanbase that has been growing for 25 years, some good initial press from the screening at Cannes, and the fact that Harrison Ford didn’t break a hip during filming, I saw that this is going to be one of the biggest money makers of the summer. I think that its four day opening weekend will top Iron Man’s $105 million four-day opener. But it is in much the same situation as Pirates of the Caribbean 3 was last year. Two successful films had released in the three weeks prior (Spiderman 3 and Shrek 3) and their popularity stifled Captain Jack’s opening to a meager $114 million. Well, while I would love to say that Indy is going to set new records and have an opening weekend of $150 million, in reality I think it will be somewhere around $120 million, and that’s being generous, because I like to respect my elders, and because their Thursday opening night can’t hurt them.

Weekend Predictions for May 22-25:
1. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - 120.6 million (4-day - 151.4 million)
2. Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian - 36.8 million
3. Iron Man - 21.5 million
4. What Happens in Vegas - 8.9 million
5. Speed Racer - 3.9 million