Indiana Jones and the Wrath of Stan

I wrote this on a forum but I figure i'll copy and paste it here. My review of the latest Indy.

Caught an afternoon show today at a packed house, mostly with families and kids it seemed. Unfortunately I came away dissapointed. I didn't hate it, but I can't say I enjoyed it at all. I watched Doom and Last Crusade the last two nights, and for me this ranks far below Doom as far as ratings go. I know everyone's been trying to rationalize to those who disliked the movies by making generalizations as far as expectations or comparisons to the previous movies, but honestly I don't think those fit.

Having just watched the previous 2 Indy's (and Raiders a few weeks ago), in none of those movies where there scenes that made me want to groan like this one. And my expectations were pretty mellow after hearing mixed reviews ever since opening night. For whatever reason, the movie just didn't work for me. I agree with pretty much all the main complaints already said.

The alien plot felt out of place, and while it's far LESS far fetched then acts of God to me, it just didn't work. I think I just dig the whole searching for historical artifacts aspect of the movies, along with the puzzles and problem solving that made me like Crusade and Raiders the most. The supporting characters were also poor, and honestly only Shia, who I dreaded the most, was the only decent one. I didn't care for Marion, Mac was just pointless, and I thought Cate's character was bland and didn't seem like a soldier at all when she was moving around. The complaints of the animal scenes and Shia swinging are justified to me as well. I don't mind the CGI itself (having watched some pretty hokey scenes in Doom last night), but I saw no reason to include them. The ants just reminded me of the scarabs from The Mummy.

The only redeeming thing throughout the movie was that the action was fairly good, and while Harrison looked slow as Indy due to age, they did a fairly good job. There's just something about the music and the character that continues to make things fun.

For me, i'd have Raiders an A, Doom a B (I enjoyed this more then I actually remembered), and Crusade an A-. This would be a C.