#1,266: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

I was right! Woo! About what? Only GREATNESS!

I made a mad dash across LA (close up the office, descend 9 stories, hike 3 blocks, drive 8 miles, find parking!) and got into the Cinerama Dome for some super close screen-wraps-around me seats, and I was not the least bit disappointed!

Now I know it'll be everyone's favorite game to explain why they hate it, and I know it's not Raiders, and I know Harrison Ford aged in the past 20 years, and there are even things I didn't like about the movie, and none of it matters. I sat in darkness, surrounded by cheering Americans, with a grin and a sense of wonder and excitement, eager to see what might happen next.

Like Indy himself, the movie makes mistakes, but it always dives in with abandon and somehow makes it out on the other side. But, and this is important, it ISN'T The Phantom Menace. I was -such- a Star Wars fan in that time, and I had tickets for multiple screenings, and I couldn't wait, and I came out of the first showing trying to rationalize and justify and the simple fact was that I didn't dig it. And again, this isn't that.

For technical stuff, I liked that the lighting was non-realistic, which I imagine conforms to the style of the previous flicks (time for some re-viewing!). I heard people bitching in the lobby, but at least in my super-close seats, nothing looked egregiously CG to me. There are things that I know must have been, but I was sufficiently swept up in things, I guess.

Mike H. at the Nexpress? Didn't like Last Crusade, won't like this. People who need to show their taste and class and hipness by disliking popular stuff? Who say 'it was good for what it was' or 'well, it was entertaining, but...'? It's okay to like things. Really!