Off course: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull review

So I got out to see Indiana Jones this weekend...That was a mistake.

I should have known I was in for a letdown when the movie opened on a CG prairie dog nearly getting ran over by a car. Lucas and Spielberg claimed they were going to use as little CG as possible and rely on old school filming techniques to capture the feel of the original trilogy. The next scene is a sweeping shot of an Air Force base and, wouldn't you know it, everything but one building was built in a computer.

At what point does it make sense to CG a location like that? There's hundreds of such bases across the globe readily available for a weekend shoot. It was one scene for crying out loud. Have we really gotten so reliant on faking it we're worried hangers and warehouses won't look HD enough in real life?

Sorry to get stuck on something so silly, but man did it piss me off.

The majority of the movie is decent at best. None of the character are all that great, but things move at a good enough pace to help you overlook the flaws. Some of it is even decently entertaining...Until about two-thirds in, that is.

When the gang enters the jungle, the movie is straight downhill from there. The ridiculousness is further punctuated by a BS Tarzan scene that literally made me groan out loud and the conclusion is one of the worst imaginable. I'm pretty sure it was the result of a dare. A very mean-spirited, alcohol related dare.

I like the old Indiana flicks because, while over the top, they still seemed somewhat grounded and believable. As for the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, well, it's not a trip I plan to take a second time.