Thursday, May 22, 2008

Indiana Jones what to do

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is premiering tonight in Ottawa. It is playing at 9:30 at Empire 7, World Exchange.

Alright so my last two days were full of turmoil. Wednesday May 21st, it was the morning and I just got to work. I decided to skip getting my usual coffee in the morning since was I running late, i was already 20 minutes late for work. Once at my desk I started looking at a few my regular film blogs.
My first was Roger`s. First off, I have a Love-Hate relationship with his work. When I was first introduced to film criticism, he was the first critic i started to follow. He is the most accessible and I was impressed by his credentials (He is the only film critic to have won a pulitzer price) and he updates his website with his reviews for the chicago sun-times quite regularly. He was born in June 1942 and from what I read in his book Awake in the Dark is that he started going to the movies as a child in the 50s, he then went to university for literature and there he joined several film societies as well he became a film critic for the student paper and from there he moved around jobs until he got to where he is now. He has taught on film studies at the university of Chicago, has his own show previously with Gene Siskel and now with Richard Roeper aswell he has his own film festival.
I used to read his reviews with such passion, I thought it was so cool that there were others people out there that liked these kinds of films and I was so interested in all the different levels of analysis of the films. But that was when i was young, at that time none of my friends were into films and since then I talk about films with almost everyone i know and it is alot more social. As i am reading his reviews now, I note that they are mostly just reviews. He gives good sinopsis of what is going on and gives a bit of history about the director, scrip-writer and the analogies he uses are not very good. I think he is just getting old, his reviews are extremely conventional and i no longer feel any passion behind them.
As i was reading his review for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull i was surprised to read what I did. He gave the film 3,5 out for 4 stars and his comments on the film were overly typical.

I want to point out that George Lucas and Steven Spielberg are my least favorite directors from the 70s New Hollywood directors and On top of that their old now so that makes them even more out of touch. George Lucas was the worst and no doubt you can find his name as one of the writers. Those two are the business men of the movie business and in my books as well as others such as Marty and Bob Atlman are the cause for movies to be in the state their in, where the big hollywood blockbusters over rules most attempts for smartter more personal and artistic films. But in reality if Lucas and Spielberg didnt come up with the blockbuster someone else would of. Steven Spielberg breakthrough film was Jaws and then he went on to Close Encounters of a Third Kind with Francois Truffaut, Schindler's List Which I believe is his Masterpiece), E.t., A.I. with Stanley Kubrick, Munich and the Indiana Jones Trilogy­. I say their worst not in regards to if their films are enjoyable or not. In the Early 70s all the New Hollywood directors were hooked by the French New Wave and the Author Theory, that points out that the director is the real star of the film and not the producer, actor or scriptwriter. Marty Scorsese was putting himself in all his pictures through locations (Little Italy) and themes from his own life Francis Copola and his Zoetrope Production Agency was trying to make of films outside of the studio system and making them his own until he ran out of money and had to make The godfather. George Lucas decided that he Wanted to start to make film to play with the audience emotions and when everyone was doing fragmented narratives he decided to use a simple conversative narrative and just focus on the story. After gentrifying the Sci-fi genre. His first Star Wars was the highest Grossing film of all time and since then he decided to follow the film with two sequels and 3 prequels. I believe his films lack creativity and aspiration and just try to recreate their original Success. I believe Stephen Spielberg is doing the same thing with his upcomming Indiana Jones Film. Stephen Spielberg next film is going to be Tintin and I am more looking forward to see that then Indiana Jones

The new Indiana Jones film recently played at Cannes where a critic that was there mentioned that the cheering was alot louder at the beginning of the movie then at the end. There were also people expecting the film to be negatively responded since its a big hollywood blockbuster, but that didnt happen so would that change how you think about the movie.

I feel like i am missing a part of the nostalgia of this film since i have not seen the originals when they first came out and i have not yet seen them. I remember my dad brought the movie to my attention a few months ago and he was really enthuiastic about it. He told me the new film reminds him of his childhood and seen the originals.

At first i was unsure about seeing it, but i decided i was going to for three different reasons. 1) I am sure the movie will be in good fun, 2) It is the premier and interested in seeing whose going and being part of this event, 3) I do not want to not see it and have everyone telling me how good (if it turns out to be the case) over the next few weeks.

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