Awesome is His Middle Name

I’ve been cautiously excited about the coming, new Indiana Jones movie. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) is in my list of top 3 movies of all time. The second and third movies in the Indiana Jones series were good, and I enjoyed them, but they fall considerably further down the list.

Movie making has changed a great deal since RotLA, and I don’t think the change fits the mood and style of Indiana Jones. I’ve seen the trailer for the new movie, and what I see has a subtly different look and feel. For one thing, an Indiana Jones movie shouldn’t have computer generated special effects. I can see the CG in the trailer.

Cowgrit and I just watched RotLA last night. It holds up well as a story, and Indiana Jones is just damn awesome as a character. George Lucas, Stephen Spielberg, and Harrison Ford formed a holy trinity with this movie. They made this tale an epic worthy of Homer, and they did it without over-the-top, in-your-face special effects.

A similar feat was accomplished with Die Hard in 1988. When I saw the trailer for the most recent movie in the Die Hard series, I was not drawn to see it at all. I haven’t seen it, and I don’t expect that I will. The stunts and special effects just look so over the top as to be unrealistic enough to keep me from suspending disbelief. I fear this is going to be the result of the new Indiana Jones flick.

I’m not at all against high-spectacle, computer generated special effects. They’re needed and appropriate for some movies — Transformers and Iron Man being two recent examples. But Indiana Jones, (and John McClane), is a down-to-earth, mortal hero whose actions and stunts shouldn’t look superheroic. Too much effects looks out of place. And computer graphics spoils the feel and style, mainly because it allows directors to make the stunts more and bigger to the point of breaking out of the Indiana Jones “world.”

I thoroughly enjoyed watching Raiders of the Lost Ark again. I wonder, though, if it would be as impressive to the teenagers today, who are used to the big-blast stunts and effects of today’s movies?

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com