The Dark Knight Review

Hmmm hmmm hmmmm....after all the hype for this movie, and now all the praise, I felt conflicted about even writing a review for this movie. I mean honestly...what can I say that you, my dear reader, haven't already read, heard, seen, or at this point, thought yourself about this movie? I mean the simple fact that you're browsing this website means you're probably apt to check up on those giants of nerd.com lore such as newsarama or ain'titcool or any number of countless other sites that dwarf this one. Those have been loaded to the point of Dark Knight critical mass with reviews, interviews, and all sorts of other buzz. Well, I decided I'd do it anyway for my track record's sake, since that's pretty much my function on aboutheroes. But I am going to quickly browse over most the stuff that's generally already known. Ready?

Ok, here's what you should know thus far. It's good. It's very good. It's so good that there were times where I honestly kind of felt like tearing up just because it was so damn good. It was just pieced together so comprehensively and artistically that I couldn't help but feel my heart-strings being tugged with thanks at the fact that people who really love these characters as much as us fanboys are in the driver's seat on this one.

Heath Ledger is truly worthy of all the buzz he's getting on this. All you've heard is true. He just cuts through the film like a razor, messing everything up and leaving a path of destruction in his wake. He's a monster, he's truly scary, and he's loveable in the most sinister fashion conceivable. He literally cannonballs into the roll, going from silly clown menace to intimidating violent psychopath and the drop of a hat, and it's sooooo good.

Harvey Dent is sooooooo well handled here. I was surprised that they took him full circle in this. Pleasantly surprised, though. He's the main character of the story, and thus needs to have his story play out for a good sense of closure. He plays a really good straight man to the titular character, our man Bats. He's the other side of the crime-fighting coin that operates in public, cracking down on criminals in the court rooms and saving Gotham city through the proper channels. It's good to see him operate in tandem with the caped crusader to get Gotham's cowardly and superstitious lot behind bars. Aaron Eckhart does a really good job of playing the two sides of this character, and when he goes around that corner, man, you're right there next to him, feeling just what he's feeling. Too put it frankly...Man, it's so brutal.

And then there's our man, Batman. Decked out with a few new tricks up his sleeves, it's amazingly fun to watch him run around in this movie kicking ass and taking names. Christian Bale continues to play both Batman and Bruce Wayne very convincingly, I do however come up a bit short when I try to think of praise for Bale here because this isn't really his movie. That's not to say he isn't in it very much, but Batman's story was really told in the first film. This story flutters from one character to the next, and it does so very well. Bats is certainly one of the more prominent characters, but like I've said before, it isn't his movie. It's Dent's, but also his supporting cast as well.

The supporting cast continues to be amazing in this series. Gary Oldman fully settles into his roll as Gordon. Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman) and Alfred Pennyworth (Michael Caine) continue to be good counter-balances for the Dark Knight, holding him up when he's failing and encouraging him when he's struggling to get the job done. They are perfect casts. And Maggie Gyllenhaal fills Katie Holmes' boots very well as Rachel Dawes. But to get back to the beginning of this review, this is all stuff you should know by now. So here's what you might not have heard. The stuff that's not great. And it isn't much. The Bat-Pod is a little silly, but once you get past it, it's really cool in terms of what he can do with it. One of the gadgets in the film is a little too big for it's britches, but again, just swallow that pill and enjoy the effects. Other than those two things, the movie is just about flawless. But then, you knew that didn't you? If for some reason you didn't/don't, then I'd prescribe a trip to your local theater for a liberal dose of TDK, otherwise known as The Dark Knight. A.

Also, one neat little thing is that the Mayor of Gotham city is played by Nestor Carbonell, also known as Batmanuel from the short lived live action "The Tick" tv show from years back. As soon as I saw him in the movie I started giggleing like a child and was surprised to find that none of my nerd-friends had made the connection. I thought it was a stroke of genius. Not to discredit Mr. Carbonell though, he played the part quite well.

The Spirit - New Trailer

Figured I'd post the new trailer that just came out today.

Based on what one sees....the filming techniques used in this sucker are gonna be "unique" to put it lightly.

Hellboy 2 Review / Dark Knight PSA

Oh boy. Well the usual pattern with these movie reviews that are sequels is for me to lightly touch upon the first film and do a sort of mini-review and then move on to the main show, the sequel, which is Hellboy 2 in this case. Also, stay tuned after the review for a PSA you should probably read about the Dark Knight. No spoilers, I promise, I haven't seen it either. Ok, onward and upward kiddies! Hellboy 2!

So, the first Hellboy movie is a movie I enjoyed. I wouldn't say it was great by any measure, but it was enjoyable and had fun and interesting characters. I guess now is as good a time as any to mention that I really don't read any Hellboy comics or any of the related stuff like B.P.R.D. or Lobster Johnson, although I know that isn't REALLY too connected. That being said, we can just assume I'm writing this review from the point of a film reviewer, not a comic reviewer. So as a movie, the first Hellboy film wasn't great simply because there never really seemed to be that great of a momentum for the story and it's all resolved by Hellboy basically saying "Eh....no thanks." I'd rate it a C. Pretty to look at fun at times, but just full of holes. NOT plot holes, just incomplete and kind of disappointing.

Hellboy 2, which I just got home from watching no more than 20 minutes ago, is a different story. Guillermo Del Toro has showed that he's a competent director with work in the Orphanage and of course, Pan's Labyrinth. Something about Hellboy just makes him bad though, just like something about Marvel makes Jeph Loeb bad (at least generally speaking, I've heard good things about his character profile arcs, like the most recent Captain America: White). This movie, right from the get-go, is just awful. It's piss poor in just about every aspect other than crazy creature displays, and even that wasn't handled too well, but I'll get to that part later. The first scene opens up with an awful kid painted up as Hellboy in his early adolescent years being read a bed time story setting the backdrop for the Golden Army, and it's just terrible. Never have I wanted to punch a kid in the face so badly. Now that I think of it, it might be that English is a second language for GDT. Maybe he doesn't know what convincing English sounds like. I'd prefer that to the fact that he just let acting slip away to play second fiddle to a bunch of ooh-la-la and a story that just makes excuses to display nutty creatures inspired by Mignola's comic.

The acting in this film is lackluster at best, and spearheading this campaign of mind shattering-suckery is Selma Blair as Liz Sherman, Pryo-lady. She wasn't the only one though, it was a tight race and she really had to work for it to beat out some of her competition. Just like in the first movie, romantic scenes between Blair and Perlman (Hellboy) are just painfully awkward, and in the big romance scene of the movie, Perlman is literally unconscious, so he can't be blamed. I can't really remember ever seeing Selma Blair truly act well, but I know she's more capable than what I saw tonight. But enough about her. Ron Perlman (Hellboy), Jeffrey Tambor (Tom Manning) and Luke Goss (Prince Nuada) all weigh in and come up short as actors. Now, it shouldn't go without saying that a bad script had at least a hand in this, but there were many times throughout the movie where I was literally cringing in pain at what I was being exposed to at the expense of my hard earned dollars. Perlman comes across too awkwardly in the titular roll, seeming like an awkward cosplayer at a convention feeling just a bit too silly to really get into character. Tambor is just dealt with poorly as a character, too his credit, although I've still seen him be much better. And Goss. Sweet awesome badass Goss. Why couldn't you have channeled whatever GDT struck up in you in Blade 2 and just played a good Villain? The only character I enjoyed pretty whole-heartedly was Johann Kraus, and that's because he was basically a mime with somebody else talking for him. I enjoyed this character a lot despite a silly fight with Hellboy until the very end of the movie, where they take him as a character, open up his containment suit, and start to poop in it (Bad writing again).

This screenplay is a super duper swiss cheese extravaganza with a built in oil drilling rig just in case there weren't enough holes when you walked in the door. This thing has more plot holes and underused themes there were hairs on Chewbacca. There's a whole conflict of humans not truly accepting Hellboy despite him protecting them and whether he should fight for them or the nutty creatures that he's helping essentially rid the world of. A fine plot-line to be sure. To bad it's only really briefly touched upon here and there in the movie and then just kinda of splurged away at the end of the movie leaving you a tad flat. The biggest piece of sillyness in the film was the awkwardly crammed in love story between Princess Nuala and Abe Sapien, who after just meeting Abe, falls in love with him, and prompts him to do the same, only it didn't stop there. They use Abe's crush (and trust me when I say it's an awkward one) to strum up a drunken kareoke-esque scene with Abe and Hellboy crooning out the musical equivalent of Air Supply, which is funny for a few lines, but quickly takes a turn to being inappropriate and out of place, joining the ranks of Super Dance-off Mr. Fantastic from Fantastic Four 2 and Emo-Bluesdaddy Parker from Spider-Man 3. And the titular Villain, the Golden Army, is dealt with in the same manner as the first movie, with Hellboy basically just speaking up and saying "Nooooo, stop that." Granted, this movie did flex much more impressive fight scenes (the Golden Army scene is very pretty, I'll give them that, and Johann Straus more than makes up for his locker-room exploits earlier in the film here). Still, the resolution of everything still feels a bit anti-climactic and the meat of the sandwich of a film is very stringy and undercooked.

The one thing this movie did with flying colors was bring out the freaks. There isn't a character in this movie that doesn't look awesome, whether it be Wink, the Wrecking Ball-Fisted Brute, The Angel of Death, or a giant CGI Rock-Door guy, they are look great. And that's a good thing, except for the fact that when you want to have one of the main plot points of the movie be how Hellboy interacts with the human race, you're gonna want to show some interaction with humans. The most we get is just a crowd essentially yelling "BOO! YOU'RE WEIRD! BOOGAH BOOGAH BOOGAH!!!!" Nice job guys, you've alienated and destroyed the best subplot you had going for you and essentially alienated your audience, since we all love Hellboy. We, as humans, are painted as uncaring and un-understanding, but with no reason whatsoever, much like Spidey is in the comics just after beating a deadly supervillain. It's frustrating enough to make me want to rip my horns...er....hair out.

All in all this movie was just a bust. I recommend you save yourself the price of admission and just rent it on netflix when it comes out. Just be sure that when you do, you put it on mute and just turn on a good action-oriented album and let the awesomely designed characters run around in your noggin for a bit. I give it a D.

DARK KNIGHT PSA

Ok kiddies, gather 'round and listen up. I know you're probably excited for next weekend when the Dark Knight opens up next weekend. You can bet that I and probably a few other writers here at AboutHeroes are going to toss up a review for it, but I beg you. Please, learn from the past and calibrate yourselves. I see so many people walking around talking about how this movie is going to be awesome AND I'M NOT SAYING IT ISN'T. Just take it down a notch, ok? Let's all make sure we don't psyche ourselves out for this. Just relax. When you go to the theaters with all your buddies, have a good time, but be calm. Don't let what happened to me in Spider-Man 3 happen to you. Make sure you go in just hoping for an enjoyable, entertaining movie. Don't expect the best comic book movie ever because as good as it'll probably be, it might not be that. Look, all I'm saying is don't ruin it for yourself. Just do yourself a favor and forget the hype. Just go see a Batman flick and hope it's on par with the first. Ok? Good talk, now get out there and give 'em hell, and come back next weekend for the Dark Knight Review ala Joshiebear!

Gotham Knight Review

The not-too-common but done often enough trend of anime between-the-movie filler content continues with this month's release of the Gotham Knight DVD. Much like it's predecessors, like the Matrix animes and those Van Helsing / Chronicles of Riddick animated DVDs, this is not essential viewing material for the movie, but is it something you're going to want to watch if you're a Batman Begins fan, foaming at the mouth in anticipation for the Dark Knight in just a few short weeks.

This collection of shorts, all done by different artists / crews, bridges the gap between Begins and Dark Knight, showing a bit of the Batman cracking down on those ever-present cowardly superstitious types in his not-so-fair city of Gotham. They do a good job of throwing in some goodies here and there to keep things interesting, because what is Batman without his Rogues gallery? Aside from the usual mobsters and thugs, we're treated with appearances from Scarecrow, Killer Croc and Deadshot. It's cool because these are characters that just wouldn't fit in the world of the new Bat movies. It's sort of a way comic nerds can have their cake and eat it too, since the Begins movies are just too deeply rooted in reality to have a guy like Killer Croc running around in them.

So actually getting down to the critique, this is a pretty enjoyable package they're offering up here. Multiple different takes on the Dark Knight, whether it be from skater kid bystanders, Gotham Cops, or the Bat's own perspective, you really do come out of this with some more background on the man behind the mask. And speaking of representaton of character, they brought back the only man to ever truly capture the voice of the Bat perfectly (in my opinion, but I know I'm not alone here,) Kevin Conroy. Also, the essential man behind the Bat-toon, Bruce Timm is back in the Producing chair. If you're new to the animated aspect of the Batman, I'll just lay it down for you and tell you, it's hard to do wrong with those two on-board. That being said, I feel this could have been better, but it isn't bad. This could be due to unfair judging on my part, but I'll let you decide for yourself.

The format of this collection of shorts is what really holds me back from giving it a solid thumbs up. Since they decided to make it a collection of shorts by different people, they don't really do the story aspect that well. It's just a bunch of one-two punches here and there in different scenarios. The stories don't all add up to something. They bleed into each other a bit here and there, but no story has a feeling of a completed story arc at the end of it. Now, again, this could be an unfair judgement because it isn't meant to be the next movie itself, it's just a glimpse at what happens between the movies. Either way, just because it didn't give me a warm "Story Over" feeling in my tummy when it was all said and done doesn't mean that the journey from beginning to end wasn't a fun one.

This movie had some fun moments, whether it be kids' overactive imagination portraying Batman as a Robot, Spirit, or actual Man-Bat creature, or just watching the Bat take on villains like Croc, Scarecrow and Deadshot while jacking up mobsters and hoods all over the place, helping out Lieutenant Gordon and getting help from Lucius Fox. This movie is worth dropping that hour and a half of your life that you'd otherwise spend sitting on your couch watching an CSI marathon or whatever. The scenes that really make it are when Croc and Bats meet up and have it out and then when the Bat takes on Deadshot. There's gold in them scenes, kids. Anyway, long story short, I give this a B-, It's definetly worth a watch, just don't buy it. Do what my friends and I are gonna do. Get tickets to the midnight screening of the Dark Knight, rent this, and then before you all go to the movie, set aside a few hours to all get together and re-watch Begins, then watch this,then get you jollies in the theater watching what reviews are already calling one of, if not the best movie of the summer. Happy watching kiddies. Until next time!

Iron Man 2 News

So....I have to say I'm shocked that I haven't read this anywhere, but I have some pretty substantial Iron Man 2 news to reveal, and all parties involved in the production of the second movie have been amazingly sneaky about this...

Well let me catch you up to speed in case you don't troll the nerd lairs of the internet that cover subjects like comic movies and whatnot. Pretty soon after they released Iron Man Terrance Howard (who played James Rhodes aka War Machine-to-be) and asked him when they were going to start filming the second film, which Marvel slated to release in 2010 paired with Thor. He responded saying he hoped to start filming withing a few months' time. This was cool to hear because the sooner they start shooting, the sooner we can start to scrounge up all sorts of set reports and images and see how the movie is shaping up. Well a few days after John Favreau came out and said in an interview that he had no idea where Terrance had heard of this shooting schedule and that he wasn't even sure he was going to be able to adhere to the ambitious schedule Marvel had laid out for him. His reason for this was because it took 3 years to make the first movie and he wanted to make sure that it was going to be a good movie, thus needed to be able to take that necessary time. This was understandable but still disheartening to hear. Well my friends, it seems that is all a ruse.

While I was talking to a friend of mine yesterday, catching up on how he's doing, he relayed an interesting story to me that occurred while he was shooting a music video for a friend of his in Griffith Park (where the Hollywood sign is). A park employee was showing them where they were going to be shooting, and while walking past a certain trail, the park employee asked them politely to be quite in that particular area. They asked him why and he said "Iron Man 2 has been shooting here for three weeks." Apparently Tony Stark's new humble abode is going to situated right on the other side of the hill where the Hollywood sign resides. So, understandably, my friend gets excited and starts asking questions. The park guide said that the previous weeks had seen a lot of Iron Man suit tests and even mentioned that he had seen what looked like a "Stealth Iron Man Suit" that had a lot of black on it. WAR MACHIIIIINE!!!!!!!! Well apparently this all went down a little over 2 months ago, so that would mean they've been filming Iron Man 2 for about 3 months now. I find this amazing since nobody seems to be saying anything about it. Now I know what you're saying, my friends didn't see anything themselves, this guy could have been just messing with them. Well earlier that day while walking along a road down toward the bottom of the hill they saw none other than Robert Downey Jr. drive by in a limo. Sounds good enough for me, I'm gonna call this one of the sneakiest moves in geek film history. I love Favreau for already being in production on this thing.

They must have known how good this movie was going to do in theaters and started pre-production for this as soon as principle photography was wrapped on the first movie. I have a personal theory. If you recall when the movie was first being discussed, Favreau said that the Mandarin was going to be the villain in the movie. It's possible that they just beefed up the original script they had and cut it in two. Think about where the last movie ended. He beat Iron Monger and then confessed to being Iron Man. BAM. End of movie. It wasn't a bad ending, it just wasn't a huge definitive ending. I think they fleshed it out and doubled down on production ala Lord of the Rings of Pirates 2 and 3. Yay for Favreau. Yay for Iron Man! Yay for nerds everywhere, for the Iron Man Cometh....again!!!!

The Incredible Hulk Movie Review

So here it is. The Jade Giant returns to theaters in a reboot only 5 years after the previous film, and this time they seemed to have cued into what the Hulk is really about. Smashing stuff. What I felt were the major flaws of the last film were that the Hulk only ever really fought 3 mutant dogs (one of them being a freaking poodle...), and Nick Nolte as the Absorbing Man, who wasn't anything other than somewhat of a glorified Parasite. That's awful. I understood that what the Ang Lee was trying to really display the conflicted character of Bruce Banner / the Hulk by focusing on his child abuse and anger issues, but that's only one side of the coin that is the Hulk. The other side, which is the shinier, more brain-dead and broadly appealing side is the fact that he's A GIANT EXTREMELY STRONG BALL OF PUNY noun SMASHING RAGE. Neglecting that is a stupid mistake. Louis Leterrier (who showed up at the beginning of the showing my friend and I attended in person to thank us for going on opening night, :-D) definitely didn't make this mistake. The Hulk smashes in this movie. He does it big and he does it a lot. Every act of this movie has at least one Hulk action sequence that's amazing for just turning your brain off and watching. And at the end, HE FIGHTS A GUY WHO CAN TAKE HIM ON. Congratulations Mr. Leterrier. You've figured out what makes an entertaining Hulk Movie.

Now make no mistake, this is no Iron Man. Not saying it isn't good, but it just isn't great. I was worried about this movie kinda doing what happened when Disney pulled the theme-park ride-movie summer, when they came out with Pirates of the Caribbean and then a few months later they came out with the Haunted Mansion, leading with the superior movie and then using that as a hook to get people into the other, weaker movie. This isn't the case with the Hulk. It does a good job of standing on it's own and being a fun movie. It's a Blockbuster. It's pretty to look at and has some cool action sequences in it. The acting is decent. I'd actually wish I could say better since Edward Norton (Banner) is one of my favorite actors, but this movie just wasn't the kind of movie that showcases acting skills. It's just all about the explosions and the projectile forklifts.

The movie is faithful to the old tv show more than it is the comic, but not in a way that necessarily detracts from the comic-core. The flashback sequence that shows the Hulk's origin is pretty much a shot for shot recreation of the intro to the tv show, which is fun. Also, David Banner is an alias Bruce uses at one point in the movie. The "Lonely Man" theme even pops up. These are just a few call-backs to the show, but the best one is the playful riff on the "You wouldn't like me when I'm angry" line, but I won't spoil it for you.

Man, this review is scattershot, let me try to reel it in: This movie is what a hulk movie should be. It's big, it's bombastic, it's got a lot of the Hulk tearing things up and fighting things that are actually able to go toe-to-toe against him. The acting is good, the special effects are great, it's faithful to it's origins and is worthy of a Hulk fan's approval. They even drop the seeds for The Leader! The only thing I had a huge problem with was the end to the Hulk / Abomination fight at the climax of the movie. It isn't bad, but it could have been a whole lot better. But it is good. And it will tide any comic geek over until the main course of the summer when the Dark Knight opens up. I give this movie a solid B, but I have to say it's on the "Fun to Watch" scale, not the "All around fantastic movie" scale, like you'd find a movie like Fight Club on.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

The newest Indiana Jones movie came out Thursday the 22nd, and around the world Indy and non-Indy fans alike...sorta packed theaters. (Side Note: Who the hell premieres a movie on a freaking THURSDAY ...in MAY?)

I walked into a nicely cooled theater that Thursday, not knowing what to expect. Would George Lucas butcher another legendary franchise? Would there be sickening amounts of CG? Most importantly.....would Short Round make an appearance?

Well...5 bucks and 2 hrs later....my general opinion of the movie...it was Ok.

Plot: The overall movie summed up is, the Russians look to return an alien crystal skull to El Dorado in some plan to control the minds of everyone on Earth, Indy of course tries to return the skull before they do and ultimately foil the Russians' plans.

There were a lot things which worked and just did not work for this movie.

What worked:

• Indy theme was played and you better believe I geeked out plenty when I heard it.

• Ark of the Covenant shown in a broken crate as Indy and the rest make their escape from Area 51. I was maybe one of four people that caught the reference in the theater but I was smiling the whole freaking time. It was a nice call-back to Raiders of the Lost Ark and in general a nice nod to the movies that came before.

• Marcus Brody statue, painting, and overall references. It's a shame that Denholm Elliott died before this movie came out but, I am glad they paid tribute to the guy.

• Harrison Ford working the fedora and whip, the man is still a bad ass.
  
• Shia LaBeouf. His portrayal of Mutt Williams was actually not half bad.
  
• Karen Allen as Marion....what the hell is this woman on, 57 and she doesn't look like she has changed hardly at all. Good acting from her overall from what few lines she was given
  
• The swordfighting scene between Shia's character and Cate Blanchett's character, as the two jeeps were speeding side by side....AWESOME! In retrospect the whole scene is a bit outlandish but, it's pulled off in such a way where you don't give a crap, you just think "Oh that's bad ass!"

What DIDN'T work.

• Indy escapes ground zero of an atomic bomb by hiding in a lead-lined refrigerator. Unfunny and just fucking stupid. The scene tested the lengths at which I will suspend disbelief for an Indy movie.

• Development on Cate Blanchett's character is poor. Initially the movie has her set up as having sorta/kinda telepathic/psychic powers, she even tries to read Indy's mind but...with no success. The whole psychic power aspect of Cate's character I thought would play out more later on in the movie but really it was just kind of a random thing about the character that had no real purpose for existing. The progression of Irina Spalko as the villain was just kinda left wanting. In previous movies you've had fully fleshed out villains, from René Belloq (Raiders) to Mola Ram (Temple) to Donovan (Last Crusade), all villain types have been written with a certain amount of substance and style, Spalko had a little style but not enough substance.

* Russians instead of Nazis. I understand that due to the time frame the movie was set in, and the age of Ford, the enemies had to be updated to fit the times but....let's be honest the Russians in this movie are like Nazi-Lite....their semi evil....quasi-evil. Russians just aren't the same as Nazi's in an Indy movie...this is more a bias on my part...and my love of Indy beating the crap out Nazi's in Crusade (tell me that motorcycle chase scene was not EPIC...oh right...review)

* The evil Russian plan was more an idea then a plan. Essentially the russians' evil plan is to use the power of the crystal skull to somehow control the minds of everyone on Earth. Irina Spalko (Blanchett's character) is kinda vague about the plan and the skull is never really hinted at as having the power to help others control others minds. In this aspect Kingdom of the Crystal Skull mimics Temple of Doom slightly, as Mola Ram's plan was to use the magic stones to somehow take over the world....again...the power of the stones really was never delved into....other then to say...all three stones glowed when near one another...which isn't so much a power....cool night lights maybe but...well yeah.

* Mutt Williams catching up to two speeding jeeps...by swinging from vines with monkeys. This is pretty much right up there with the atomic bomb scene...it wasn't funny....and it took me outta the movie.

• Location. I understand that we live in a world today where environments can be created quite easily with CG but, going to certain places on location gave the Indy movies a little something extra. The best example is something someone wrote about the sun lighting in Raiders compared to Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. You have that one scene in Raiders where they are working in the hot desert sun digging to find the entrance to this tomb...the Sun sets against a black backdrop Indy standing ontop of this mound..workers swining axes at the ground...it's a great scene cinematically. Compare the scene in Raiders to when Indy is outside the Area 51 hanger, the sun light thematically is mild and muted, and the general feel is....this is very CG.

Final Impressions/Thoughts

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is a ok "movie" bottom line. I thought as a "movie" Indy 4 was fine...not great...just fine, it had some nice action sequences, a somewhat decent story and moderately decent casting.

AS an Indy fan, judging this among the other Indy films, this movie is last. The plotting, villain character development, humor, and many other aspects of this film are found far lacking when compared to the previous three Indy movies that came before.

I hate being harsh on an Indy movie...it hurts but, this just isn't a great one.

For those new to the Indiana Jones movies, check this sucker out and see what you think but to those ole' school Indiana Jones fans that remember seeing at least one of the original three films in a theater...I say....try to watch this movie as you would a NORMAL movie.. cause expecting it to be the next Raiders or Crusade is just gonna amp up your expectations too high.

B-

(Side Note 2: There is nothing after the credits...I stayed the whole way through....no Short Round, Sallah or anything)