Tuesday, September 15, 2009

He chose...poorly

When Jonathan asked me if I would be interested in contributing to Cinematic Pontifications I was both thrilled and honored that he would grant me the privilege to share my ruminations on film as well as provide updates on current developments in Hollywood.

Simply put, the movie business is a fascinating world where the creativity of the mind is pitted against the value of the almighty dollar. The end result of these two dynamics is what you see when you go to the movies. Too often, I feel, that the movies that we are patrons of end up as over-commercialized, quick cash-ins, and more about what will put people in the seats over what maintains the integrity of a narrative. Few directors carry enough clout to simply be given "carte blanche" to do anything they want. Often something great gets lost in the process of creating a film and it's interesting to see what Hollywood has coming down the pipeline and how it's development may impact the final product and sometimes it is more interesting to wonder what could have been had the right minds been at work behind a film.

I had originally intended my first contribution to this blog to be a review of Neil Blomkamp's District 9, which I fully intend to give its due, but I happened to come across some curious news regarding one of my favorite franchises that seemed appropriate.

According to interviews with Shia LaBeouf and twitter posts from Producer Frank Marshall, Steven Spielberg has supposedly "cracked the story" regarding the fifth installment of the Indiana Jones trilogy.

While that is all well and good, and might make for a nice topic of conversation at a cocktail party, I figure unless it's coming from the mouth of either Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, or Harrison Ford, it was simply not a topic worth debating.

Well, I now stand corrected. Harrison Ford recently conducted an interview with the French newspaper, Le Figaro, and had this to say regarding Indy V....

"The story for the new Indiana Jones is in the process of taking form. Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and myself are agreed on what the fifth adventure will concern, and George is actively at work. If the script is good, I'll be very happy to put the costume on again."

I thought Kingdom of the Crystal skull was a major letdown, and felt overly campy and sagging heavily in pacing, dialogue, acting, lighting, writing, and pretty much every other category possible. I can't say i'm too pleased at the prospect of another crappy installment in one of franchises most beloved by myself along with multiple generations of movie-goes around the world. I do hope that Spielberg, Lucas, and Ford are able to re-capture the magic that made the original trilogy great and avoid the cheesiness of KOTCS.

Thoughts?

Originally post from AICN

3 comments:

  1. Great post Aron! I know how much this news worries you, and I remember the soul crushing despair and disappointment that we shared coming out of that movie on opening night... I'm probably less optimistic than you. I still trust Spielberg in general (as a director), however, that same trust does not apply to Lucas. As South Park so eloquently portrayed, George Lucas has sufficiently raped all of the franchises that movie fans everywhere loved with all of their child-like hearts. He had some great ideas back in the day, but I have a feeling that every move on his part for the past 20 years has been to maximize his net worth. God knows he's probably worth a billion dollars, but he's lost the respect of myself and MILLIONS like me. Congrats Mr. Lucas. Now hang it up and enjoy all your blood stained money so we can mourn the death of Star Wars and Indiana Jones in peace! OK so maybe that was a bit melodramatic, but you get the point...

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  2. Oh and are you saying that I chose poorly in having you write for the blog or that Spielberg chose poorly in working with Lucas again? I agree with the latter!

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  3. Haha, it's definitely in regards to the latter.

    And yes, another Indiana Jones installment would come across as an attempt to capitalize on the popularity of this franchise and not necessarily telling another chapter in a provocative story.

    What makes a lot of Spielberg's stuff great is that often it's stuff you would see on Saturday mornings on TV when you were a kid, but just giving these types of stories top-notch writing and directing. The last installment just felt like a farce by comparison and really made me hate the movie and hate the creative minds behind it for putting out such a terrible product.

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