INDIANA JONES and the alternative trailer scandal thing...

Little bit of a fan boy hoo hah kicking off in the regards to the new Indiana Jones trailer, which has caught my attention today. No big deal, just strange editing decisions to conform with ratings standards and a great way of flushing a bag of cash down the drain.

All the low down can be found here, as reported on Ain't It Cool News. The long & short is this: an American trailer for the movie has the Stars & Stripes slapped over the top and a shot of Indy & new chum Ray Winstone digitally fiddled with to remove a brace of machine guns pointing at the duo.

I must admit it seemed like a rather lacklustre shot to include in a trailer which relaunches a franchise - at least now it's inclusion makes much more sense, when viewed in the version those of us outside the US will get.

Now, it's nothing to get angry about - just a bloomin' trailer afterall - but it does seem a very odd thing to do (despite the fact that it was premiered alongside kiddie fantasy flick The Spiderwick Cronicles). Hard to see who's being protected by expensively erasing guns in a comic book movie trailer when TV screens must be full of horrendous real life stuff like this...

Those with too much time on their hands can check the shiz below:

THINGS ARE GETTING INDY ROUND HERE - Indiana Jones & the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

2008 is certainly a banner year for franchise fans. The Dark Knight returns, with a terribly tragic (if morbidly suitable) cloud hanging over his proceedings and Bond blasts his way back onto the big screen in the follow up to the rebootiful Casino Royale.
But it was always going to be Indiana Jones to whom I'd first tip my proverbial fedora. Not because I'm a big fan of the series as a whole, but because I don't think I'll ever stop lovin' Raiders of the Lost Ark. It's the flick that keeps on flicking - perfectly cast, beautifully shot and paced like a thoroughbred.



Whilst harking back to the cliffhanger era from the golden age of Hollywood, it was one of the last hurrahs of make-do guerrilla grindhouse genre film-making, before the bloated effects laden blockbusters that still blight our box-offices today took hold. Who would have thunk at the time that 27 or so years later we'd get another day trip with the venerable Dr Jones?

Well, the teaser trailer took it's web-based bow for the first time today and frankly I don't quite know what to make of it...
Great to see the man in the hat back in action, but it all looks a bit too throwaway and jokey - much more like a cartoon than I had hoped. I can't get my head around svelte Cate Blanchett as a Brooksian bobbed Commie bulldyke - looking like she's stepped out of a Morecambe & Wise sketch. It's a pleasure to see Karen Allen finally returning, but I'm not convinced on the whole LaBeouf thing.

Moreover, although I'm far from against Indy swinging around the girders of (what looks like) the warehouse from the aforementioned Raiders, I'd wince at the sight of ol'Jackie Chan whopping into a truck windscreen these days, let alone the pensionable Ford. I don't wish to pooh pooh the man, just say "take it easy" and "watch your back".

It's not the years, you know - it's the mileage...

Does all this matter though? Not in the slightest - when it opens I'll no doubt plonk myself smack dab in the middle of the biggest cinema I can find, preferably with a fantastic chum who shares my boundless enthusiasm for the original return of the great adventure (and who loudly regurgitated whole chunks of iconic dialog to disinterested drinkers in a quiet pub earlier this very week).