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).