Hey! You got your Star Wars in my Indiana Jones!

(If you don't care about movie reviews (mom.) feel free to scroll down as there is some personal stuff for you down there) So, here is my non-spoiler review of Star Wars... I mean Indiana Jones. And actually there will be spoilers in this episode. But they will be discreet. If you see this tag.

*SPOILER*

Hooray! You did it. You might have seen my test post and already seen all of this. If you did, happy easter egging!

Then you know you should drag your mouse over the portion directly underneath the spoiler tag. Go ahead and try that now.

Good, now that you've got that down lets get down to business. I'm going to start in on the characters first.

*Characters*

Indian Jones:
You know, Indiana was in this movie, I just had to go through a lot of his other characters to see him. Some people may disagree with me on this, but I'm telling you I saw Dr. Richard Kimble in the first scene. A mixture of Jack Ryan and President James Marshall for other mixed areas throughout other scenes in the movie. And the most frustrating of them all I saw Han Solo at the end... And that's when I went "Ugh." Anyone reading this that knows me will probably be surprised that I went ugh at Han Solo, but it just didn't work, because he was supposed to be Indiana Jones! None of those other guys. Granted people say cut him some slack because it has been 20 years or so, he's doing the best he can. And I guess that's true. But it's one of the reasons I didn't like this movie.

Shia Labeouf:
I'm actually quite ok with this character. I can't tell you much about him, and I won't even say why, or what his name is. If you really wanna know just look here *SPOILER* His name is Mutt...Big clue there. As far as his acting goes, I really enjoyed it. I almost wish they'd given him more to do in this movie. The scenes he was in I enjoyed thoroughly *SPOILER* Except for that ridiculous scene with the monkeys. I mean come on! Anyway, I really did enjoy his part, but that's not saying much because I have loved all his movies so far. Yes, Even Stevens The Movie included.

Karen Allen:
Oops, I've been calling her Carrie Allen since this movie came out. I'm sure folks think I am an idiot. Anyway, Karen's character is back, Marion Ravenwood, and she does a fine job for the role she played, but it was even less of a role than Shia's. But what she did play she played perfectly. She's not the same Ms. Ravenwood we saw last time. Time has passed and changed her... And yet she's still the same old Marion. And that's the problem with all the other women in Indiana Jones, none of them were Marion. I think you'll enjoy the part she played.

All the other characters:
Um, yeah... All the other characters in this movie you can just throw away. The Soviets, they just didn't inspire me with fear. The KGB agents weren't even as scary as the arab guys after Indy and Marion in Ark. After Nazis it's hard to get a bad guy, you know? Cate Blanchett's character was extremely shallow and worthless in my mind. *SPOILER* She plays a psychic Russian Doctor, but her psychic-ness is almost shown, then not shown, then completely forgotten for the rest of the movie. I'd like to have seen that explored a bit more, and I think I'd have liked her character more if they'd showed more of that. As it was, I really didn't care if she lived or died. As a matter of fact I couldn't have cared less if she'd been in the movie. As far as Mac goes... Well, Mac who? They could have taken his character completely out of this movie and still accomplished the same thing. His character was absolutely pointless in my simple opinion. That's all I'm gonna say about him. *SPOILER* I'd also like to talk about the Indians in the ruins... What the heck. Where'd they come from? Are they just always hanging out in the crevices of the ruins waiting for folks to walk by? That was ridiculous. I would have rather they just walked out of the woods than the way they did it. And as someone else pointed out to me, what happens when the next group of archaeologists comes in? Now those Indian guys have nowhere to hide!

CGI
Before we move on I'd like to talk real quick about George Lucas and his descent into madness. I have no idea where I read it, but somewhere on the wonderful wild web I read that he wanted to make all his movies without real actors at some point. We saw some of that in his new Star Wars episodes with entire armies as CGI, and characters like Jar-Jar and Yoda as CGI. Well this movie felt like George was trying to put as much CGI in it as was allowable. *SPOILER* You'll see what I mean when you watch it, but what was with all the ground hogs. The first appearance was funny, but after that it was annoying. And the monkeys!? Again, what the heck was that about!? Some of the action scenes were very poorly done. I remember back in the day when Nathan and I would complain about the blue screen effect. Well now it seems the phenomenon has returned with a vengeance. Only now it's CGI effect.

PLOT
I'm not even going to say much here. Because I don't want to spoil it. Feel free to talk about it in the comments. AND CONSIDER YOURSELF WARNED, DON'T CHECK THE COMMENTS IF YOU DON'T WANT SPOILERS! This movie's plot was fine. And as a matter of fact I enjoyed it. As an action movie, but as an Indiana Jones movie I thought it was only mediocre. Most folks say that they rank this movie as number two in the Jones saga... Or heavens to betsy some guy said he liked it the best!? Wow, crazy. I personally put it at the bottom. Ark, Crusade, Doom, and now Skull. I think my main problem was the treasure that Jones is searching for. Usually it has some touch of reality to it. This movie not so much. Now I know Jones is not the pinnacle of reality, but it always has some basis there. This movie does not. At least not for me. This movie seemed more like a Star Wars flick to me... That's all I'll say about it here. If you'd like to get more in depth on why you hated or loved this movie, please feel free to put your comments in the comments section. I'd love to know what you think.

So over all here's what I give the movie as far as a score. As an action movie I definitely give this three stars. But as a Jones movie I'm sorry, but I gotta sadly say, only two sad fedoras.

Ok, now that that's over. Just to let everyone know. Sarah and I are going to be moving back down to Tennessee In the coming months. And yes we're very excited about it. While I am excited about it I'm also sad and a little stressed. Sad because I won't get to do things like my indoor camping trips or our field fun day coming up on Friday. But it's also a little stressful because of looking for new jobs and places to live. So hopefully you'll all be praying for that. Tomorrow is my birthday. Yes I'll be the big 3-0. Does that bother me? Am I feeling older? Am I sad? No to the first two, and yes to the second one. But I'm sad because I won't be with my wife on that day. That's right, she is off on another globe spanning adventure (well not really, but it sounds cooler like that). We probably won't see each other again for a week. So that's sad. But as far as the old thing, I don't even really think about it. So that's what's going on. Wish I had some cool pictures for you. We went to Harper's Ferry last weekend and I'm know we got some cool pics but I don't have them yet. So look for them early next week. Until then, I remain your

JediJohnson

A movie review:

(I'm not even going to pretend to give an explanation to my lateness on posts. It's been too long to give any sort of excuse. I'm just lazy. Leave it at that.)

Sarah and I went to see Prince Caspian this past weekend and I wanted to share a review of it with you guys. It's especially for Nathan since he has a lot to do over in Afghanistan and I'm sure he's looking for anything remotely movie related. So in that spirit this review and other reviews will be completely spoiler free.

Now, if you've read the book Prince Caspian, which I hope you have, then this movie will come as no surprise to you. As in the original the writers/producers/directors follow very closely to the original story. Granted some things were changed around a little to make it flow a little better in the movie. In the book some flashbacks happen about halfway through the movie, then some flashbacks happen within those flashbacks, and then finally a flashback is told at the same time while something else is being talked about in a completely different area. In a movie that could get very confusing. So I think they were justified with how they handled this. To be honest with you I think I preferred it this way anyway. If they had tried to do it like it was in the book I don't think it would have worked as well. A really interesting thing to note about the beginning of the movie; if I didn't know it was Prince Caspian I never would have guessed that's what it was. It's all very Lord of the Rings/Gladiator-ish. Which is a good thing I think. Since the world is 1000 years older and appears different for the Pevensie children, it should be very different for us as well. (One of the funniest lines in the movie comes when Edmund makes a comment to the girls about this apparent time travel)

So anyhow, as far as the story went they followed all the rest of the plot fabulously. I thought that they would leave out some of the more important things (faith, lack of faith, renewing of faith) that Mr. Lewis had put into this book, but they didn't. As a matter of fact I'd say they did an excellent job of showing all of those thing. I also didn't think they'd be able to get a scene with Aslan that was as emotional as the scene with Edmund in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (heretofore known as TLtWtW) but they did. In fact I actually shed a tear or two in the scene where Lucy talks to Aslan. It was simply amazing, moving, and a wonderful reminder of how patient Jesus is with all our foolishness.

The only part that was more hyped up in the movie than in the book was Susan's crush on Caspian. It's really overplayed in the movie. Not to the point where it's unbearable, it's not even that big of a deal. But it is there, and I thought, how very Hollywood of them. This may have something to do with why Aslan confronts her with a secret at the end of the movie (I won't spoil it, but in the book it says it happens because she becomes too involved in worldly things, like boys and make-up!).

Out of the four kids that returned this time I have to tell you Edmund is my absolute favorite. His demeanor, the way he speaks (pride without being arrogant) the things he does, and the way he does them, all of these things make me enjoy his character more than anything else. Lucy was great too, and don't get me wrong, there is a lot of great acting in this move, but Edmund's character made me smile with almost every line, or every action.

So in saying all of that I give this movie 4 Roaring Lions out of Five.


Anyway, I know this isn't a terribly revealing review, but I wanted to make it something Nate could read and not feel "spoilerfied". Next week I'll give you my spoiler free Indy IV review. Here's hoping it's better than I'm hearing from my Carmike Contacts. Life's going great by the way in case you were interested. I'm great, Sarah's great, we both can't wait to be done with school and back in Tennessee. Virginia is a great place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live here much longer. Ok, well, have a great one, see you next week.

P.s. Please comment what you thought of this movie. And check back because I'll comment on your comments. :) Oh and make sure you vote in the upper right hand corner.