Just finished this film. Once again, the critics are wrong. It's a great film that is pretty much indistinguishable from the originals stylistically. James Mangold once again gives life to an old genre:
-Phoebe Waller-Bridge is killing it, though I'm curious about Shia LaBeouf's absence. I wouldn't put him in cancelled celebrity territory, considering Honey Boy was such a self-aware work about his PTSD. Was it mostly because Harrison Ford and Shia LaBeouf didn't get along? Depending on how much you know about Harrison's gruff personality and dislike for working with Shia, it made for some very false notes when Harrison Ford was lamenting how much his son was lost (when we know Harrison couldn't stand his "son").
-I notice the villain is a professor at the University of Alabama which seems a cheap shot at red states: The implication being that these states were horrible to Black people, so sure, it probably makes sense they'd harbor Nazis. In real life, Nazis were harbored in Latin American countries, which were more progressive towards race than we were at this time anyway.
-Towards the beginning when Boyd Holbrook first appears with a man in a cane or crutches and he and two other goons corner Indy in a library. We don't see a shot of his death, but it's implied that he's crushed to death by several bookshelves. A bit too gruesome for an old guy in crutches? Besides if they killed the seceretery and other old professor, why not just kill Indy in that scene?
-I can see Indy being more a nominal hero in this story considering Mads' character strikes me mostly as evil because he's a scholar who happens to have been a Nazi in his past. In Raiders, Toht was planning on torturing Marion even when she surrendered and Belloq was quite comfortable killing Indy as a matter of egotistic rivalry. Mola Ram was framed as a devil worshipper (cultural relativism aside) and cult leader who had imprisoned every child within a 15-mile radius. In contrast, Doctor Voller mostly left the murdering up to the henchman, and even when he does pull the trigger, it's because of a necessity of his plan.
-I've had so many brilliant professors in college who suffered the unbearable apathy of spoiled rich students who didn't belong in college. Oh, the tragedy. Just remember, apathetic college students, you're professor could have braved death multiple times and fought under Pancho Villa
-Props to the film for lampashading in dialogue an awareness that Indiana Jones straddled the line between grave robber and archeologist. I wouldn't want to see him completely cancelled through a modern lens, as an outdated cultural relic but some discussion of it is necessary.
-The found family trope is here and that's not a particularly deep take that Teddy is an stand-in for Short Round. However, there's a lot to be said for the fact that through five films, Indy has shown a strong affinity for every platonic relationship in his life: Sallah, Marcus, Oxley, the newly introduced Basil Shaw, and there must be some abounding sense of guilt that he wasn't there for his goddaughter. Even if Basil Shaw and Helena are canon foreigners, it's clever how one can already map out this conflict based on Indy's past relationships.
-It has to be said "wombat" is a dumb nickname. Maybe that's what chased her away
-There's nothing particularly charming about the modernization of the map overlays.
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