My day off with Indy

83:20. That was my total on hours this past week. I clocked out at 4:00 on Sunday with the big project 99.9% done. I just have to hit print on a few final pages Tuesday morning and I can get back to the normal work load.

So, I had the day off today. I paid off my massive sleep debt, and for the first time in almost a month, I haven't had jack shit to do...except go see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

My review of the film in two words: It'll do.

In five words? Great but far from perfect.

The action scenes were really good. I do love me some attacking howler monkeys and big frickin' ants swarming over bad bad guys. The plot lines, on the other hand, ran just a little too smoothly for my taste, but I can forgive that. They had a lot of ground to cover in such a short amount of time. Sure, I could pick it all apart, making a list of other ways they could've gotten it all done, but this way was just as effective as anything this armchair director could've done.

I'll do my best to keep the spoilers to a minimum.

The only thing that really bugs me, though, is the one thing missing from this installment that the other three had: a moment of genuine self-sacrifice.

In Raiders, Indy threatened to blow up the arc with a bazooka if the Nazis didn't release Marion, sacrificing a great artifact for the woman he loves. In Temple of Doom, he cut the rope bridge. In Last Crusade, we got a triple shot: Indy ran the gauntlet to save his father, took the leap of faith, and ultimately allowed the grail to slip away.

Crystal Skull just didn't have a moment like that. It followed a formula closer to an episode of Young Indiana Jones Chronicles than it did the other three movies. Don't get me wrong, the movie worked, but not quite like the other movies did.

But Spielberg did keep the movie square in the same visual style of the other movies. It still had that timeless Saturday afternoon serial feel to it. Having the movie set in the fifties was a nice touch. It help deal with Indy's advancing age, and setting the film in the middle of the red scare not only allowed for a new kind of enemy for Indy to face, but also a new world for him to prove himself a hero.

I agree with my buddy Corey that the best thing they could've done differently in the marketing of the film was to keep Marion out of all of the trailers. Watching the movie, her entrance would've been one of the greatest surprises in film history. However, that would've been next to impossible given her role in the film. Every great action sequence had her in it, and short of filming alternate takes without her or airbrushing her out for the trailers would not have been an easy task.

Personally, I blame George Lucas on that one. He's passed up this kind of opportunity before. Remember the trailers for Episode I? Imagine how kick-ass it would've been to not see Darth Maul's two-ended light saber until you saw the movie? Or maybe not have released the tie-in books, soundtrack with song titles that gave away the plot, and all of the toys with character descriptions on the packaging a full month before the opening of the film?

But what's done is done. Indy's back, and in the end, I'm grateful.