Indiana Jones and the Midnight Showing on a Worknight

I went and saw Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull last night at midnight. There was a lot of early talk that this newest installment in the franchise was going to be horrendous (or at the very least, not be worth the 19-year wait). With countless screenplay changes, the lack of Connery, and the general involvement of George Lucas, people may have been right to be skeptical. Thankfully, I can report that there's nothing to worry about.

Roger Ebert had an excellent metaphor for judging this fourth film: "If you eat four pounds of sausage, how do you choose which pound tasted the best? Well, the first one, of course, and then there's a steady drop-off of interest." So sure, it's natural to get tired of the sausage after eating four pounds (even if you have waited almost two decades to finish your meal), but the quality of the actual sausage doesn't change. Indy 4 is a very good film and nicely sits alongside the original trilogy. So if you had any concern about seeing it, know that it's very much worthy of your time.

I'm sometimes annoyed by Hollywood's reliance on sequels, but not when it's for franchises that I like (isn't it funny how it works out like that?). I'm rather enjoying the "fourth installment for action classics" trend, first with Live Free or Die Hard, then Rambo, and now Indy.