Summer of 2008

Here are three movies I'll be excitedly watching for this summer:

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (May 16)
http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/narnia/

Wall-E (June 27)
http://www.movie-list.com/trailers.php?id=walle

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (May 22)
http://www.indianajones.com/site/index.html


The new Indiana Jones movie gets marks for the dumbest title and the movie most likely to be disappointing but I’ll nonetheless be compelled to see because it’s Indiana Jones. This January article in Vanity Fair makes me miss the days when George Lucas had some humility. The first red flag was this line:

But Lucas was adamant. It was this idea or nothing. …

It looks like a fun project because not only is Ford back as Indy, but Karen Allen is back as Marion. Both characters are 20 years older, the bad guys this time are 1957 Cold-War Russia commies. But the absence of Salah (John Rhys-Davies) will be a handicap. And I sincerely hope Lucas didn’t write the screenplay. Lucas’ scripts are like Shatner’s directing, and neither of those walking egos seem to care much what fans think:

Whatever, Lucas is convinced he won’t please everyone. “I know the critics are going to hate it,” he says. “They already hate it. So there’s nothing we can do about that. They hate the idea that we’re making another one. They’ve already made up their minds.”

At least the legions of Indy geeks will be pleased, right?

“The fans are all upset,” Lucas says. “They’re always going to be upset. ‘Why did he do it like this? And why didn’t he do it like this?’ They write their own movie, and then, if you don’t do their movie, they get upset about it. So you just have to stand by for the bricks and the custard pies, because they’re going to come flying your way.”

Fine, George. Just please don’t ruin a good franchise.