Movies - Spoiler Alert

Be forewarned: I am going to review three movies I've seen recently.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (Grade: D)
I sincerely wish George Lucas would have kept the original title he intended: Indiana Jones and the the Saucer Men from Mars. Then, at least, I would have stayed away and known it was going to be horrible. I went in with low expectations, mind you. I did not expect it to be as good as the original trilogy. And the more I think about it, and the more I talk about it, the greater a chance the grade will fall from D to F (it started at a C - oh how the mighty have fallen).

There are far too many stupid things to point out in this movie (stupid and over-the-top, even for an Indiana Jones movie). The script was boring and unoriginal. The introduction of the new character (i.e. Mr. LeBouf) was somewhere between lackluster and a pile of dung. Cate Blanchett was fine - would have been better with a script. The stunts were horrible and refused to even get my unbelief off the ground (and moving toward a suspended state). From surviving a nuclear explosion in a refrigerator, the vine-swinging-catch-up-to-a-Jeep scene, to the three waterfalls (not ONE, not TWO, but THREE consecutive), there is no imagination, no mystery, no mythology built in to them (the perfection of these things are best illustrated in the invisible bridge from a previous IJ).

All in all, don't see it - even from Rebook...I mean, Red Box.

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (Grade: C+)
The get points for effort, that's for sure. Overall, a decently made movie - certainly improving over the movie making aspects of the first one: the battle/fight scenes were much better (though, why do they always happen with a bright, sunny day - isn't it basic Movie Making 101 to set the mood with environemtn [i.e. at least grey skies, if not stormy])

In the end though, I give it a C+ because the books are so near and dear to my heart. I love them endlessly, and even though I haven't read Caspian in some 4 years, there is just something missing from the series on screen. I may be siding with Clive, that they simply shouldn't be made into movies. There's just something missing.

V for Vendetta (Grade: B)
The best movie of my past two weeks, no doubt. It was a good movie, like may folks said it would be. Good subject matter, pretty good script. Great performance from Miss Nattie Po. I don't know that I'll rave over this one - it may or may not crack into my Top 50 (which does need updating). All-in-all, glad I saw it. Not a B movie, but a B movie.