The Stub

Why make another Jones movie and will it be successful? The trailer just might have the answers.

There haven’t been anything quite like the Jones movies since Last Crusade, with the exception, perhaps, of The Mummy franchise (expect another addition to that next year under the title of The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor). Both sets of movies work well, in my opinion at least, due to the exotic locations, which, even in today’s world of fast travel still seem so foreign and mysterious to many eyes. You could put the success of the Tomb Raider games down to this too. Give us a few ghostly temples, some booby traps and a few suspicious characters in tribal headgear and most viewers would be immediately intrigued. An older example would be Agatha Christie’s Death on the Nile. The characters may not have been chased by boulders but with Egyptian pyramids as a backdrop, viewers could not help but feel the suspense because, as we all know, any temple type building comes with a curse to protect it right? The above trailer has it all…temples, tribes, pits, forests, sand..you name it. There’s the ancient yellowed treasure map too. There are even a few Nazis, who seem strangely out of key with the rest of what I just mentioned, but sure; all the more reason to see it. It’s a sure thing that Spielberg and crew know what it takes to arouse our curiosity. Or mine anyhow..

The locations, however, cannot cover up Harrison Ford’s ageing face. Fortunately, though, Indiana himself has never been a character who takes himself too seriously. He was a winner, yes, but he was also a little awkward and didn’t pretend to enjoy his adventures a whole lot. With this type of personality Ford might just be able to pull off this older Indiana without resorting to embarrassing scenes. This is hinted at in the trailer too, when he goes flying into the wrong motorcar windscreen and shrugs it off  “Damn, I thought that was closer”.

So far it’s all good right? We probably could have done without the American flag flying in our face (a bit too cheesy for me), and I’m still out on LaBeouf, but there’s hope in the old hat yet. Coming next: the top 10 Indiana Jones trilogy moments. And of course a review next month. Ah yes, I’m gonna milk this just as much as Hollywood has.