Notes: Indy’s Back

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Last night I was lucky enough to attend the Australian premiere of Indy 4. Despite my anxiety, misgivings and fear that it would be disastrous, I actually really enjoyed the film. Of course, some parts bugged me, but for the most part it was just another fun movie starring one of my favourite movie heroes.

I write about technology for a living, so I’m not going to review the film and insult movie critics, movie lovers and everyone involved in the movie industry, but I do have a few thoughts I really want to write down. If you don’t want to read anything before you see the film yourself, probably best not to read this post. It doesn’t contain any major plot spoilers, just some moments in the film that I really enjoyed or hated.


I’ve read that the introduction is a bit long winded. I didn’t think so. Indy’s older, and looks it, but they do a good job of telling us what he was doing in the years between this film and The Last Crusade. Cate Blanchett is introduced, and plays the role well, but that Russian accent seemed just a little bit off to me.

I was blown away when I saw Neil Flynn (The Janitor from Scrubs) as a CIA agent early in the film… I’m a massive Scrubs fan. It helped me forget that Indy survived a nuclear blast by hiding in a fridge. A fridge that is blown through the air for miles with Indy inside, and bounces oughly off a car and the dirt without giving old Indy so much as a black eye. I like to suspend disbelief as much as I can, but this was a big ask here.

But not so much as the scene where Shia LeBeouf (who was fantastic) swings like Tarzan through the Amazonian jungle, cutting off the perilous car pursuit on the edge of a cliff by setting his army of monkeys on Cate Blanchett.

Aside from these two really difficult to accept action pieces, the film was great. It was Indy of old – working things out as he went along, fighting to stay alive and battling evil along the way to victory. There were gross grave-robbing scenes, mummies, flesh-eating ants, and even a little cameo from the Ark of the Covenant.

At the end of the movie, the audience applauded, and it wasn’t just because they wanted to be polite to Cate Blanchett, either. It’s a fun film, and well worth the price of admission, if only so you can pretend to catch up with your old friend, Doctor Jones.

[Indiana Jones on Giz]