Time To Move On, Part 1

Dragonslayer, a Paramount/Disney co-production, came out in 1981, the same time as Raiders of the Lost Ark, and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out which film grossed more at the box office.

At the time, a critic–whose review The Google cannot even seem to find–thought that Dragonslayer was the better film, and one reason I recall him writing that was that he believed that Raiders was “machine-tooled” which I took to mean lacking in heart and passion.

And while I also enjoyed Dragonslayer, I also thought that Raiders of the Lost Ark was an enjoyable, edge-of-your-seat adventure.

Though after seeing Indiana Jones and the City of the Crystal Skull (or Indy 4) recently on DVD, I think that the reviewer was referring to this film, despite the fact that the review came thirty years too late.

While it starts promisingly, Indy 4 quickly went downhill, turning silly (and considering that they were searching for a crystal skull–which is what the aliens in the film are underneath their skin, according to the story–is saying a lot)

That being said, there were some curious decisions made by all those involved. First off, why were the villains made to be Russians? I guess after using Nazis, crazed Indians, and ambitious Britons, there were few nationalities left (?), though it feels more like desperation than inspiration.

Then there’s a scene that takes place at Area 51, of Roswell fame.

Now keep in mind, this was the storage place of the Ark of the Covenant, the artifact that caused all that trouble in the original Raiders; yet in that film there was no mention–that I can recall–that the Ark was being stored at Area 51.

This would have been worth a few geek points, at the very least; though it does remind me about what bothers me about films that George Lucas tends to be involved with.

Namely, he has this tendency to revise, to alter history, within his films. This is the reason I suspect that some were put off by his changes to the digital effects and the addition of scenes in his original Star Wars trilogy.

The technology available for the latter Star Wars films was not present for the first three, so why Mr. Lucas felt the need to alter effects that were at the time ‘state of the art’ is beyond me.