Kicking Skepticism in the Head

When I heard they were making a new Indiana Jones movie...back when they first started talking about it...I was excited. I mean, after Star Wars, the original Indy movies were the greatest film trilogy of all time, followed by the Back to the Future movies.

Being a child of the 80's (I don't remember the 70's...being an infant and all), I suppose that I'm not entirely objective when it comes to the subject, but still, they just haven't made movies like that since then. I mean, even the Die Hard movies, which were all loads of fun, didn't even measure up, and the first was made in '88 (the year before Last Crusade, which was, in turn, out the year before Die Hard 2).

Anyway, as time went on, I became a bit skeptical. I mean, Harrison Ford will always be one of the coolest actors ever, but he's 65 years old, for crying out loud! He's been eligible for AARP membership for more than half my life! And in the original movies, he fought Nazis. They were going to have to age the character past when Nazis existed as a threat. How could that possibly work?!?!? To be honest, I was almost angry that they were still considering it. And what's this crap about Shia LaBeouf as the sidekick? He's no Sean Connery or John Rhys-Davies. He's not even that kid that played Short Round!

I suppose I should qualify what I just said about Shia LaBeouf. I'm pretty sure I've enjoyed everything I've seen him in...I just haven't gotten to where I respect him on his own merit. Ke Huy Quan was in Temple of Doom AND The Goonies!

And nothing much else...perhaps I should be rethinking my respect levels on both of them...

Anyway...then, I saw the poster.

I don't know that I've mentioned it before, but I love Drew Struzan's work. Something about seeing a Struzan poster makes me want to see a movie. If Titanic had Struzan posters, I'd have one up on my wall. Or, I would've when I was single. Screw masculinity! That man can paint! And speed! He can paint a poster in the time it took me to do a comic!

Well, that's probably not entirely true. I mean, I draw slow, but I'm counting from when I'd start to when I'd finish, interruptions and all. He did the poster for Carpenter's The Thing in a night, but I imagine he worked straight through. Even still, his posters are a fair sight prettier than my comics ever pretended to be.

So, evidence notwithstanding, I'm once again excited about Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull...all because the poster rocks.