Indiana Jones & The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull... Some Thoughts (spoilers)

I just came back from watching Indiana Jones & The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and being a noob of the Indiana Jones flicks (didn't watch the first three), it seemed okay at best. It is a good movie filled with flaws, but it still did 100+ million in the box office. I'm going to go straight to the point that this week's 1up Yours podcast nailed it perfectly on the fact that most of the movie is like a video game. Nearly all the action scenes are CG to the extreme (my favorite being the whole jungle car chase scene). Actually all the chases can be played in a game in many ways as well as some of the puzzle scenes. Then again, if this movie was a game, it would be filled with cutscenes and quicktime events. Even some of the scenes just seem unreal like Indy surviving the nuke and when they were falling off three waterfalls and I was like how can they survive that?? (One example of the overblown CG).

As for the acting, I would say before watching this movie that Harrison Ford still has it in him like that wrestling chant "You still got it" when some wrestler returns to the ring after a long hiatus. Yeah Ford still has it after watching it, but all those action scenes are not designed for him specifically, so they had to CG it out as well as having stunt doubles. The dialogue seems mostly cheesy with Ford saying many variations of "This is not good" every time something bad happens. As for the supporting cast, I'm starting to hate Shia LeBouf even more if they continues to hog big summer movies that started with Transformers. I don't know if he was the perfect choice to be Indy's son, but he did okay I guess. Kate Blanchett as the antagonist seems weird at first and didn't really play one since she always had her goons ready. Even Mary's positive attitude during the action and near-death scenes is really awkward. Plus, how many times can Indy's long-time partner double-cross him in one movie?

Lastly, I like to rant about John Williams's score for the film. I know that theme song is very symbolic with the franchise, but it was way overplayed in many variations throughout the movie. Then again, that theme song is probably the only good song for the whole franchise compared to the many symbolic hits in the Star Wars flicks he made.

If I would score this, it would be a 7/10 at best. Steven Spilberg did some things right and wrong with this long-awaited flick. At least Indiana Jones is relevant again for people who appreciated it back in its day, but it is likely for the last time. I don't see any opportunity for the franchise to continue with Ford continuing to be Jones, but crazier things have happened in the movie industry.

More Street Fighter 4 Footage at Japan

This weekend was a 5th location test for Street Fighter 4 (my most anticipated game still) which didn't any new stages or characters, but changed some stuff for some characters, some for being nerfed or beefed up. Over at the Shoryuken forums for this game, Bison (Dictator) seems nearly god tier with Scissor Kicks and Slide Sweeps being way better again since u can't really get punished for it if they're blocked. Psycho Crusher is still the cheap move we know and love and the Head Stomp is still the Head Stomp, but imagine EX versions of Bison's specials (I haven't seen his Ultra yet).

Rufus, one of the new characters, is improved significantly and maybe high tier for the moment. Zangief is also considered nearly god tier especially in close range.

Here's Vega in action on this video and similar to what he plays in Super Turbo, which is good, adding along EX specials. That means u can fly around like crazy again as Claw (what the hardcore peeps call Vega these days) with those airborne specials even though Rolling Claw sucks now from what I seen in this video. All of the other characters seem the same with Chun-Li no longer having man hands as people complained about that, Crimson Viper still has the worst Ultra Combo in the game, and the combo system is getting towards Capcom vs. SNK 2 territory from what I read especially for Ryu and Ken. Anyway, here is some more footage from the latest location test for SF4 (Supposedly this is the last location test before its July release at Japanese arcades with more characters and stages still waiting to be revealed).