Going into this movie, I figured I would like it. Not love it. But like it.
Usually, that's not enough to get me to drop $13 to see a movie but
it's Bruckheimer and Cage, a combination that has yet to be bad.
Turns out I was right. I liked it. I didn't love it. But I liked it. I'd go so
far to say that it was in the upper tier of like.
First off, this is a great idea. One of the best ideas for an adventure
movie to come along in a while. It's a modern Indiana Jones kind of
an idea and was executed just like a modern Indiana Jones as well.
Indiana like music, Indiana feel. You know...
Unfortunately the writing wasn't as good as it could've been.
Nicholas Cage was great as always but some of his lines were a
little cheese. But more importantly, some of his character's logical
conclusions were kind of far fetched, even considering his
character's past and education. A little worse off in the dialogue
department was the trusty comic relief sidekick Riley, played by
Justin Bartha.
I don't know if Bartha has done a lot of stuff but this is the first I've
seen him. I thought he did very well with what he was given. Most of
his lines were supposed to be nothing more than comedic tags to
everybody else. Unfortunately they just weren't as funny as they
could've been but he delivered them well. It was a writing problem.
The casting was great. Sean Bean made the crossover from "that
guy from Lord of the Rings that was evil" to "Villain for any movie."
I predict this is his typecast for the next five years.
As for direction, Jon Turteltaub did some stuff that I liked and some
stuff that I didn't. The acting was pretty good. This credit is shared
by the actors and the director. Also, the film was very consistent in
that it stayed light, even at it's darker moments. It probably
would've worked as a darker movie but I'm happy that Turteltaub
chose to be consistent with his choice. I hate when a movie feels a
certain way and then gets to a point and decides it's gonna become
really dark and you're just sitting there wishing you had a gun in
your pocket.
What I didn't like was that there were a couple times where a little
more attention to detail would've really helped the scene. For
instance, the movie opens with them out in the middle of the arctic
with huge machines that are the only things that can get them out to
this secluded area and (spoiler) our heroes get abandoned but
instead of dealing with being abandoned or even acknowledging it,
Ben Gates (Nicholas Cage) just says, "There's a town eight miles
this way. Let's get walking." There were a couple more instances of
carelessness like this one but I don't like putting spoilers in as it is
so I'll leave it at that.
All in all, none of the mistakes were so massive as to ruin a movie
for me and add that to all the goods that this movie brought and you
can understand why I liked it. A big factor in me liking it was that it
was just fun. Not too many movies are anymore. That's kind of what
made so many classic movies from the '80s so great. And of course,
great idea. Awesome idea. I sat through the whole thing cursing the
fact that I never thought of it. Maybe that made me dock a couple
points too.
7/10
Back to Movies Page...
