Sci-Fi / Fantasy

To start with I give Spielberg credit for going against the wishes of Lucas to film this thing in digital. Not only did he attempt to reproduce the same film stock look, but he edited the film, not on a computer, but an old movieola. The attempt to make this look like the other films is obvious and appreciated. Some of the sets are simply incredible. The Akator set is massive and dressed with all kinds of detail. It conjures up images of many of Indy’s tomb-raiding past. Again you have to credit Spielberg for wanting his actors in a real place as often as he did. John Williams returns with the traditional Indy fanfare and even some good rousing new music to add to the collection. The vehicle chases remind us of some of the best moments in Raiders. Still, there is a bit too much greenscreen and CG usage here. It is so obvious that many of these locations are studio in front of a greenscreen. I know they tried, but that only made these moments stand out all the more. There are also moments that look like they were trying too hard to be clever. The snake “rope” is absolutely ridiculous. As an Indy fan, you are prepared to suspend your belief, but I feel this movie pushes those limits. There are too often science fiction elements here that, I believe, don’t belong in an Indy film either. But it was good to see the old man in action. I have to admit that in the first scene he really looked old, but I swear he got younger as the film moved along. By the time the real adventure begins, the years have all shed themselves away and Harrison Ford is indeed Indiana Jones again. The film doesn’t stand up to Raiders or the Last Crusade, but is much better than Temple Of Doom. I rank it 3^rd out of the 4 films.

“Who? Or What is the newest, most breath-taking, most sensational super-hero of all?”

That was the question asked on the cover of Marvel’s Tales Of Suspense issue number 39. Pictured with that buildup was a character quite different from the Iron Man that we would come to know and love over the next 40 plus years. He was all silver and appeared to be wearing combat boots. He was not very slender, and you could almost hear the clunking as he moved. By the next issue he was gold colored. By Issue number 48 of that same series, the new and improved Iron Man look would appear for the first time. He was sporting the red and gold colors that would be relatively unchanged for decades. Certainly the suit evolved over the years, but Iron Man’s basic design was born. It was December, 1963. In issue 53 the book would begin to incorporate the name of Iron Man into its front page header. Finally in May of 1968 Tales Of Suspense gave way to The Invincible Iron Man. The hero would often be teamed with the likes of Captain America and The Hulk. The Marvel universe was extremely fluid, and characters often crossed over into other books. The ultimate result would be the Marvel Avengers book, which was an answer to DC’s Justice League. It didn’t come as any surprise that Iron Man would be a founding member of the team. His alter-ego Tony Stark would become the all important finance, weapons, and gadgets supplier to the group.