Indy 4

~For the past few days, I've been struck by a debilitating flu that has, unfortunately, restricted my vacation quite a bit. But I take these things in stride, so it's all good. Actually, the great deal of extra time I've found myself with has enabled me to catch up on a number of important issues, such as this one:

Indiana Jones is back!

According to George Lucas, a script for "Indiana Jones 4" has finally been accepted, and filming will begin this year. Harrison Ford will return as Dr. Henry "Indiana" Jones for a fourth time. To be honest, I was a bit skeptical at first when I read the article on CNN. Ford is in his mid-sixties; can he really pull off the bullwhip-cracking, Nazi-punching, cultist-shooting archaeologist that we all know and love? Upon further reflection, I believe that it can indeed be done. With a little luck, we may even get Sean Connery to return as Dr. Henry Jones Sr.

My only concern here is that Lucas might turn Indy 4 into a CGI-fest the way he did with the Star Wars prequels. Real people and real objects, even if they're just models, are always preferable to me. Take, for example, Aliens, or the first Star Wars movie, both of which used many special effects consisting mainly of models. Amazingly, when you watch these decades-old films, they still look good. Whereas the special effects in the Star Wars prequels, however much they may dazzle audiences today, will soon be outdated by ever-more-impressive computer animation. I think this page says it best.

So what's an Indy fan to do to while away the hours until the movie is released? Well, there are rides like "Temple of the Crystal Skull". There are also fan films. The most impressive and ambitious effort I've seen so far is "Treasure of the Templars", a feature-length fan-produced film that actually looks reasonably good. It's still in production, but here's the trailer:

^ It's not exactly Paramount Pictures, but admit it: this looks like fun. It will be interesting to see the finished product. So let's all wait a bit longer for one more round of Indy goodness, hopefully involving significant amounts of Nazi-bashing, treasure-finding, and of course, memorable one-liners. ~Oyasumi!