"Indiana Jones and the Temple of Dull"

I was really excited about the new "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom
of the Crystal Skull" movie. Well, kind of excited. For one, well, hey,
it's Spielberg and Lucas and Harrison Ford, right? And it has been
several years since the last one. But I had some doubts. It would
probably be predictable, right? There would be few surprises, right?
Nevertheless, I went in optimistic.

Unfortunately, my doubts were right on target. It was predictable
and there were few surprises. Indy rarely seemed to be truly scared,
even in very tight spots. It was nice to see the reunion with the Marion
Ravenwood character, but Karen Allen seemed to be going through the
motions, as did Harrison Ford. Nevertheless, it was, overall, a fun night
at the movies. It was kind of cool seeing the terrific Cate Blanchett in
an action role. And Ford was fairly believable as a sixty-something
action hero.

But when I sit down and dissect a movie, I always want to think about,
"what was it trying to accomplish?" And I am not sure that "Crystal Skull"
accomplishes much of anything except to suggest that sequels can make
a heckuva lot of money! And if the movie had a "point," and I know that
action movies do not necessarily require much in the way of either
"points" or plot, there did seem to be sort of a suggestion that too much
knowledge can be a dangerous thing; indeed, when (spoiler alert)
Ms. Blanchett's character receives an information overload from an
"interdimensional being," it turns her into a crispy critter. Now she
was seeking what a former seminary professor of mine called
"dominative knowledge" ; in asking this superbeing to tell her
everything that it knew, which one assumes was pretty much
everything that can be known, she wanted to use that knowledge to
dominate others. So one might say that she got what she deserved.

On the other hand, I am not sure that "too much knowledge is a
dangerous thing" is really a message we want to send in this perilous
age in which we find ourselves. We NEED, and indeed, must learn more
about each other, more about our diverse cultures and religious beliefs,
more about our planet and all the species with which we share it, not less.
We must not be afraid of knowledge.

Knowledge, if wielded properly, can help to create more understanding
and empathy among the peoples of this planet. Now I love to contemplate
mystery as much as the next person, but that contemplation has as its
foundation a realization of what I DO know AND what I don't know. One
has to know SOMETHING to realize that one does not know, and maybe
cannot know, everything.

At the end of "Crystal Skull," there also seemed to be an attempt to
highlight the dangers of greed and the evils of betrayal, but all that
seemed to be kind of thrown in as an afterthought along with the
happy ending and the credits. But maybe I am expecting too much
from what is, in essence, a Saturday afternoon serial. So go see the
latest "Indy." You'll have fun, at least at times. After all, a movie
does not have to make sense in order for one to enjoy it. However,
it does help.