Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull ... and The Venture Bros. Season 3.
I didn't really enjoy the latest Indiana Jones. It was ok, full of fun big stunts and special effects. So, why didn't I like it more?
Why? Well, Let me hop on over to the "The Venture Bros." This show is a satire of super and adventure heros. It's schtick, so to speak, is that it takes the glaringly obvious faults hero shows and turns them into major themes. In the episode "The Lepidopterists," evil henchmen 21 & 24 (Who are regular characters) recoginize that the new evil henchmen is going to die, for no other reason that he's the new guy. 21 & 24 spend the episode razzing the new henchmen about his impending death. They know they won't die "It's like we're lead characters in a show." They know the new henchmen is there to advance the plot, to be a target for the good guys and then to die.
Back to Indiana Jones.
There are so many over the top death defying stunts. Too many. The good guys go around, surviving nuclear blasts, sword fighting between moving vehicles in jungle, swinging from tree to tree with vines to catch up to said vehicles or driving off not one, not three, but four water falls. No one but the new henchman that just appeared on the screen ever dies. It's like they know they are lead characters in a show and nothing to bad will ever happen to them because they are the good guys and this moving is going to have a happy ending.
I could hear henchmen 21 & 24 in my head slacking off and insulting the other henchmen.
