The benefit (and slight wiser-than-thouness) of hindsight

One of the gems in Windsor, Victoria is the Astor Theatre (built in 1930's). It is a single screen cinema like many cinemas of old were, and the movies the Astor plays are basically, ikut suka hati whatever they want--with the odd movie or two of the week that were actually current and just released in other cinemas near you.

I have been to the Astor only a few times (because cannot get over how much one pays for 2 hours of viewing pleasure). The first was with Ikram to watch The Artist. He took a little nap at some point but woke up telling me he LOVED the movie, which is better than him waking up and telling me he hated it. I saw Great Expectations (1946) with Izapiza when she came to visit which was AMAZING and had the (then) adorable Alec Guinness. And when Ifa came with my mom to visit, she got really excited to see a movie at the Astor and the best option we had was Raiders of the Lost Ark-- which seemed like a pretty good option.

I was quite excited to watch the Indiana Jones movie, mainly because I had confused it with The Last Crusade, which was 1) shot in Petra where we visited during a family Umrah/vacation in Jordan; 2)  had Sean Connery in it!! 3) a movie I saw as a child and loved and never saw again in my recent adult life.

Also, the synopsis mentioned that the movie garnered four Academy Awards so I figured-- it cannot be that bad!

And it was not. Bad. Per se.

Though the movie was relatively enjoyable, it was just.....macam kartun.... for lack of better words. The transition of scenes, some of the dialogue, the VISUAL effects (for which they won one of those dastardly Academy Awards by the by), the humor, it was all MACAM KARTUN.

In fact, the very end 'gory' scene where all the Nazi soldiers and Indy's French archaelogist rival are consumed by flames of ghouls released from the Ark had everybody in the cinema laughing their heads off. (by then I had realized that I had never seen this movie, and it was not The Last Crusade) (and as a sidenote: don't you hate it when you mistake one movie for another and the whole time watching the movie you get more and more confused and keep thinking "Oh yeah, I'm going to recognize the next scene" and that scene never comes and you keep checking your watch to see how far of the movie has gone by before you realize "Oh, I have never seen this movie before actually.")

It just goes to show how far cinematography has come really-- because in 1979--- that movie was THE cat's WHISKAS in visual effects and possibly storytelling as well. Watching it for the first time a few days ago, and comparing it to adventure thrillers like The Prestige or even Disney's the Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl (I don't acknowledge the sequels)-- obviously I am just raising my one eyebrow as high as a smug Gen-Yite is allowed to.

That said, watching Indiana Jones triggered memories of my adolescent fantasy of marrying an Indiana Jones-type man-- some mousey (but hot) Professor by one day turned whip-lashing fedora wearing treasure hunter by other days. And it is always nice to walk down memory lane in the mind every now and then, so you can smile wistfully and shake your head at what a silly billy you once were and how much wiser you are now ;)