Indiana Jones

This weekend we went to see the new Indiana Jones movie. I've heard it has a lot of negative reviews, and I've talked to people who haven't enjoyed it. I thought it was great. It was everything the original movies are: exciting, scary, lots of action, kidnappings and escapes. It had the same great music, the same moderately strung together plot lines, with dumb jokes and hit-or-miss dialogue.

We seem to confuse nostalgia with quality. I love the original Indiana Jones movies, and I love my memories of those movies. And those two things are not the same. If you can come to this movie with the same sense of wonder, belief, and wish for adventure that you probably brought to seeing the original movies, you'll be fine. If you go to this movie expecting something more now that you're older and wiser and more discerning, you may be disappointed.

Half of the reason we go to movies in the summer is for the air conditioning, and another quarter is to lose ourselves in the excitement of something other than thinking about how awful the weather is. The new Indiana Jones movie met both of those criteria, and additionally was exactly what I wanted from a now older Indy. And yes, we did clap when it was over.