One good thing about Indy4 (minor spoilers)

For several years I've lamented the trend in film to use "knowledge of trivia" as a surrogate for "intelligence." The phenomenon is annoyingly common: Anthony Hopkins in The Edge; Ian McKellen in The Da Vinci Code, etc. ad infinitum. IMO the intent is to create the illusion of a smart character without disillusioning the average dummy in the audience, who might be put off by a character who's too smart.

I was happily surprised to see that Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Crystal Skull, an otherwise spectacularly stupid film, did not follow this same template. When Indy is reading the map in the Soviet camp, he says "the wavy lines are water, of course." That little "of course" makes all the difference, and it's just about the only piece of clever writing in the whole damn film. That simple phrase ensures that Jones gets the point across without posturing himself as a special genius; instead, he's speaking among equals, but with the intent of making sure that they're all on the same page. He makes a similar statement a few seconds later, with the same effect.

No, it's not really a big deal, and it certainly doesn't pardon the film for its countless lame excesses. But it's nice to see a change--however minor--in an industry seemingly obsessed with playing to idiocy.

as someone who has more than a passing knowledge of history and space science, it irks the fuck out of me.

For one thing, it's been done to death already.

For another, it's always been stupid.

I am absolutely baffled that anyone is giving this awful film anything other than a rating of "TERRIBLE!!!!!"

And I am unmoved by claims along the lines of "come on--all of the Indy films are unbelievable." Unbelievable in reality, yes of course. But believable within their own film universe? Yes of course!

Except for this last one. Unbelievable. And unbelievably bad.