George Lucas Wants a Fifth 'Indiana Jones' Movie. That Makes One of Us

I remember an e-mail I received after I gave a Two Damn Dirty Ape review to Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones. In my review, I stated that George Lucas had lost it. He was never a great writer, though a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, he was a very good creator. There's a difference. Lucas was truly a master at devising worlds for adventure, but dialogue and scene construction has never been his strong suit. And by the time he made Episode I, Lucas hadn't directed anything in over 20 years. The resulting film was sturdy but not terrific. I felt Episode II had more things wrong with it than right with it, and I said so. The e-mail I received said that one day soon, George Lucas would show me how wrong I was. And while Lucas has always exhibited an ability to make gobs of money, I'm still waiting for any evidence indicating he found his creativity again. Episode III was better than Episode II, sure, but the dialogue was still atrocious and the direction was not terribly noteworthy. And, it should be pointed out, Lucas more or less knew the arc of this story 25 years earlier, so it's not like he had to write Being John Malkovich or something. He had already shown us Point B in the 70s and 80s and now he just had to get us there from Point A. Then came Indiana Jones this summer, which Lucas and Spielberg had been massaging for years and years. Lucas said the story, of his conception, rivaled Raiders of the Lost Ark. "(I)t's up there with the Ark of the Covenant," he said last fall of the Crystal Skulls plot device. "Sankara Stones and the Holy Grail were a little tough, but I think this time we've really got a great one." And he was, of course, very, very wrong. The movie is modestly entertaining despite the meaning and presence of the skulls rather than because of them. In fact, they're the worst thing about the movie. It certainly did not signal a return to his old creative form. I also believe in general it's harder to be creative when you're revisiting old territory. Lucas should concentrate on new ideas, and to his credit, he does have several new things cooking down the line. Maybe those will serve him better. What's scary about the declaration about Crystal Skull being right up there with Raiders is that Lucas wants to do another Indy Jones movie. In a pre-Clone Wars interview with The Sunday Times, Lucas seems gung ho about a fifth adventure, saying, "If I can come up with another idea that they like, we'll do another." Wait a minute...they liked the idea for the fourth one? "Indiana Jones only becomes complicated when you have another two people saying 'I want it this way' and 'I want it that way'," says Lucas of working in concert with Spielberg and presumably Harrison Ford. "When I first did Jones, I just said 'We'll do it this way' - and that was much easier. "But now", said The Bearded One, "I have to accommodate everybody, because they are all big, successful guys too, so it's a little hard on a practical level." There's money to be made from a fifth film, no doubt, but if you think the series is better off with a fourth movie than without it, then I suggest you watch the original trilogy again. It had its problems after Raiders, but it still concluded the way a good trilogy should, and if it goes to five movies, it'll be approaching Rocky territory in more ways than one. If Lucas really wants to accommodate everybody, he should hang up Indy's bullwhip now while there's still an enjoyable legacy. On a different note, the article in The Sunday Times is definitely worth reading for Lucas' plans and theories about Star Wars, particularly how he breaks the entire universe into a Holy Trinity analogy. That's really interesting, as are his plans for his own work in the future. But Indy? Let it go, man.

Comments

[MRPigg]

"When I first did Jones, I just said 'We'll do it this way' "...

Uh...
Last time I checked, Lucas did not write the screenplay or direct Raiders of the Lost Ark.

What a collosal blowhard.

[Carv]

As it happens, I just finished reading The Making of Indiana Jones. It's pretty explicit about the working relationship: Lucas and Spielberg would argue all the time with input from Harrison Ford, then everyone would defer to Spielberg because he was, after all, the director. Period.

[Henry Oak]

I think we regard the early films in a golden haze because they were new at the time. Star Wars (Ep III) is a cheap and stupid movie but nobody had seen anything like it at the time. Raiders of the Lost Ark has a lot of plot and pacing problems and bad acting but nobody had seen anything like it (not for a generation at least).

Now that we're spolied with epic special effects movies, we are much harder to impress. Possibly, George Lucas may be prisoner to his own success avoiding being too creative to avoid the risk of failure.

But we owe a lot to this man and if he wants to make Indy V, we should let him.

Harrison Ford is the real problem.

[Will]

I was hoping for a Han Solo meets Indy moment myself...I mean what do all of the principals have to lose? You could even throw in Howard the Duck for good measure...

[B]

In response to MrPigg...

Lucas wrote the "STORY" of Indiana Jones, of which the SCREENPLAY was based off of....

do your research before posting wrong information.

[Chip]

Indy 4 was passable at best, but why can't Lucas lest his franchises rest? (Wait a second, that rhymed!) Whatever, if he wants to make an Indy 5, so be it. But Indy is still a trilogy for me, despite whether I want it to be or not. No matter how hard I try, I just can't think of Indy 4 as a part of the same franchise as the other three. I mean, I know Temple of Doom isn't the greatest, but I enjoy it a lot more than I did Indy 4.

[Tyler]

I don't like Boyd's articles. He comes off as pretentious and he acts superior.