New Indiana Jones Movie: Meh... (**spoilers**)

I had an opportunity to see the new Indiana Jones today. As the title of this entry seems to indicate, the movie was OK. It could have been much worse. The movie was entertaining for the most part and I am glad that I saw it. Let's break things down, both good and bad.

The Good

• I appreciated that they paid homage to the other three movies. Early on, there were a few references to the first movie. Would have liked to here, "It belongs in a museum." They also used the red line moving across maps to show travel.
• The dialog was actually good...especially for a Lucas film.
• I liked Shia in this film. A great improvement over his role in Transformers.
• I liked the move to the 50s...it seemed like a good transition for the films and seemed natural.
• The aged Indy worked. The old jokes were sprinkled throughout and they did a good job explaining the jump forward.
  

The Bad

• The soundtrack seemed uninspired...I really only appreciated the borrowed themes from previous movies.
• The ending was over the top. In fact, the whole "alien" concept wasn't really needed.
• I am willing to give these movies a few liberties, but some of the stuff they pulled was just stupid. The whole "duck of the cliff and into the tree" thing was the worst offender. The monkey scene was also pretty lame.
• Ford seemed to force his role for the first 20 minutes. It seemed to get more natural as the movie went on.

On a scale of 1-10, I'd give it a 6.5. Entertaining, but not close to the scope on movies #1 and #3.