Indiana Jones and Superman: Hollywood, You Owe Me

 I have two huge celluloid heroes: Superman and Indiana Jones. Both come from a cinematic lineage of hits. Superman had four movies starring Christopher Reeve, who held the comic book square-jawed good looks that audiences needed for Superman to live on the silver screen. Superman’s franchise hit a high note with Superman II then slowly died off with two more sequels. Indiana Jones was a throwback to movie serials of the 30s and 40s, starring Harrison Ford as the globetrotting archeologist. Indy had a very strong movie franchise that spanned three movies.

What both series have in common is both debuted new sequels nearly 20 years after the previous movie in their franchise. Christopher Reeve's last Superman movie, Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, debuted in 1987. It was a fairly poor movie with a bad villain, terrible special effects and a ridiculous story. Indiana Jones was a different situation. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade was released in 1989 to great fan and critic acclaim and was considered one the best movies in the series. The movie dealt with Indy and his father finding the Holy Grail and healing their relationship along the way. 

Because of how the franchises ended, the public wanted to see more for entirely different reasons. With Superman, everyone wanted to see a Superman movie done with modern effects and a proper story to bring the Man of Steel back to the forefront of awesome cinema. Indy was such an awesome character with great stories that fans wanted to see more exploits of the whip-wielding archeologist. 

When Hollywood announced they were making sequels to each franchise I was ecstatic. It was like Hollywood was catering to me personally by bringing these childhood heroes back to theaters. Except, Hollywood pulled one over one me: both movies weren’t very good. Each had their moments of brilliance like the airplane rescue in Superman Returns (2006) or the warehouse fight in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008), but overall the newest Superman and Indiana Jones movies were pretty bland and full of bad decisions in their writing and execution. Superman was suddenly an emo voyeur father that didn't get a chance to punch anyone. Indy became a father of a vine-swinging nerd posing as a tough guy while surviving nuclear blasts and finding aliens. 

I still enjoyed the movies, and watch them to this day, because they involve my heroes and I give them a fanboy’s benefit of the doubt. Yet, I felt like I’ve been dealt bad cards and, in a way, I feel slighted by the creative forces behind each movie because my heroes had yet to be fully realized to their full potential and it was a bit of a disappointment to see them not live up that potential.

One of my best friends, Brett, loves Star Trek and Batman. Because of this, he has had his day in the sun with the Nolan Dark Knight franchise and now the Abrams franchise of Star Trek. For the past several years he has had something to cheer for, something to get behind and, fortunately for him, his favorite characters got movies that delivered. He can say with pride that he's a huge Star Trek fan and people will respond, "What a great movie!" I want a taste of that. I want something to be proud of, like he has, and not bring up Superman then have someone say, “Yeah, that last movie sucked," which always seems to happen.
  
This summer, Man of Steel should change that for me. If the movie can deliver on the promise of the trailers, this will be the Superman movie we have all wanted to see. MoS has been advertised as a character driven action epic that makes Clark out to be someone who is searching for his place in the world. He is emotionally fallible because he doesn't know where he belongs. He'll take us on his journey and show us that his place is as Superman. He'll earn that spot in his own original movie instead of all but remaking Donner's 1978 classic, like Superman Returns tried to do.

Have we been duped on a great trailers for bad movies before? Sure we have. Just look at any trailer for Star Wars Episode One: The Phantom Menace. That looked like it was going to be a movie for the ages and it wasn't. However, Man of Steel seems like the real deal. I think it can and should deliver on its advertising, giving us the Kal El we all deserve. 

Of course, I could be wrong and it could be a dud like Green Lantern, but I'm praying that isn't the case. There is too much talent and too much going behind it for the movie to be craptacular. I want to see MoS do as well as Marvel's The Avengers, another favorite of mine that earned a staggering 1.5 billion dollars. That might be a tad lofty for a realistic expectation. OK, I hope this will do as well, if not better, than its brethren: The Dark Knight movies. I don't think that is too much to ask for.

Indiana Jones, on the other hand, might have to go out to pasture on the down note of Crystal Skull. Now that Disney bought Lucas Film, they have stated they have no interest in moving forward with Indy, which is too bad. I think the series has one more good movie left in it if a proper script and a decent macguffin, the artifact Indy is hunting for, can be utilized. Also, Harrison Ford isn't getting any younger. 

The Man of Steel release date of June 14th can 't get here fast enough. I want to know if the trailers deliver on their promise. I want to be able to say, "I'm a Superman fan," and have the retort, "Oh man, that new movie was effin' sweet!" Hollywood is due to make amends for past transgressions and Man of Steel is their reparation; one I will gladly accept.