Did you fall out of your chair? I did!

Most who know me are aware of my little obsession for Indiana Jones. When I was young, he was pretty much my hero. Still is, really. He’s essentially the ultimate geek icon. An archaeology professor and badass artifact bounty hunter who swings from a bullwhip? An action hero who uses his brains to get out of situations? It doesn’t come much better than that.

Mystery Man details 10 Screenwriting Lessons he pulled from the transcript, and it’s a great read. I’m only about a quarter the way through the PDF, but it’s really interesting to see the process they went through to come up with everything in the story.

I love brainstorming with a group of people, tossing ideas out and building on each other’s thoughts. We do this at work quite often when troubleshooting an issue or designing new functionality, and I find I work really well in a group setting like this. It’s all about asking the right questions to bring those ideas out of the other people and allowing their ideas to spark your own.

That’s something that holds me back when I try to write. I find when I’m brainstorming solo, I often don’t ask myself those needed questions and end up running out of steam. Eventually learning how to best conceptualize and flesh out ideas without that group sounding board is really going to help me in the long run, I think. That’s probably something I should start thinking more about.

George Lucas had amazing vision in this transcript. I really wonder what happened to that.

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So after crying myself to sleep, and pouting all day at work on Thursday, I finally got to see it last night. Indiana Jones is basically my personal Jesus, so this was a big event for me.

I have mixed feelings about the movie. A lot of the writing was awkward, too much CGI was used for my liking, I wasn’t really feeling the science fiction angle, and there were some incredibly cringe-worthy moments. I don’t want to spoil anything, but you’ll know the parts I’m talking about when you see it; they have George Lucas written all over them.

Despite its shortcomings, I still really enjoyed myself. Although, if the movie was an hour and a half of Indiana Jones putting on his hat from different camera angles, I would probably still buy the DVD, so I might not be the best critic in this case. Once I would have been outraged, and felt they desecrated my all-time favourite trilogy, if they brought out a fourth installment that wasn’t amazing, but now I can see it as just being a chance to revisit old characters without it tarnishing the memories of the original.

You should see it if you’re an Indy fan. I may have to go watch Raiders of the Lost Ark now.

Looks like it has a lot of potential, as long as Indiana doesn’t suddenly become Spider-man.

• Indiana Jones and the City of Gods
• Indiana Jones and the Destroyer of Worlds
• Indiana Jones and the Fourth Corner of the Earth
• Indiana Jones and the Lost City of Gold
• Indiana Jones and the Quest for the Covenant

There were a lot of people complaining about the choice on Digg earlier today, but I quite like it. The cheesiness of the title fits in well with the rest of the series. The Temple of Doom wasn’t exactly Shakespeare. Of the titles listed, I prefer City of Gods or Lost City of Gold, but the title doesn’t really matter to me as long as the movie is decent.

I’ve been trying not to get my hopes up for this movie, but I think my struggle may be futile. Most people who know me are probably aware of my Indiana Jones obsession. When I was a kid, he was my idol. I wanted to be exactly like him when I grew up. I even planned on studying archeology once I got to university, until I learnt it didn’t involve disarming booby traps and punching Nazis. Many of the values I hold dear to this day can be attributed to those stories. My love of travel, wanting to see new places and understand different cultures, trying to learn about the past and the world around me – a lot of my interests and passions were sparked or fueled by Indiana Jones.

Even as an adult, I still love the character. He’s a multilingual scholar who travels the world, beating up baddies and sleeping with beautiful women. And he wears a wicked hat. He’s basically the perfect geek. How could you not want to be like him?

It would seem I have impossible expectations for this next movie, but I think I’ll be happy as long as they stay fairly true to the character. I recently rediscovered the Young Indiana Jones television series and really enjoyed watching it again. If I can enjoy a fifteen year old television series without getting into a huff, I should be able to relax and enjoy a new movie.

As a bit of a side note, I just noticed an adult series of Indiana Jones books listed on Amazon. I typically can’t bring myself to read anything that’s based from a film or television series, as it just seems very wrong to me, but I might make an exception in this case. Has anyone read any of these books?