March 16--Five ways to look at Harrison Ford and director Steven Spielberg reteaming for a fifth "Indiana Jones" movie:
1. George Lucas apparently isn't involved in the Disney project, just as he wasn't involved with Disney's recent global smash "Star Wars: The Force Awakens." This means the next "Indiana Jones" film has an excellent chance of being better than the previous one.
2. The previous one, 2008's "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," is commonly rated dead last of the four Indy movies by millions of ardent Indy fans. You may remember it. You may not. It's the one where Ford's archaeologist and world-saver communed with space aliens and survived an atomic blast by hiding in a fridge. Though more discreet in his frustration with the script than Ford's co-star, Shia LeBeouf, director Spielberg has typically redirected criticism of "Crystal Skull" back onto friend and colleague George Lucas, who hatched the cockamamie UFO angle.
3. "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" made $786 million worldwide, nearly double that of any other Indy outing. The franchise to date has taken in $2 billion. So we were always going to get another one.
4. What's an Indy-agnostic to do? Reviewing "Crystal Skull," I wrote something snotty (hard to believe, I know) about Ford's signature role not being "a memorable movie character." Rarely have I gotten more rapid and Trumpian levels of rage in response, proving that A.) I'm a tool, even though Spielberg's biographer Joseph McBride feels the same way, and B.) Not even "Crystal Skull" could dent the brand established by "Raiders of the Lost Ark" back in 1981.
