'Indiana Jones' gets mixed reviews on the Web

By Scott Bowles, USA TODAY

Indiana Jones has yet to meet a foe he couldn't vanquish.
He never has had to face the wrath of cyberspace, though. And that's of course where the first shots at the intrepid archaeologist's new film have been fired.

Reviews of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull began cropping up on the Internet late last week, leaving Paramount Pictures and tight-lipped director Steven Spielberg pleading with reviewers to not spoil key plot points of the franchise's fourth installment. It arrives May 22.

The movie isn't scheduled to be publicly seen until Sunday, at its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. But studio and theater-owner screenings have opened the door to anonymous online posts.

And so far, the reviews have been mixed. Some have appeared on aintitcoolnews.com, including one that opines that the movie suffers from predictable plot points and cheesy special effects.

Others are more merciful. Another review on aintitcoolnews praises the film for action sequences that hark back to the franchise's origins in 1981.

Studio executives concede that online chatter can become an issue, particularly in summer, when films are geared to young males who love their action heroes almost as much as their personal computers.

"We're very sensitive to it," says Chris Aronson of 20th Century Fox, which had hits with the new Star Wars and Fantastic Four franchises despite some tough blog reviews.

Aronson says negative online reviews don't have an influence on the rabid fan base — even though they are the ones most eager to read and write the critiques.

"They're going to turn out regardless, to see what's been done with their favorite movies," he says.

Instead, he says, the effect can be felt with mainstream audiences.

"Our marketing might have to emphasize that online bloggers don't speak for everyone and that the movie delivers what audiences want," he says. "For (Fantastic Four), we emphasized it was a family-friendly movie, and it worked."

Paramount's Marvin Levy, who also is Spielberg's spokesman, says that the director wasn't upset at the tone of the reviews.

"I don't know that he has even seen them," Levy says. "He just doesn't want anything spoiled for fans. He wants people, even critics, to go into a theater and enjoy the surprises of his movies."

Levy says he doesn't expect the critiques to discourage fans.

"They know how special these movies are," he says. "Audiences are going to want to see for themselves. They don't pay as much attention to all the Internet noise as we do."

Brandon Gray of Box Office Mojo says any reviews, even negative ones, could help it.

"It will just build more awareness of the picture," Gray says. "Even if the reviews are bad, you've got people talking, which is what you want when you're selling a movie."