The NOT Indiana Jones Collection

The late 90s-early 2000s were an interesting time. We already got a Star Wars revival in the prequels, and so I feel that there was this Indiana Jones void waiting to be filled. The world was ready for another classic feeling adventure movie. And so we got what I call "The NOT Indiana Jones Collection." A series of mostly unrelated movies that attempted to recapture that Indy/adventure serial energy.

The pandemic has been a weird time and I've found myself rewatching and revisiting a lot of not so good media. And one such era I kept coming back to was this awkward era in the early 2000s where Hollywood seemed to think we wanted an Indiana Jones rip off.

The Mummy (1999)

So starting off with the Brendan Frasier Mummy, it's kind of funny because Frasier's character is kinda like Indiana Jones if he was somehow more American. There's even a moment in the second one where he comes in contact with a snake, and just throws it like it's nothing. The first film is basically a treasure hunt that turns into a monster movie halfway through. I think the movie slows down a little part way through the second act, but once they get back to the tomb it picks up again. Some of the effects are a little dated but most of them are not that bad for the time. Overall, it's a really fun adventure movie with memorable characters and exciting action.

The Mummy Returns (2001) & The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (2008)

Both sequels are bad, but I think I enjoyed Tomb of the Dragon Jet Li more because it’s slightly more stupid. They randomly visit Uncharted 2 for some reason where these yetis show up and hit a field goal. It's bonkers. But surprisingly, I think the third one actually attempts to be more of a real movie than the second one, which is just kinda like “it happened again?!” They even do more with Brendan Frasier's son where they have this arc about them being estranged and then they grow closer together over the corse of the movie. They even fuse this magic dagger together in the final bosses heart because, symbolism. It's cheesy and pretty stupid, but at least they tried. The second movie they just fight the same mummy again for two hours and then The Rock shows up at the end for like a minute. It's weird because there is this whole cultish organization trying to resurrect the mummy, and it's like, why haven't we heard about them before? In the first movie, it was by accident that the mummy showed up. There's a lot of retcon-ing and destiny in this one that is pretty week overall. It's also weird that Brendan Frasier's son is British in the second movie but American in the third, and they couldn't even get Rachel Weisz back to reprise her role, so the fact that they kind of try to keep up the continuity of the series at all is very strange.

Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001)

Again, the first movie is probably better because it attempts to tell more of a story. Funny how that tends to improve your movie. Lara goes up against the Illuminati, to find some kind of time thingy in order to find her long lost father, played by her real life father Jon Voight. (Insert fan theory about how Lara Croft is related to Nick Cage in National Treasure, as they both have a father played by Jon Voight) It's not ground breaking, but at least it gives her some motivation. The movie is pretty cheesy but it's just self aware enough to be a really fun time. Angelina Jolie is really charismatic in the role, and does a lot of her own stunts which helps to make the action really entertaining. I do think it's a little weird that she doesn't really get to shoot anyone the whole movie despite her main weapon being duel handguns.

But in the second movie, TWOmb Raider: Cradle of Life (2003) she punches a shark, and rides it through the ocean. So it's a pretty close call on which one is better. There's also some weird tree monsters towards the end of the second one, which is pretty fun. But Gerard Butler is kinda boring and not as interesting as Daniel Craig from the first one, even if Craig does have a weird American accent. Both movies loose some points for not having any dinosaurs. And I didn't see the new one because it looked like it took itself too seriously.

National Treasure (2004)

The first one is probably a better movie, as Sean Bean is the superior villain. He actually solves a lot of the clues himself and is a legitimate threat. Plus, the declaration heist is great, problem is, it happens really early on, so the movie kinda blows its load early and never really gets as good.

Unlike the second film, Nash Trej: Book of Secrets (2007), which escalates in its craziness overtime. It has a better structure than the first, despite being more stupider. The main plot of 2 is that Nicolas Cage has to prove that his great grandfather didn't kill Abraham Lincoln by kidnapping the president and discovering the lost city of gold. What does discovering the lost city of gold have to do with clearing his great grandfather's name? I have absolutely no idea, and I just watched the movie. Other than that, the second movie is pretty much another case of "it happened again!?" But Nicolas Cage is so charismatic and fun to watch that he makes these films a good time. Still got my fingers crossed for National Treasure 3: Search for Atlantis.

Now these series are fun, and definitely a good time if you're drunk, but obviously don't compare to the original trilogy of Indiana Jones. But there is one series that has come extremely close to recapturing that magic, and that is of course:

Uncharted

The first game is a little clunky, but a good set up to the series. We get to meet all the characters and learn their main dynamics. I also really like the zombie twist because it is really goofy and fun.

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is overall better and more polished, but I found myself more frustrated in the linearity of what I was allowed to do in the game, and I felt like more of an idiot when I couldn’t figure something out. Like there’s this light puzzle where you have to climb this big sword thing and point these mirrors in a certain way. Immediately, my Zelda brain kicked in, and I started looking around the room and trying to figure out how the whole puzzle worked and where I would need to reflect the light. But the game wouldn’t even let me go back to areas I had already been and I just got confused and frustrated. Eventually, I figured out that you just have to climb up the middle sword thing again. It’s not even a puzzle really, you just have to go to certain parts of the room in a certain order. See the Uncharted series is pretty linear, which is fine, because they are telling a specific story. But where the first game was very clearly linear, Uncharted 2 had the illusion of non-linearity. There's more open spaces, more complicated puzzles, and more options and variety in the combat. But because of this illusion of freedom, I felt more disappointed in the things I couldn't do and the places I couldn't go. Maybe it’s my fault for trying to apply Zelda logic to an Uncharted game, but I felt a lot more frustrated a lot more often in this one.

Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception. I don’t know if I just got used to this series by this point, or if the game was just that much more polished, but overall I enjoyed this one a lot more than 2. Although, I don’t remember as much about the story. I like all the stuff with Sully, and Nate's backstory, but the stuff with Elena feels like a retread of 2, along with yet another lost city that gets destroyed by the end. The first 2 games also had weird supernatural stuff towards the end, which makes them more goofy and fun in my book. Uncharted 1 & 2 also had these super hard and frustrating final boss fights, which although, yeah, are super annoying and kinda suck at times, but because of how hard they are, they end up being more memorable than the quicktime event ending of Uncharted 3. So overall not bad, but it also retreads some stuff and is not as memorable of a story as the first 2 games.

Uncharted 4: A Thief's End is really good so far. I haven't finished it yet so I can't say too much, but obviously it's a big step up from the first 3 technically, and I've really enjoyed what I've played so far.

The Uncharted series manages to recapture the fun and excitement of Indiana Jones while still having its own identity with memorable characters and stories to tell. And although we got some awkward rip-offs in the early 2000s, I'm glad that we eventually did get a franchise that is a true spiritual successor to our boy Indy.