New 'Indiana Jones' TV Spot!

Check out a brand new wonderful-looking Quicktime TV spot for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. (There's also a chintzy flash version here, if that's your thing.) It's snappier than the trailer we got earlier in the month, with the humor excised to make room for the action (they cut away just before our hero crashes ass-first into the windshield of that truck). There's also more Shia LaBoeuf and Cate Blanchett, plenty of those absurd off-road vehicles they drive, and a stronger classic Indiana Jones feel -- I love that sandtrap and retracting spiral staircase.

I actually quite admire Paramount's marketing of their big summer tentpole: it's been funny, classy, and appropriately reverent of the beloved franchise. They're clearly confident about the film's box-office prospects, as evidenced by the fact that we didn't get a trailer until just over two months before release, and this seems to have led to an advertising campaign that's more relaxed and less overbearing than we're used to. There's only a bit of new footage in this spot, but it's exciting, and its tone recalls the series at its best. Those eager to devour every scrap the studio throws us before May 22nd -- and I know there are plenty of you -- ought to check it out.