I hope that title isn’t too long. It certainly isn’t much longer than the actual title of the latest Indiana Jones movie, which I hadn’t planned on writing about today considering I seem to be one of only four people who didn’t attend a press screening yesterday (I’ll be seeing the film with a real audience sometime after it opens this Thursday). However, there doesn’t appear to be much else in the news today, and anyway I find it interesting how suddenly the film seems to have terrible buzz even though most of the reviews out of Cannes and the U.S. screenings have been relatively positive.

Currently its Rotten Tomatoes rating is a respectable 74%, but as I looked through a number of headlines and review titles last night and this morning, all I could notice were phrases like “mixed reviews,” “positively polite response,” “loved and lashed,” “generally pleased,” “Indiana Jones and the Savage Reviews,” and “good enough.” Of course, some of these aren’t actually negative, but in their lack of excitable wording they seem underwhelming enough to be a part of a backlash anchored on the consensus that Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is merely OK.

Today, it’s becoming even more clear that many of the positive reviews could indeed be more polite than honest. Perhaps the critics are feeling a need to be careful with the beloved franchise, or else they didn’t believe their actual experience with or reaction to the film. Looking at the live-blogged review from Eric Kohn at indiewire and the instant message correspondence between Defamer’s Stu Van Airsdale and Seth Abramovitch, the atmosphere during actual screenings was a bit awkward, and a number of major critics were downright bored and disappointed.

And looking back over some of the major critics’ reviews, this politeness is quite noticeable. Most of the first paragraphs of these reviews, even from those who recommend the movie, include a giant, buzz-crushing “BUT.” Either they start off talking about how great it is to have Indy back on the big screen and then say, “BUT it’s ultimately a mess,” or they begin with negativity and eventually counter with, “BUT it’s nevertheless a worthwhile movie.” Both approaches are equally unfavorable, as any reader is likely to fixate on the negative language, particularly in terms of personal hype and anticipation. Already, I’m thinking I can probably wait an extra week before seeing the movie. It suddenly seems prematurely passé.

Sure, sure, the few negative reviews (and even the many positive reviews, most of which feature some form of negativity) won’t matter to the moviegoers and so therefore won’t affect the box office gross, which will still be enormous. But still, it’s like the media wants to burn the film just so it has an interesting angle. I guess it puts things into perspective. Those of us who might have been hoping for the best summer movie of all time are now expecting something familiar and entertaining, but not necessarily great. Which is pretty much what we should expect from an Indiana Jones movie anyway.