Indiana Jones meets The Tuxedo — 3 years ago
The Librarian is about a man who has dedicated his entire life to learning as much as he can. After a strange interview, the man is quickly thrust into the role of “The Librarian”, the keeper of the world’s treasures.
He is all book smarts and no street smarts, so when he has to retrieve the three parts of the Spear of Destiny, he soon finds himself a reluctant action hero. Luckily, he is helped by a woman who’s sole job as she puts it is to protect the librarian. She doesn’t give time for second thoughts, so The Librarian is often literally pushed from heights to escape their pursuers, who also seek the spear that punctured the side of Jesus Christ.
This leads to several jokes from a woman in the pursuing party about how fearless the new librarian is. This aspect reminded me a lot of how people reacted to Jackie Chan’s clumsy character in the James Bond spoof, “The Tuxedo”. Just like in The Tuxedo though, the joke was funny once, but becomes tiresome with overuse.
“The Librarian” itself does have a bit of a James Bond feel to it, with Bob Newhart playing the library caretaker who sends “The Librarian” out on his missions. After the librarian thinks he has been double crossed, Bob Newhart appears on the television set in his hotel room to give him instructions on what to do next. It was executed a little strangely, and seemed to be a setup for a joke where people watching the TV when Bob Newhart talked to the librarian were not distracted in the slightest. This joke just didn’t work, much like the super librarian jokes throughout the movie.
The archeology aspects were more entertaining, although a lot of the traps seemed to be pulled right from Raiders of the Lost Ark. But, I did enjoy the artifact they were looking for. The Spear of Destiny is actually the reason that George Lucas wrote the plot of Raiders around the Nazis looking for religious artifacts. Adolf Hitler actually did go looking for the Spear of Destiny, and supposedly found it. It now resides in a museum in Germany. There was even going to be a video game by LucasArts that had Indiana Jones searching for the spear. This Indiana Jones story did end up as a comic book by Dark Horse Comics. For “The Librarian”, it is said that there are actually three parts to the spear, and the one in the German museum is only one part of the whole artifact.
The Spear’s powers are revealed late in the movie, have the potential to be quite impressive, and present a real moral dilemma to anyone wanting to wield those powers. I would have loved to see this explored further, but the powers were quickly revealed, only to be set aside for a battle against the librarian over control of the spear. I don’t mind battles in movies like this, but it seemed to come too fast, and then lasted a bit too long.
Overall I found the Librarian to be a fun movie, but a bit flawed. It seems the writers tried too hard to be funny, wanting it to be a spoof, rather than rely on the strength of the quest and the characters. When it is played as a straight movie, “The Librarian” is very enjoyable.
