Page 1 of Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull what d`ya think thread. (Spoilers)

Seeing as there is no specific thread...

So what do you think?

It would take a hell of a film to coax me back into the multiplex after several years. It isn`t so much the five year old kids and incompetent projectionists as it is just dull movies and hacked to pieces theatrical cuts that only get completed on DVD.

But Indiana Jones would be the one film to tempt me back into the chewing gum smeared seating.

I loved it!

It wasn`t so much Harrison Ford`s age that had me worried, as it was George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. Lucas of late has been, well, Star Wars Prequels, and Spielberg while still a technically amazing director I feel has lost his magic and spontaneity.

He`s got it back for Crystal Skull, and Lucas delivers a story which entertains without becoming bloated. It`s good old fashioned popcorn chewing entertainment, the stunts are great, whips are cracked and it`s scary and exciting and funny in all the right places.

It`s better than Temple Of Doom, if you are compiling a list. It`s not as goofy as Last Crusade, but for me Indy works best when he`s fighting Nazis and going after biblical relics. Neither were in TOD, and neither are here. And you could have had Nazis, after all, didn`t most of them escape to South America where they settled and prospered and goosestepped into retirement? There are a couple of moments that step over the line from thrilling into just plain daft, although they`ll probably be different for different people. I know I enjoyed one scene that was labelled as lame in a newspaper review. Some of the supporting cast get thin roles, and the communists just about fill the bad guy jackboots. There are some wonderful callbacks to the earlier films, some really quite subtle, some less so. There`s a motorbike sequence that calls back to the motorcycle sidecar sequence in Last Crusade that I loved, and it`s all done with looks. Awesome!

As for `Mutt` Williams as the bearer of the legacy. Naah. He`s a good sidekick, a great sidekick and there were some choice moments between him and Jones, but he hasn`t the shoulders to carry a whole film.

Most people would have refamiliarised themself with the first three films. I didn`t. I had the good luck to watch The Mysterious Cities of Gold. I`d had the mythology refreshed and I went in with equal amounts of anticipation and dread. I needn`t have dreaded. Now to make a gap in the DVD shelf... :D

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Jitendar Canth

Quote:
"I thought what I`d do was, I`d pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes."

My Top 20 movies at YMDB
Site Reviewer at DVD Reviewer & MyReviewer

This item was edited on Saturday, 24th May 2008, 10:31

I`m going to see it at 16:30, so I`ll let you know then. Have to wait for the Mrs to get home before I can go.

It`s the one film this year that could coax me back to the cinema, and you know how I feel about cinemas these days.

However, before I`d venture down to my local Odeon, I`d need my shots and the company of a couple of heavily-armed bodyguards...

On the other hand, I`m salivating waiting for the Blu-ray.

J Mark Oates

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Every man, woman and child on the planet Earth
is outnumbered by a ratio of 62:1 by Lego bricks
and that number goes up by two every year.

This item was edited on Thursday, 22nd May 2008, 15:57

Didn`t read your full review Jits, for fear of spoilers. But I`m glad that you enjoyed it, mainly because you`re someone whose word I can trust on this type of thing, unlike AICN talkbackers. Can`t wait to see it!

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"Why should YOU go to jail for a crime someone else noticed?" - Bob Loblaw
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I`ll wait for a decent Cam version ;)

Saw it this morning after having read very little of the press surrounding it so I had little idea what to expect. I have to say it was kind of brilliant and kind of awful in equal measures. I did enjoy it overall but it really does take suspension of disbelief to a new level...

SPOILER:
The killer ants were cool but what the hell were those CG prairie dog things about?? Sure, the opening Paramount logo gag was nice but did we really need to see them again? I liked the whole nuclear thing at the start - really nice, but once we got into the jungle the CG went waaaayyyyy down hill. I mean that Shia Leboeuf standing between the two cars, then Tarzaning through the trees was just plain bad.

I didn`t mind the whole Roswell/alien thang - the finale was pretty darned spectacular if a tad OTT even for an Indy film. Karen Allen and John Hurt were wasted - they had little to do.

I think overall if you enjoyed the original trilogy you`ll find more than enough to entertain in this movie - I was expecting worse!

Saw it. Good, but it felt like it could have been anyone in the role. All a bit too fantastical for an Indy film, which have previously managed to stay just on the right side of that sort of thing. Some nice in-jokes though. Watch out for lots of nods to Raiders, a few Star Wars references (including a sound effect in the first few minutes) and a unique Wilhelm scream. Could tell Ben Burt was back for this one. I still think it`s the weakest of the series, and it really missed Brody and Sallah (although one of them was unavoidable). Supporting cast could have been given more to do and the central villain was lame. Still, much better than I thought it would be.

I think Shia might be trying out for the new Spider-Man film though ;)

Quote:
All a bit too fantastical for an Indy film, which have previously managed to stay just on the right side of that sort of thing

Temple of Doom much? Brainwashing Kali cult, voodoo dolls, Shaman ripping hearts out of his victims, which continue beating while they`re lowered into boiling hot lava (Counting no. of volcanos in India = 0) Chilled Monkey Brains...

Although I can see where you`re coming from, going from supernatural fantasy to sci-fi does take the series out of its comfort zone. Thinking back on it, while I enjoyed it, I`m having a hard time coming up with too many `moments` as per the DVDActive article.

===========================
Jitendar Canth

Quote:
"I thought what I`d do was, I`d pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes."

My Top 20 movies at YMDB
Site Reviewer at DVD Reviewer & MyReviewer

I was referring to the execution rather than the idea. Indy was doing stuff in his 60s in this film that he`d have had a hard time doing in his prime. I think the biggest example is:

SPOILER:
Surviving a nuclear blast by hiding in a fridge, even after it gets thrown hundreds of feet (or further).

I was also slightly pulled out of the moment when:

SPOILER:
Jim Robinson and the janitor from Scrubs showed up! :D

Like you say, out of his comfort zone. I can see why they took so long refining the story. It`s not pure Indy. I guess they al just thought `what the hell, we`re not getting any younger`. It`s a nice send-off and a decent romp, but for me the Indy movies are of a specific time, and that time was twenty years ago.Probably in my top five or six for the year so far though.

What spoiled it for me were the numbers of under-twelves in the audience. Parents need a good talking to. There was a family behind us with a boy and a girl who must have been 6/7 tops. Apart from talking and constantly going to the toilet, the girl kept saying she was scared all the time.

This item was edited on Thursday, 22nd May 2008, 20:22

Lol at the second spoiler. JR is Hollywood`s go to guy for random authority figure, he`s in everything... :D

SPOILER:
The Fridge and The Tarzan sequence hit my WTF buttons, wasn`t too keen on the CGI ants and the prairie dogs (Indy`s Ewoks or Jawas) but the quicksand and the snake were pure genius

Agree about an audience being able to kill a movie. I had a horrible experience in a multiplex full of scum teens for Goldeneye, and I`ve hated that movie ever since.

===========================
Jitendar Canth

Quote:
"I thought what I`d do was, I`d pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes."

My Top 20 movies at YMDB
Site Reviewer at DVD Reviewer & MyReviewer