Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

[Silvertone]

Well, he's back! It's 1957 and Indy is 65 years old...at least that's what Ford is...looks like he'll be fightin' the Red Menace!

Maybe Stalin's mutant ape/men soldiers (http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-13482528,00.html)??? Eh, probably not. That's more Hellboy territory I guess, oh well, still crossing my fingers it's good.

Here's the website...

http://www.indianajones.com/site/index.html

[Costau D]

It's like Matlock, on steroids and crack.

[DanielC]

he looks soo old :[
But ill definitly go see it.

[Naomi Ningishzidda]

This movie reminded me of the huge crush I had on Indiana Jones and less consequently, Harrison Ford when I was a teenager.

Anyways I had a veggie burger for lunch as I was waiting for my car to get out of the shop, and as I was sipping out of a BK cup decorated with Harrison Ford's remarkably decent looking hatted self, I was...well it was awkward...

I don't know if I want to regularily drink out of cups decorated with guys I especially crush on. :\ then again, maybe I do...

Anyways im excited! crystal skulls, cute guys with whips and exploited cultures, whoo...

Anyone seen it yet? Not me, I'm going tomorrow :D

[Moai]

Just saw it. It was great fun. There was probably as much action and spectacle in the first fifteen minutes as in all three previous films combined. Well, maybe not as much action, but certainly as much spectacle. It's easily the most over the top Indiana Jones film. It paid homage to previous films and was in many ways a classic Indiana Jones adventure, but it also went in some new directions, some of which I'm not too sure about.

Probable spoilers from here onward. I tried to make it harder to accidentally read.

The bomb test scene was absolutely thrilling. Best depiction of a nuclear explosion I've ever seen in a movie.

Though I'm a science fiction fan, I find myself unsure of the alien/interdimensional being aspect of the plot. It just feels a bit too out there for Indiana Jones.

Though their crystal skeletons looked awesome, the aliens/beings themselves looked lame. They're the same gray alien-type entities that have been done a billion times before. Plus their flesh is made of the same soft, transparent rubber as the zombies in I am Legend.

Several scenes that severely strained credulity: Indiana taking refuge from a nuclear blast in a refrigerator and getting tumbled over the countryside in said refrigerator, and coming out not really the worse for wear. Many scenes of a dozen people with automatic weapons firing at Indiana and friend from fairly close range, and none of the bullets hitting. The vine-swinging monkeys that help Mutt and then attack the Soviets. Going over three huge waterfalls without so much as a bruise. The giant ants from hell. All very enjoyable scenes, but they strained my suspension of disbelief.

The finale, though spectacular, was really a bit of an anticlimax. There was no struggle between Indiana and the villains, just spectacle. However, the villain being destroyed by the very power that they sought is classic Indiana Jones.

Shia LeBeouf was great as Mutt, Harrison Ford was great as an older Indiana Jones. In fact, pretty much everyone was great in their roles.

[kev ferrara]

Nobody who loves Indiana Jones will want to miss this. .

Having said that...

It was the most uneven film I have ever seen from Spielberg storytelling wise. And I can only rack that up to, for want of a better phrase, "The George Lucas Curse" which causes fun to shrivel and be replaced with "teaching that's good for kids" and "Let's use a cheesy CGI set up and not think about what's best for the actual storytelling for the movie." Furthermore, where were the memorable lines? "I like Ike" was just about the only great line. And further furthermore... Karen Allen and son of Indy... To coin a phrase, "shark jumpy."

On the other hand, I loved whole swaths of the film and I thought the idea was great fun. And Harrison Ford was still great even without any great lines. Loved the opening scene, loved the scene in the tent with Indy staring into the Crystal Skull, loved the use of the snake as a rope... Spielberg still amazing even with the Lucas Curse. Top notch special effects and stunts.

This could have been such a great addition to the Indy films. But wasn't, even though I'm glad to have had this at all.

[Nam]

since when does Indiana Jones have aliens?...

[Naomi Ningishzidda]

I'm going to see it on Monday, instead, due to life...I'm glad to hear it was good, Moai. Although, even if you said it was terrible I'd probably still go watch it, Harrison Ford is definately in my top ten actors and actresses I love to watch (except in horror movies, he's terrible in those roles) the only other screenactors I prefer are Jeff Goldblum, Li Gong, or Vin Diesel.

(I know Vin Diesel is so stereotypical...but I loved his screen presence in Pitch Black - he has the greatest looking face)

edit:

ok also Owen Wilson and Ben Stiller.

[Samari]

I was very disappointed with the outcome of this film. The plot wasn't bad I guess...but I think they could have changed a few things that would have made it a lot better. Starting with the "tone" of the film.

[DavePalumbo]

ehhhhh... maybe it was because I was really looking forward to it, and maybe it was because I'd also heard lots of great things, but I was pretty disappointed. I have to say that after careful consideration, I personally rate it the worst of the series. For no other reason, it was just too ridiculous and somehow the special effects look worse than what they were doing almost 30 years ago. I had some problems with the major story points and nearly every character introduced (with the exception of Mutt really) was either too bland or too one dimensional. The villains didn't even really seem that scary or evil. Or dangerous. Or interesting even.

I liked alot of things about it too, don't get me wrong. Subtle nods to how Indy has become more like Henry Jones Sr. were always fun to see, and it did have some good old fashioned Indy chases and such, but overall I thought it was just too goofy and awkwardly cheesy. but hey, just my opinion :shrug:

[Jason Snair]

I had a lot of fun. I'm not sure how well it will sit after repeated viewings or down the years...but it was entertaining.

My only problem was with the ending, and the over use of cg...which has always been minimal in Indy movies. Well, I guess there was no cg back then...but Indy's world was always very real to me...even with all of the mystical elements thrown in. The overuse of cg, especially towards in the end, pulled me out of the movie.

I also think that the MacGuffin could have been a little bit more clear. (or simplified)

[AlexC]

I loved it
there were no dull moments, the CG didn't detract from the story line and the ending was great imo.
I didn't grow up with indiana jones, so I wonder whether those who did would have different attitudes about it.
Nonetheless worth seeing.

[Pav]

as a kid who grew up on Indy movies, I find this installment terrible, the same way as what they did to Alien and Predator franchises.
...and the crystal skull, which is apparently the greatest artifact in the universe, looks like a plastic Halloween toy, you'll find in dollar store.
What's up with glow filter?

P.S. but hey, it was still entertaining as hell :)

[SparkplugCreations]

I loved the transformation of Indy's character. <spoiler>To show that he cared more about his girl than the Crystal Skull when it was missing in the water.</spoiler>

[Mirana]

Anybody who thinks Indy4 was too over-the-top, or out-there probably hasn't watched the other 3 recently...quite possibly since childhood.

Cheezy? Goofy? Ridiculous artifact/paranormal beings? Hello, welcome to IndyWorld. I mean...a golden box that melts people's faces if they have their eyes open, a man that can pull your still-beating heart from your chest and replace it with rocks, and a 500 yr old dude guarding a cup of immortality and cups of you-turn-to-ash-and-die? Yeaaaah.

Having done religious artifacts for so long, and then jumping to the 50s? The paranomal in this was the obvious way to go. And the film style, lack of CG for most of the movie, and cheese-factor were all done on purpose.

I loved it. Loved seeing Marion again (she was always my fav IndyGirl). The diner fight scene was my favorite. Also enjoyed the snake scene, bomb scene and the agruments over school.

I could have done without the monkeys, and wish Irina had #1 actually used her "psychic powers," instead of just the one bluff #2 Been a little more...threatening? She was sometimes, but then in other scenes she seemed to ignore common sense "these are prisoners and I probably shouldn't let them wander around too much."

Anybody seen the news article (http://www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/Movies/05/24/russia.indiana.jones.ap/index.html)about the Communist Russian Party complaining that Indy4 "distorts history." Really? Not historically accurate? :(

(Completely fucking nerdy and feel free to ignore, but the ants-that-devour and the my-biker-son-I-never-knew-about-from-first-girlfriend are both episodes in MacGyver.........)

[nonie]

Yeah I thought this movie was fun. Definitely didn't leave anything to ponder as I left the theater and my memories of the old ones are hazy at best so I'm no judge of whether it fits with the universe, but yeah, I expected it to pretty much be what it was.

[Jodo]

As a die-hard Indy fan, I thought it was brilliant. Yes, some of it was over the top, and some of it was WAY over the top (more so than the previous films) but I think it worked well in this case.

I don't know why people criticize the CGI. In my opinion the CGI was awesome (especially the climax). I was a bit iffy about the idea of aliens as the theme of an Indiana Jones movie but I think the pulled it off pretty well.

I don't think it would be fair to call it the "worst" of the series. It'd be better to say that the original 3 were better.

[0kelvin]

I really enjoyed it. It's far from the best Indy movie, but more importantly it felt like it actually fits in the series (unlike say, the Star Wars prequels).

It was more over-the-top than the others, but I get the feeling it was largely because a lot of the stuff they were able to do this time would have been impossible with the visual effects technology in the 80's.

What I found funny about the refrigerator in the atom bomb scene was that was actually the ending to the first draft of Back To The Future. Before it was a Delorean, the time machine was originally in a refrigerator, and instead of using a lightning bolt to power it, they used an atom bomb test. Spielberg must have been waiting twenty years to use that scene.

What is this, the third Spielberg movie that's ended with a UFO?


Eric

[sve]

What for did they fly Mutt's bike to Mexico or whatever place they flied to on the plane?
I liked the beginning a lot and didn't like Indiana mentioning that he was a spy for government all those years. Seems like out of character. He was not very fond of government in earlier series.
"Grab the snake", "grab the snake"..."can't do, say: grab the rope"... that was funny.
I liked Cate Blanchett.
Crystal skull looked terribly cheap IMO.

[Pav]

Crystal skull looked terribly cheap IMO.

Was it a marketing move, so kids would associate the cheap merchandise skull (from Burger King meal, etc.) with it's movie counterpart?

[Mirana]

The skull style did bug me from the beginning. I realize they were trying to find a way to make it without seems (and probably had it laser-cut at that), but the thing looked plastic with some irridescent plasticwrap stuffed inside (was probably more like irridescent melted plastic, but there ya go). I don't think the actors carried it with much weight either...and that thing would have been heeeeeavy.

[DavePalumbo]

Anybody who thinks Indy4 was too over-the-top, or out-there probably hasn't watched the other 3 recently...quite possibly since childhood.

I LOVE the first one and have watched all three, marathon style or otherwise, all within the past few months. I'm sure I've seen Raiders and Last Crusade each at least once a year for the past 15 years. This new one is just too A.D.D. To many things strain believability, are not necessary, or just flat out make no sense. The more I think and discuss it, the more I feel like it was just a huge failure. Another of the "character and story take backseat to (questionable) special effects" summer blockbuster series, which I never felt applied to the Indy films before. It definitely didn't add to my enjoyment of the series :shrug:

Then again, I'm having a hard time remembering the last Lucas or Spielberg movie that I didn't feel was a disappointment on some level...

[s.ketch]

I understand why the went with aliens. During the time that the stories of the first 3 movies took place, archeology and all that stuff was big. Egypt, mummies, crypts, hidden treasure, etc. Got it. And after Roswell, aliens and science fiction got big. So I don't really mind them taking that route, but I wish it wasn't so blatant. I wish they did the story so that the audience could never tell if there were really aliens or not. Instead of making me want to believe in something more, they just hand it over without forcing my brain to work. Even though the old movies show you magic, I think having lots of mystery would fit in with the alien theme.

[Grendel Grack]

As soon as the Paramount logo changed into a hill with a CG gopher coming out of it I knew this movie was doomed. They used that trick in the other three movies as well and it was clever, but this felt horribly contrived and that was just the first few seconds of the film.

I really enjoyed Harrison Ford's performance and I felt he responded well to the action sequences. But, as others have mentioned, the script did not make full use of Indiana's character.

The alien theme honestly didn't bother me, but the way that it was executed did. I think if this movie were made ten years ago, Spielberg and Lucas would not have gone completely bat-shit with the graphics and it would have been better because of it.

That said, some of the chase scenes were reminiscent of the first three films and I very much enjoyed those. It just wasn't enough to patch up the disjointed plot and lack of character development.

[Naomi Ningishzidda]

saw it

movie delivers

hot russians, atomic explosions, freaky aliens, angry natives, bugs and snakes and quicksand, man eating ants, extra dimensional portals, area 51, girlfriend reunions, indie gets married, what more do you people want?!!

anyone catch the atomic explosion-alien revival connection?

[Chingwa]

Sorry guys, I have to agree with Dave. This movie was not only the worst Indiana Jones movie (even worse than the second half of temple of doom?!) it's simply a horrible movie. There was nomystery at all... (following some crazy senile dude around the jungle as if he were a dog... "what is it boy? what do you got there?!"). so much was put into this for no reason... just for cutesy comic blah or visual spectacle. (ok, the groundhogs were kinda cute but they had no reason to be there... as did the atomic bomb test... and plenty of other stuff.)

Leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I admit there was some hokey things about the first three, even Raiders... but it worked. this didn't. Someone needs to sit George Lucas down and tell him to stop butchering his own life work. guy needs a permanant holiday from making movies.

[Naomi Ningishzidda]

God you're so bitter and jaded.:nohope:

[Chingwa]

Ah, well that's definitely a foible of mine...

but seriously, who could keep from being jaded when something that could be done so well is done so bad?

[Naomi Ningishzidda]

Ok, could you explain how it could have been done better? It seemed the same as any other Indiana Jones movie, I mean, with better special effects. :)

The aliens were pretty cool :D

[Chingwa]

well, to me, that's just the thing... better special effects does not necessarily equal more special effects. An Indiana Jones movie should be more based in reality (somewhat) than your normal run-of-the-mill early summer blockbuster. Indiana Jones is a real person, not a cartoon (well before this move he was... now he's a guy who can survive a nuclear blast by jumping in a fridge and getting thrown 2000 yards and simply be a little out of breath and slightly less confused than a prairie dog). The first 20 minutes of this film simply served to show you that no matter what, this character will not be effected in any significant way by what happens to him in this move. Talk about destroying any sense of drama/character involvement before you even get started....

It just seems most of the effects were put in just so you could have special effects in the movie.

What point did the following serve to either move the plot along, set the stage for character development or any other basic storytelling element:

Nuclear blast... tarzan monkey vines... disappearing staircases... giant flesh eating ants carry away an unfortunate russian into their giant flesh eating ant nest... 10+ CG vine crotch smacks... a good 5 minutes of watching Indy watch a bunch of rocks swirling around where you kind of see a spaceship behind them until it disappears and then watch the waterfall rush in and hide any evidence of a lost civilization.

Seriously... fancy CG effects a la King Kong do not make a good Indiana Jones film. This movie really should have been called National Treasure on Steriods... 'cause that's what it looked and felt like.

The characters had poor dialogue, all of them, and Marion had nothing of what made her interesting in the first movie... not to mention the ZERO chemistry between her and Indy. god it was like watching two people who hate each other and can't act pretend they can act and not hate each other.

But overall, I could have handled all of that ('cept the weirdo neutering of the Marion character) if the thing had actually been directed and written well. unfortunately it looked like spielberg was on auto pilot, Lucas was up to his latter-year-destroy-any-drama-with-a-misplaced-gag bag of tricks, and the writing probably outsourced to Mexico because of the writer's strike.

[shrug] maybe I'm being too harsh?

[jinxtigr]

The funny thing about Lucas is, if Alfred Hitchcock were alive he would bitchslap Lucas senseless for what he's become.

George Lucas's early work did great things by ACCIDENT, poised between trying to produce amazing spectacle and 'settling for' very simple, essential shots. Lucas could not DO the amount of FX he wanted. Instead of a wide shot of a bar of freaky aliens in the first movie, you had a series of reveals on different vignettes, and the effect was like Hitchcock's shower scene- you'd swear you saw the most amazing thing, when in fact you totally didn't.

Lucas totally blew this when he got the ability to do what he wanted. It's very like the sins ranted against by John Kricfalusi on his blog- there's places where he rails against backgrounds being uniformly filled with detail, and this is exactly Lucas's problem. He doesn't inherently have a sense of contrast. He wants everything uniformly filled with detail and has no sense of what he once did, manipulating the viewer until they think they saw visions and wonders- but they're filling in a lot with their own imaginations.

Lucas's imagination is okay, but it is a catastrophic mistake to force all of us to see WITH his eyes. Better we should be given his imagination, but in the original incomplete glancing way so we fill it in with ourselves.

[daestwen]

I liked it, I thought I was fun. It was a little kooky, but it wan't totally and completely off the ball. It didn't flow quite as well as the original ones though, I have to admit. The only thing that REALLY bothered me was that goddamned gopher. it was just so pointless! That and the ants out of no where (?). I think they could have done the whole thing without actually showing the alien at the end, and pulled it off really well, but knowing lucas, there's no way that could have happened.

As I said to my friends right after, a few of those shots felt like George was in the back going:

"OH MY GOD. We still have CG budget left?? MUST ADD GOPHER!!"

[kev ferrara]

Ok, could you explain how it could have been done better? It seemed the same as any other Indiana Jones movie, I mean, with better special effects. :)

The aliens were pretty cool :D

Here's my quick thoughts on how it should've been fixed...

1. Marion out. Family friendly shit out. This is supposed to be freewheeling swashbuckling. Indy should be out to save 1950s USA, not 2008 USA. Nobody wants to see Indy married, except apparently, the film makers. As the Old Hollywood adage had it, "If you want to send a message, call Western Union."

2. Funny adversarial relationship with Cate Blanchette's Soviet Dominatrix babe instead of Marion. In a bedroom with Blanchette... she should have tried to convince him of Utopian Communist ideology and "free love" etc. Sample Dialog: "We share everything" she says. He grabs her, holds her really close, "I don't like sharing," he says. She looks him devilishly in the eyes, "You capitalists are all the same... ownership." He grabs her waist, says "Das Kapital." and throws her on the bed. (etc. sorry for sexism, for those who are easily offended, but this is set in the 1950s.)

3. Should've been some "Mystic traveller" connection to figures like Gurdieff and Madame Blavatsky and others who explored the nether regions of Russian empire searching for spiritual enlightenment. Blanchette should have had a kind of creepy sidekick who hates Jones with all his heart and hates to see her and him falling for each other.

4. Funnier lines. Wittier lines. Wittier moments: There should've been an air raid siren while he was teaching class and all the kids hiding under the desk and him rolling his eyes at the stupidity. More comical weariness from Ford like "it's not the years, its the mileage." from Raiders. In fact the first shot of him, he should've been hunched over like an old man, shirt ripped like a beggar, only to stand up straight as an arrow as he gets pissed, demonstrating to the audience right from his first scene that he's ready to kick ass and he's still in shape to do it.

5. Some discussion of why the skull attracted gold... a scientist sidekick needed, essentially a Marcus type, but a scientist.

6. An actual gold city of Eldorado at the end of the picture might have been nice... especially if the gold was itself was the portal to another dimension somehow, like a golden stargate or something.

7. Ox was a stupid name for an old professor. Ox is the name of a linebacker, not a academician.

8. There should have been a figure from the Manhattan project tagging along as someone really smart for Indy to play off of. A David Bohm type character would have been perfect as someone looking for even more powerful sounces of energy than nuclear... someone with whom Indy could talk about Blanchette with as well as the Crystal skull.

9. First scene, nobody I saw it with believed the refrigerator saved him. When he realized the countdown was for a nuke test, He should have (with great sweat and struggle) loaded the refrigerator on a flatbed truck in the fake town, started the truck, started driving down main street as time counted down, secured the steering wheel with his belt, then climbed out of the cab of the speeding truck with the something stuck on the pedal to keep the truck going at some rapid breakneck clip, shimmies along the side holding onto his hat and climbs in back, and opens up the fridge just as the atom bomb goes off, throws out all the racks, and jumps in and closes the door just as the shockwave catches up... and then the shockwave hurtles the truck super fast out of the town and into the desert, where the truck flips and crashes, the fridge hurtles from the flatbed, the truck hits a boulder and explodes.... and the fridge breaks open tossing out a bloodied but safe Indy.

10. No gofers. No vine swinging.

11. It made no sense that the whole opening is about Communist inflitration of a US army base and then in the interrogation afterward Indy complains about McCarthyism. The interrogation scene should have been a serious film noir CIA debriefing thing with chain smoking agents trying to "get it out of him." One of the agents asks "Are you now, or have you ever been a communist." Indy replies stuff like, "Its just sunburn pal, I'm not a red." Then he gets rescued by a hot female CIA secret agent chick who knows him.

I could go on... :)

anyhow
kev

[WhizBang]

Cate Blanchette kept on reminding me of Natasha from Rocky & Bullwinkle.

"Da. Ve must keel Moose & Squirrel!"

[Dorkthrone]

I thought it was a pretty fun movie. Did it have its ridiculous moments? Of course. In fact, the fridge-nuking scene may spawn a new variation of the term jumping the shark. But I had lots of fun watching it. So glad it didn't turn out to be another Episode I.

[WhizBang]

I thought it was a pretty fun movie. Did it have its ridiculous moments? Of course. In fact, the fridge-nuking scene may spawn a new variation of the term jumping the shark. But I had lots of fun watching it. So glad it didn't turn out to be another Episode I.

AMEN to that.:anime:

[Naomi Ningishzidda]

I know how the next movie ends...Indy dies of radiation poisoning...

:(

[Saturns Gate]

I thought it was a good movie to see, not an awesome movie, but worth watching.

The main highlights for me were the nuclear test scene, WOW that literally blew me away. *SPOILER* and the ending part where the alien ship came out of the ground was pretty damn cool. :)

What I dont like in a lot of reviews lately is the fact that people have to dig on the CGI even though it was bloody great! Indy diddent really have that much CGI in it, and what was there was great to me, its like if the movie wasent up to expectations, it MUST have been the CGI that made it that way, pfft!

There even doing it for the new incredible Hulk movie which imo looks great CGI wise. I remember when in the old days people were satisfied with stop motion clay puppets which hardly looked real. If people cant lose themselves in todays movies because the CGI doesont look spot on perfect in a couple of scenes I dont know whats going on.

[talbot]

Here is a link to a review of Frank Darabont's proposed draft of the movie. Sounds A LOT better than what Lucas and Co. went with - mainly no Mutt character.

http://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/686188/Review_Darabonts_Indiana_Jones_IV.html#readmore

[Dave310]

this movie was great

[Samurai_em]

@jinxtigr: Very well said.

@kev ferrara: That was pretty awesome. I think your version would have been much better.

I loved this movie, and it reminded me that I didn't really like Temple of Doom, but I still thought it was good.

What bothered me about this movie was, as kev ferrara mentioned, NO BEDROOM SCENE WITH BLANCHETTE wtf!?

But seriously it didn't follow the usual Indy pacing. It felt like there was an act somewhere in the middle that was missing. I loved all the CGI, but the ending didn't have as much impact on me as I think it should have. there needed to be some scene where the Alien acknowledges Indy, gives him some vision or piece of wisdom, then turns on the bad guys as the good guys run out.

I kind of hope that they don't do an Indy spin-off with Mutt, as much as I like Shia Labeouf. I don't want to see an old senile Indy, playing the Sean Connery role to an older Labeouf. And after seeing what Lucas does with prequels I hope they leave this at 4 films and no more. An animated Series with the technology of the new clone wars one set after the 3rd one or before the 3rd one might be pretty good though.

[Silvertone]

Pretty good, I probably set my expectations too high for it though. It definitely had it's moments though, (good and baaaad).

I couldn't believe how bad that skull looked. I kept thinking, why is there a bunch of wadded up aluminum foil in that see thru skull balloon??

And I was hoping that somehow, someway, there was going to be a scene with an old Indy punching out a young Fidel or "Che"...or both -

" I like Ike".. Great line!

[Zweit]

could you explain how it could have been done better?
Dialog: rewrite all of it, give characters some more... character? Remove all monkeys and/or vine swinging. Get rid of Mac--I swear I can't remember a single thing he did to advance the plot. He just sort of stood around while other characters did stuff and double/triple/quadruple-crossed them. Really a lot of extraneous characters throughout. Lose the Rubber Snake Rope.

There's a start.:[

God those Russians were patient. Indy must've escaped/betrayed them three or four times before they got to the Alien Uhaul.

[tomwaits4noman]

apparently the original Frank Darabont script linked here

http://www.cinematical.com/2008/06/11/did-darabonts-indiana-jones-script-leak-online/


I always dread the words written by George Lucus as sole credit to a movie, only worse is when its followed by the words "directed by George Lucus"