77% - 20 Fresh, 6 Rotten.

IJATKOTCS just shot up to 80% on rt.com. Interesting.

I liked it a lot.

I had enough fun while watching it but it isn't good enough (and there are several actively bad things about it) that I don't ever need to see it again. CGI is way overused, Shia LeBeouf doesn't have what it takes to be Indy: The Next Generation, and the "Crystal Skulls" part of the movie is poorly executed and doesn't really make a lick of sense. However, Harrison Ford still has a lot of charisma as Indy, mixed in with the bad CGI are several very amusing action moments, and the movie contains what may be Harrison Ford's best 2 seconds of acting ever committed to screen.

I have a new least-favorite Indy movie.

For me, ToD gets the crown for Lease Favorite. But I could see how someone could loathe this film. I really liked it. I didn't love it, but I liked it.

:D :D :D :) :D :) :D :snap: :cheers: :snap: :D

One of the reasons I liked this movie so much is that I cut it a lot of slack. It was nice catching up with Indiana Jones and seeing where he is 19 years later. And I have been curious about this film for about 2 years now. But event though I like the character so much and have a huge love for Raiders of the Lost Ark, I can't say that I have the same love for Crystal Skull.
And after thinking about how I would rank the four movies, I'd have to say I'd rank Raiders as first, Skull and Crusade in a tie for second and Temple last. (I consider Raiders to be Spielberg's best film.)
There are a couple of things that you have to get used to in this film from the very beginning:
1. Harrison Ford is old. So is Indy. It took me a bit of getting used to seeing him gray. But I am glad they didn't dye his hair and try to convince us he looked the same since Crusade. Indy makes a good crusty old man.
2. Cate Blanchett's accent. I love her but I kept hearing Natasha from Rocky & Bullwinkle. But after awhile, you get used to it.
I found the beginning to be slow. Too much of the racing scene and too much talking in the warehouse. But thank god we didn't have to sit through Spielberg's version of a Busby Berkley number for the first five minutes. There is a wink to the first movie during this scene and it's right there in your face, no avoiding it.
Indy has a new sidekick but I didn't care about him at all throughout the movie. What a waste of a part. It could have gone to some cool comedian but it didn't and could have been removed from the movie altogether.
Personally, I hated the scene where Indy is walking through a nuclear testing site. I mean they set up mannequins to represent real people, but having these dummies watching Howdy Doody on a TV? How did the government pull that off and why would they do that? To see if TV's survive nuclear blasts? The mushroom cloud? Too much. Too much.
From there, stuff happens (including homages to Denholm Elliott and Sean Connery - that kinda pulled at my heartstrings) and we get introduced to Shia LaBouf's character, Mutt. Spielberg does his damned best to compare him to Marlon Brando, but far from Brando LaBouf is... I didn't buy Mutt's toughness. And there were a couple of times I wanted to see Indy punch him in the nose... Mutt combs his hair, that means he's cool. Meh. We see Mutt's soft side in a scene, but I didn't care enough about him to feel his grief.
Motorcycle chase scene was okay, but something occurs that Spielberg does that pisses me off. He takes things one step beyond believable. Indy being saved by Marcus Brody's statue is funny when the car runs into it. But the head falling off and hitting the driver in the crotch is the step too far that I mentioned. Yuck. The scene in the library was hysterical. I liked that.
I'll skip to the graveyard scene. I liked it a lot. A lot of fun action and fight sequences. But nothing that stuck out as memorable to me. We see the skull and right off I say to myself - aliens. And that made me cringe. How was Spielberg gonna pull that off? Not sure and I don't think he ever does pull it off.
Stuff happens and Indy and Mutt get captured. Cate Blanchett gets to shine here but the character's belief in the supernatural was hard to swallow for me. She's so calculating and precise (she and her clothes look perfect throughout the film) it seems like someone like her would laugh at things not explained as fact.
We get re-introduced to Marion again and her appearance is welcomed. And get used to Marion smiling because she does a lot of it through the movie and it seemed kinda hokey. Marion got a dose of the same treatment Sallah and Marcus got in the 3rd movie. She was turned into just a sidekick with not a whole lot to say.
There's also Ox played by John Hurt who is vital to the plot (is there one?) but he was a forgettable character.
I will agree with Alex that the scene where they meet again is good.
There's a quicksand scene and a revelation that Indy is Mutt's father. Too bad we didn't get to like him all that much. There's a funny scene with quicksand and a snake that made me laugh.
On a side note, one of the things I hate about parts 2-4 is that they are lit too brightly and things (sets, costumes, props etc) are too perfect and clean. I don't know how to express myself clearly on that one, but Raiders used a lot of shadow and existing light in scenes. It made the Indy world more believable.
More stuff happens and we get a jeep chase through the woods that is half awesome, half stupid.
Again, sword fight between Mutt and Blanchett is cool. Sword fight between Mutt and Blanchett while Mutt straddles the two vehicles? Bleh. One step to far, Stevie. And then there's this absolutely ridiculously stupid Tarzan scene involving Mutt. WTF? Lame.
The characters encounter giant fire ants that consume a couple of bad guys. The special effect of the ants is great, but I thought it was kind of hokey. Seeing a guy being eaten alive - cool! Seeing him being dragged to the anthill with lightning speed and mega-strength on the ants part - lame! Eating someone alive should have been the stopping point with the ants.
And then comes the part I despised. What I liked about the first movie was that a lot of the things that happened could happen in real life. Yeah, the magic ark melting people couldn't happen... but it was one of the only times when you had to suspend your disbelief and that's fine. With Skull, you had to do it a lot.
Marion drives off a cliff and the boat/car that they are in careens off of three (two? I forget) waterfalls and everyone is fine after all that. In fact, after one fall of a 100 foot waterfall, everyone's still in the boat. I shook my head at that. Lame.
Attacking natives, yaddah yaddah...
From there, the sequences up until the big reveal I loved. The giant temple at the beginning and how it all worked and moved was classic Indy-ness. Good stuff. (But again, lit too brightly.)
The big reveal: the temple houses a giant spaceship and there are aliens.
That's where the movie went CGI crazy. There was too much of it and it left me feeling meh about the climax. Which is not good.
The Jones Family is finally together and everyone's happy.
Indy married Marion at the end and all is well.
Does the torch get passed to Mutt? Almost, but no. I actually liked that part a lot. Nice try, dinglecheese, start your own series of adventure movies.

I liked the movie but I didn't really love it. And nothing in it made me cheer. Other people in the audience did, but not me.
I would have liked to see a harder Marion like we saw in the first one. Less smiling.
I would have liked to see more grit in this film. More grain, less shiny happy locations and lighting.

But a big thing that would have helped this movie and franchise out was that it deserved the Casino Royale/Batman Begins style treatment. I think if they took it a step away from a campy cartoon-like and to a more serious and (again) gritty feel, it would have been cool to see. Set up Mutt for a more realistic documentary hand-held type romp for his movies which follow. (If they follow.)

The more I think about this movie, the more I don't like it.
But I was entertained and I did laugh at certain places. And I really do love happy endings.

3 stars out of 5 for me.*

*Subject to change after I see it again tonight and on Saturday. :D

1. I don't mind that Harrison Ford is older, or that Indy is portrayed as older. Therefore, setting the movie in 1957 and making the baddies Russian was fine by me. However, Russians murdering a large number of American soldiers on a military base? And no visible repercussions other than the FBI putting pressure on Indy. Please.

2. Indy's hiding in the fridge to escape an atomic blast? Clever. The CGI of said fridge flying hundreds of feet through the air and crashing to the earth without injuring Indy? Stupid.

3. Shia Labeouf as the Wild One made me laugh until I realized that Spielberg wasn't playing him as silly. Everyone should have been laughing at him.

4. The big chase scene and INDY RIDES BITCH? (excuse the horrible sexist slang)

5. The skull was a really obvious telegraph to the Alien climax. Well, that and the fact that the opening sequence involved a recovery of an alien's body. Which makes me wonder...

6. Why did the typical opening MacGuffin have to deviate so far from the original series' concept. Too much real information going on here...

7. How can iSm question the inflatable raft scene in ToD and not have major problems with the 3 waterfalls? Or the baddies car landing on top of the good guys? Or the tarzan scene? Or any of the other ridiculous cartoon-like escapes that are clearly based on CGI and not brilliant stunts?

8. Was there a plot? What was the real goal of the story? For Indy to vindicate himself? That's implied, for sure, but he doesn't seem to be anything more than mildly annoyed that he's been put under scrutiny by the FBI and fired from his job. To save Ox? Unlike saving his dad in Last Crusade, there's not any real reason why Indy would need to go on a rescue mission. For a series that's based on a bunch of setpieces strung together, there's not a lot of stringing going on.

9. The climax was more X-Files than anything else. Indy's typical "It's just a story" line, delivered in the first act is as silly as ever (since he's seen so much supernatural stuff go down in the first 3 flicks he should know better). Is he Mulder or Scully? He's Muldy.

10. I know this is a continuation of the last point - but what did we see happen in the climax? The alien crystal skeletons fused together in some interdimensional thingie and then the flesh and blood interdimensional being gave an angry(?) look at the funny Commie lady and burned her eyes and brain? How come?

OK... I know I have more... but those are some of the biggies.

On the plus side, the action sequences were fun. Harrison Ford was cool as ever. Karen Allen was welcome, not only for her character, but for the fact that once she came into the movie, Shia's lines were dramatically decreased.

I'm looking forward to the next movie, which I hope will be titled: "Indy 5: Old Man With a Hat".

One thing I liked -- and by liked I mean "thought was stupidly ill considered -- was that in the jungle the Russians have this giant machine that is cutting a path through the jungle for them. The first thing Indy does when catching up to them is disable that giant machine. Then they go on a multiple mile car chase through the jungle. Apparently that giant jungle eating machine was completely unnecessary and someone at ILM had said "hey, I bought this giant bandsaw machine animation in a clip art package from the sale table at Office Max, is it ok if I use it?"

The Tarzan was extremely stupid.

Yes, the waterfall was bad. Yes, the one car landing on top of the other was bad. But how about the car landing on the tree so that it can be gently deposited in the river and then the tree whipsawing back to slap Russians off the cliff face? How awful was that?

I loved the motorcycle chase through the UofC campus. That was the closest the movie ever came to establishing Mutt as an heir and showing Indy's graceful aging. He was still actively involved but not completely in charge.

I loved the opening up until the refridgerator and then standing on the hilltop to watch the mushroom cloud.

I hate to typecast but the presence of the janitor from Scrubs was a distraction.

Poor, poor Ray Winstone. If he had to plaintively shout "Indy!" one more time I suspect he would have retired from filmmaking.

And what happened to the flying saucer? Did it fly away? I don't remember seeing that. And if it did fly away, did it leave a rainbow in its wake?

The tree cutting thing seemed to me to be a nod to Ford's support of the rainforests. Him destroying the machine that cuts down trees seemed to make it feel that way. But good point on them not really needing it... Ha ha.

Indy's ignorance of the fact that he has a son

The flying saucer went to another dimension, not outer space. They live between dimensions - whatever that means.

Here's something I was thinking about. (I'm daydreaming a lot today having had only 3 hours of sleep.) Wouldn't that snake have pulled apart because of Indy's weight? I only ask this because if I were directing it, I would find out. You know, in some humane way...
AND with a forest full of freakin' Tarzan vines, they couldn't find any vines to pull Indy out? Or didn't Mutt have a belt?

Crystal Skull has a solid 80% on rottentomatoes. That's pretty good.

Our company had an "offsite" meeting at Big Newport this morning.

I think I remember seeing "Mutt" on his jacket.

I liked the movie. At the beginning of the movie I didn't recognize Harrison Ford's voice. I believe it has changed somewhat since the last movies, which is understandable. I am amazed at Harrison Ford, if I read it correctly he is about 6 years older than Sean Connery when he played Indy's dad in the Last Crusade. I can only hope I look half that good when I get to be that age.

One comment that one character made in the movie really stood out for me. When Indy was looking at the pictures of all the people he had lost, his friend said something to the effect of "You are at that point where life quits giving you gifts and starts taking them away". That really hit home for me, I must be getting to be an old geezer.

I was just so happy to have another Indiana Jones movie to watch, I was revelling in the nostalgia, and willing to suspend any disbelief. I was entertained.

Does the Irina Spalko character remind you of Edna Mode (sans glasses)?

1. Yes, Indy is and old man. Older in fact than he would naturally be in 1957, which I understand is the last era they could possibly portray without Indy being absurd (well, more absurd). Indy’s age has always been all over the map. He didn’t look that much younger in Temple of Doom, purportedly taking place 2 years before Raiders of the Lost Ark. He looked way older in Last Crusade, supposedly just two years after Raiders.

For this one where he’s a good ten years older than his character is supposed to be ... well, I figure he’s aging a little faster than normal since he drank from the Holy Grail and then crossed the seal. If I recall the messed up mythos right, the Templar Twins were immortal till they left the cave after 150 years, but then aged rather rapidly. Or so it was sorta maybe implied.

As for the Ruskies ... I don’t know there were no repercussions for them having attacked a U.S. military base. Who says there were not? The movie was following Indy, not the U.S. authorities.


2. Yes, the fridge was clever and the unscathed survival in the flying fridge was crazy. (I loved the shot of Indy and the Mushroom Cloud though). I have long, long ago made my peace with CARTOON action in the Indy series. I don’t like it, but it’s been that way ever since Temple of Doom more than two decades ago. To bitch about it now is pointless. That’s what Indy IS. I prefer the Raiders style, but you either accept Cartoon Action or you don’t enjoy these movies. I decided to accept it. It allowed me to enjoy this film. There’s so much cartoon action, that you either get over that or don’t bother showing up.


3. Shia Labeouf was played enough for laughs for me. I wasn’t aghast in disbelief at him being a tough motorcycle 50's boy. Then again, though he is an appealing actor ... he didn’t light up the screen like Sean Connery or Short Round. Of course, those were much weaker films where the supporting character was the main saving grace. I’d personally rather have the better move with the weaker supporting character.


4. No problem here with "Gramps" riding Bitch. I thought it was one of the better action sequences in the film, and the old man as second fiddle in the action department was to be expected. Frankly, I wish they had stuck with that ... but Indy goes on to be the most virile 70-year-old in the movies!


5. Yes, the Alien plot was "telegraphed" (i.e., revealed) in the opening sequence. Who says it was supposed to be a surprise?


6. I LOVED that the was the McGuffin was employed this time. Ever since Raiders, adherence to the quest for the McGuffin has been a weak spot in the Indy movies. I rather like what they did with it this time around. One of the big plusses of the movie in my book.


7. In 1984, I had a huge problem with the onset of Cartoon Action when Indy and Co. jumped out of a plane on an inflating raft, landed on a mountain top, slid down the snowy slopes ... then fell over the side of a 3,000 foot cliff into a raging river - - and no one fell out of the boat.
In 2008, I’m over it.

Shia fell out of the boat over each of the falls. And everyone fell out of the boat over the last one. I consider the sequence a distinct improvement in realism. But see my comments in Item 2 above re the acceptance of Cartoon Action.

Frankly, though the CGI was obvious in many places, the effects were still better than some of the truly horrid photographic effects in the Indy series, most infamously the aerial dogfight in Last Crusade. And while too much CGI is regrettable, it’s better than when the series routinely went from grand outdoor locations to cheesy studio set-ups whose fake-ness was painfully obvious (the rope-bridge wall in Temple of Doom and the ship propeller tank in Last Crusade spring to mind).

Ok, yeah, too much of Indy 4 succumbed to the Peter Jackson folly of two steps too many over the top. Tarzan swinging and Dual Car Dueling were indeed groan-inducing. But once I decided to accept cartoon action, I decided to just deal. But I’m not saying I didn’t have a problem with the excesses of stupidity.


8. There was more of a plot than in Temple of Doom, but admittedly not much of one. I think the setpieces have been strung together inartfully ever since Raiders, so it’s long past the time to complain about that factor now. Oh the plot is a thin collection of strung together action sequences? Tell me something I didn’t know going in.


9. The climax was almost a direct lift from the X-files movie. I liked it better this time. But since everything in the series is a direct lift, this one didn’t particularly bug me. And although he dissed the concept of mindreading, Indy didn’t ever express scepticism about alien life forms visiting the earth. It seemed to me, for the first time, he’s accepted the paranormal ... and I rather like that about this story - as his disbelief in the earlier films was ridiculous (albeit in Raiders, the absurdity only existed once the mismatching prequel was made).


10. I didn’t need a reason for the aliens to behave menacingly. The trio of 50's paranoia icons of Commie Scare / Nuclear Testing / and Alien Invasion were brilliantly saluted in this film.

There aren't really any CHEER FOR INDY moments like there were in Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Ugh, in posting about the myriad lame points, I hope I'm not talking my self into intellectually hating a movie I was emotionally loving.

George need to hang it up -badly....

I liked it less the second time around. And yes, groundhogs or gophers or whatever infest the beginning of this film... But there was a very funny dissolve between the Paramount Mountain and a gopher/groundhog hill at the top of the movie...

As with many of the flaws in the movie I would have been completely fine with it as an exception but unfortunately it was not. The prairie dogs didn't bother me but the monkey during Mutt's Tarzan scene did, especially when Irina was fighting with them in her boat-jeep.

The bad things about the film..
There is no way in hell that Indy could step out of a Fridge and not come out unscathed. Total Bull-@#$%

Karen Allen returning didn't do anything for me, She could have been left out.
The Aliens and UFO theme didn't surprise me that it was in the film.

What I did like:
Loved all of 50's detail and loved final scenes with the Alien.
Glad too see they still acknowledged "the Ark of Covenant" in the warehouse scene.
Loved the cars and motorbikes.:)

I actually said "oh hell no", and was super happy that it was averted.

Harrison Ford is HOT!!!!!!!

Still. WTF? A nuclear blast knocks him a mile downrange? Come on....

The whole FBI / Fired / Mccarthyism story line was pointless and lead nowhere.

So were talking the Inter-dimensional version of the peach corps. Ahh yeah.

Why exactly did they fry the brain of the person that returned the skull?

If all 13 is all that's needed to bring these guys to life, how did one get stolen in the first place?

Still it did keep true to the Indy motto. Lose the big prize and lay waist to everything else of any historical significance.

I did like the wholesale slaughter of the natives. That's a bit of a rarity in our PC world. The ants were kind of fun too.

If this was the script they waited ten year for I would be truly afraid to read what was rejected.

Overall, I feel about the same about this one as I felt about Last Crusade. Maybe even liked it a little less. It was fun, definitely better than the disaster it could have been. But they lost me at interdimensional aliens. Bleh.

And a whole host of other issues of course. After Steve reminded me of the ToD raft ride, I conceded to give the triple waterfall thing a pass, but jeep landing on open-topped duck? Fridge ride? Terrible terrible terrible.

And I know they tried to give themselves an out by stressing that it wasn't really "magnetism" (crystals and gold aren't magnetic afterall), but the utter inconsistency was beyond bad. I mean, throw the gunpowder in the air and it immediately gets pulled through the air. So, umm, why weren't the bullets being pulled the moment they walked in there? The magnetism only seemed to work when people were paying attention to it. Lame.

Other than that, good opening scene. I liked the relationships, through the movie, I liked the banter, I liked the characters. I liked some of the action, but the jungle car scene was waaay to drawn out, which just gave plenty of opportunity for the rubbery cgi to stick out like a sore thumb.

So yeah, luke warm. Enjoyable. Flawed.

I wanted to mention that I think the reason the fridge thing bugs me so much was that the whole scene was 100% superfluous. Remove it from the movie and it affects nothing. Not that I'm against superfluous scenes for the sake of visual gaggery (e.g., I liked the rocket sled scene), but to have a superfluous scene that ends in an absolutely ludicrous moment? Vomit.

And speaking of the rocket sled scene, anyone else notice that they get launched down the track on the rocket sled, stop, the two of them stumble off the sled...and then within a few seconds the convoy of cars arrives? How exactly did the convoy of 1950s jeeps catch up to a rocket sled that quickly?! I know that's a pretty minor nit to pick, and compared to other things, it didn't actually really phase me. But c'mon, that's just lame

he did say that he just knew it wouldn't work, and when she said they didn't talk about it he said it would only lead to another argument and that he never won them.