Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull [use spoiler tags, please]

[Not Afraid]

Overall, I was entertained and never bored. But, I had quite a few eye-rolling moments.

Quick bullets without spoilers:

• Blanchett's Russian accent failed her at times.
• Worst line ever "They were archaeologists"
• Tarzan scene soooo lame! Beyond lame!
• I would have almost believed anything but ETs
• Ants were waaay over the top, but I was happy there were not any Scorpians.
• The Holy Grail water must have an effect outside the temple and he must've shared with everyone in this film....they were immortal.
• Prarie Dogs were a distraction
• Come on - a REFRIGERATOR?

Ford does have some of the best facial expressions. I really love his reactions to situations.

Loved the Ark

I miss the days before CGI. Just give me a good film with a FEW good effects. I'd much prefer that over a effect-filled film with a flawed story and endless, too-long action scenes.

[Gemini Cricket]

Saturday - $37 mil
Projected Sunday - $33 mil

Total so far - $126 mil

Movie's budget - $185 mil

[innerSpaceman]

Yep, one of the best things about Raiders is its sparse use of effects, to excellent effect.

After that, the series went hog-wild with effects, with increasingly diminishing returns.




It's interesting what nits people will choose to pick with Indy 4. There are indeed so many to choose from.


I've heard "why didn't Indy use his whip to get out of the (non)quick sand?" Um, he didn't have his whip at the time; he'd been disarmed by the Russians.

And I've heard "how can Marion have just driven off the cliff hoping for a tree to break their fall' when she's clearly shown scoping out the cliff and finding the exact spot of the tree. (And by 'clearly,' I mean I finally noticed this on the 3rd viewing.)


Most people are bothered with the Tarzan swinging, some aren't. Just about everyone freaks that he survived a nuclear blast in a flying refrigerator. It never concerned me in the least. When the TV and slip-&-slide water and car-watering hose were all on in the fake town set up for nuclear annihilation ... I had surrealism telegraphed to me quite clearly.


The ants were too big. Three waterfalls were too many.


I can't defend any of this stuff. But there are far larger problems, imo, with a very weak story and underused characters.


If it's just the preposterous nits that are bothersome, I think the movie is pretty good.

[katiesue]

Maddy's reivew "totally awesome dude although I did not understand the plot, but that's just me I don't understand a lot of stuff."

[Ghoulish Delight]

Originally Posted by innerSpaceman

And I've heard "how can Marion have just driven off the cliff hoping for a tree to break their fall' when she's clearly shown scoping out the cliff and finding the exact spot of the tree. (And by 'clearly,' I mean I finally noticed this on the 3rd viewing.)

I noticed her scoping it out, but only because I had caught the "I'm going to drive off it" in the previews so I was aware of it.

If it's just the preposterous nits that are bothersome, I think the movie is pretty good.

I disagree. You've correctly pointed out that the other movies have several of the same flaws, so I think it's a sign of the overall weakness of the movie that people are complaining about the little nits. To me it says that it didn't sufficiently entertain enough to distract from those nits.

[Not Afraid]

I was distracted many times by the nits. It took me out of the film and into eye-rolling.

I noticed Marion scoping out the clif, so it didn't surprise me that she knew where the tree was. The fact that that actually worked was the unbelievable part. And the tree swinging back up to cause little CGI people to fall made be cringe.

[Gemini Cricket]

Originally Posted by innerSpaceman

It's interesting what nits people will choose to pick with Indy 4. There are indeed so many to choose from.


I've heard "why didn't Indy use his whip to get out of the (non)quick sand?" Um, he didn't have his whip at the time; he'd been disarmed by the Russians.

And I've heard "how can Marion have just driven off the cliff hoping for a tree to break their fall' when she's clearly shown scoping out the cliff and finding the exact spot of the tree. (And by 'clearly,' I mean I finally noticed this on the 3rd viewing.)
...
If it's just the preposterous nits that are bothersome, I think the movie is pretty good.

So, you're saying people shouldn't complain? The Abbie Hoffman of the LoT wants us me to be as silent as a Geisha and not point out anything that bugs me? Puh-lease! lol

I think it's as fair to point out problems with Spielberg and Lucas films. They used to exceed our expectations, why not now? I find it just as fair as pointing out f-ups Disney has been doing for the last 8 years or so.

Nitpicks or not, I think it is possible to make a movie fool proof.

Yes, no whip. But a belt, a leather jacket... A man resourceful enough to pull the whole "gimme your bullets" technique of finding a needle in a haystack at the Area 51 warehouse surely could have unbuckled his own belt.

The drive off the cliff, land on tree branch, tree branch lowers duck into the water, tree branch slams and kills several Russians sequence was dumb. No matter if it was set up before or not. Yikes. A close up of Blanchett saying, "You're despicable!" would have rounded it off all nicely. Or maybe Irina holding up a sign that said "Yipes" as she looks at the camera with a panicked look?

[LSPoorEeyorick]

Originally Posted by GC

Mutt combs his hair, that means he's cool

Really? Because I took that to mean that he wasn’t cool whatsoever. That he thinks he’s cool, but as we know, he’s nothing compared to Indy in his prime. It seemed to me that we were supposed to be looking at him through Indy’s eyes, and in doing that, he came across as some kid who thought a lot of himself, and who had no idea what majesty and danger the ancient world held. And this is even before he screamed like a ninny in the graveyard. So, actually, Mutt didn’t bother me at all, and then I developed an affection for him grew once it became clear (though I’d suspected) that he was the fruit of the Marion/Indy loins.

Originally Posted by mousepod

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.

It was so obvious, in fact, that I thought we were totally in red-herring territory. Because, I thought to myself, Spielberg wouldn’t be going back to that again, right? So I went merrily on my way to enjoy the film – which I did – as a big, silly, summer movie. Yes, yes, so much action was implausible. Yes, yes, a lot of CGI. Yes, yes, can’t recreate the magic of Raiders. (Which, by the way, I think has a lot to do with having limitations. Limitations, be they technological, budgetary, or otherwise, often makes for a more passionate and ‘real’ work of film art. Stunts are chancy and gritty, so are sets… when you have money, you forget that chancy and gritty are what make your adventure move.) But, you know, I went in expecting that, so I was along for the ride.

It was a fun romp. I loved the graveyard scene, the dry sand (and that terrible snake rope – I actually screamed. By the way, Sophie, who has worked as a lab tech, said that a snake once bent a needle when she was trying to inject it – so maybe they did research it.)

I was particularly happy when Marion came along. She I love her feisty nature, and I thought it was believable that they were still in love after all these years. I found myself caring about their quirky little nuke-you-lar family, and that’s what carried me right up until it became clear that alien-red-herring wasn’t being served for dinner.

And then I was lost. As I told some people last night, I have some angst built up from AI, which fascinated me with its terrible, terrible badness. (My college paper about it was talking about the truly useless and un-Kubrickian use of aliens.) It’s his go-to ex-machina, and I wish he hadn’t gone that way.
I was pulled out right of the movie right on through the wedding finale, by which point I was looking at the seams. (Wow, what glowy backlit halos, what pasted-on grins. Are we in The Muppets Take Manhattan now?) But the excellent pass-the-hat gag made me very happy at the end, and I came out feeling like was entertained plenty.

[Not Afraid]

I was disappointed that Indy and Marion were married at the end. It seemed so unsatisfying and contrived for something that should have been a joyous moment. However, the hat gag was a good one.

[Ghoulish Delight]

What bugged me about the hair combing thing was that it seemed to be a gimmick-for-gimmick-replacement pattern. Whip->Knife. Hat->Comb.