I was seriously disappointed in this movie. Like you said, it wasn't awful, but it just wasn't Indiana Jones. It was the cinematic equivalent of trying to shove a square peg in a round hole, it just didn't fit with the first three movies. George Lucas needs to realize that shoveling a bunch of dazzling special effects on and audience just won't make up for a poor script.

Fifteen minutes into the movie I got this strange sense of deja-vu. You know, like I had already seen it before. And then this awesome 80's TV themesong music popped into my head. Da-da-da-da. Duh-da-duh. The fuckin A-Team, man! I thought Hannibal, BA Baracus, Face, and Murdock were the only people that could miraculously survive a barrage of machine-gun bullets from only 5 feet away. No, I forgot, Neo from the Matrix - he can do that too. But now Indiana Jones? WTF! And really that was among the least outrageously over-the-top elements of the movie.

bravo on the review!

Both Spielberg and Frank Marshall were exec producers on YSH.

BTW I had lotsa fun with this and Cate Blanchett totally has my number just with her eyes. Even in Hot Fuzz she's irresistable.

One of the things I think Spielberg and Lucas don't understand is that what made their older films enjoyable was due, at least in part, to their being created before the introduction of CGI. Seriously, there was something that was fun about watching them pull off that tank scene in The Last Crusade that wouldn't be half as interesting if it was remade with CGI. Imagine how boring that very first temple scence in Raiders of the Lost Ark would be if it were reproduced through CGI.

Bill Murray's bowling ball in Kingpin is such a beautiful work of art.

I don't care for Indy so therefore I won't be seeing it but just from the commercials I'm convinced that there is some kind of editing done to make Harrison Ford look younger and more "Indy" like.

I felt reduced walking out of the cinema. I felt humiliated by this film. I learnt that Spielberg is so much more than a bad filmmaker; he's a dangerous lunatic. What's the idea behind this film? That if you want to find things out, then you're fully deserving of the most horrific violence and ultimately death.

In the first film, The Nazis want the Ark to take over the world. And since this is Old Testament stuff, then it's fair that there's an Old Testament ending, with wrath of God for the non-believers.

This film treads the same path, but with crucial differences. The Soviets are up to something similar; they want a magnetic skull so they can take over the world - obvious when you think about it. But the film (and its predecessors) also says that it's not wrong just to nick stuff for your own purposes, because that's exactly what Indy is up to. It's only wrong if you nick too much, like Ray 'love-a-duck' Winstone.

When they get to the temple, there's not much gold around; its basically just information, or wisdom even. (Really useful stuff probably, about how to draw massive spiders in the dirt.) Eventually Russians all die, apart from Spinko, who seems to just want to ask the aliens (Yeah aliens. Christ.) some questions (tell me everything!) So they do the obvious thing and set her on fire. And she gave them their skull back!

There's no morality to it, like there could be in the first film. The aliens are just a dangerous bunch of bastards, and if you fuck with them, you're out. Indy isn't a pure soul; he's just a fluky prick.

It's so simple - there are things in the world (or even universe) that you shouldn't question, and if you do, they'll kill you. Best to just fuck about around the edges, pilfering minor artefacts. This is what Spielberg believes, and he wants you to believe it too. The Old Testament story from Raiders wasn't at random; it's just the purest expression of Spielberg's bizarre death-wish fantasies.

Where's all the hate from anyway? Spielberg must sit up at night fantasising about killing people in various brutal and grotesque ways.

Burned to death by a jet engine

Eaten by a swarm of carnivorous ants

Having your skull set on fire from the eyes out by a 'collective' of aliens

You'd have to think long and hard to come up with this stuff. He ought to be locked up. Rant over.

PS What's really stupid that this was made after rejecting a script from Shyamalan, because this is precisely the sort of nonsense that he gets up to.

ok ,gotcha rental movie.

i watched the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull yesterday and i liked it
#7 made me laugh a lot

+1

They like using CGI because it's cheaper, but it's not better, and putting in more CGI effects because they cost less is not preferable to a few really well done standard effects. CGI is best used to clean-up standard effects, or to create inorganic environments (Star Trek did really good CGI for all of their space shots).


For TheCoolerKing, I'll dispute that 50s style leather jackets are not bad across the board, it's just a little twerp like LeBeouf can't pull the look off.

Right on. I went with my daughter last night. We had a great time, but the movie was formulaic rather than fresh.

Wow. I think you're reading way too much into this. It's not Schindler's List. It's pulp. It's meant to be a crowd-pleaser, and nothing more.

Also, this was better than Temple of Doom. Shia LaBeouf is way less annoying than Kate Capshaw.

There were 3 reasons why the new indy film sucked.
1. There was no Nazis... you can hate nazis a lot more than the russkis.
2. To much special effects.
3. The story was hokey.

Hey Disco, you're boring.

Great review. Pretty much agree with everything. Specifically the whole Shia being miscast, even if he wasn't totally awful.

They jumped the shark in the first 10 minutes with the refrigerator scene.