Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - 6 years on

norrie rugger

Around this point I started to get really worried about the rest of the film. Such an obvious green/blue screen effect gave me shivers and horrible flashback of SW: Episode 1

Giruilla

Where exactly is the light supposed to be coming from in this shot?



I thought the whole film was horrible to look at.

Duggy747

A bloated CGI mess that will, funnily enough, age worse than the other 3.

They supposedly had good intentions of using many practical stunts and what not but ended up using a colossal amount more CGI than what was planned, turning an Indy movie into an Xbox game.

Indy deserved better.

Indy despite the crazy situations he got into, and whatever special effects were used, was real. The stuff he did was believable while being far fetched. When CGI comes into play, we no longer believe and it just becomes another marketing splurge of entertainment you can predict and forget just as easily as the other.
Bring back Stunts, down with CGI.

hardweir

I remember going to see this on the day it came out,was so excited as the indy films are unique in my opinion.
Sat through the whole thing with my hand to my face,couldnt understand how you could make such a cock up of a sure thing.
The only one to get off the hook imo was Ford,everything else including writing,direction,lighting,humour,tension,shia and many more i cant think of were so wrong.
People who say i have rose tinted glasses in regard to the first three are so wrong.Sit someone down today who has never seen any of them to watch all four and i assure you they would single out the last as being completely different to the others.No one i have spoken,then or since has a good word to say about the film.

I have not seen it again since that day and never will.

JimmyD85

Portraying Shia LaBeouf as a 'tough guy' was enough for me. It was all fine and dandy until I saw him in his leather jacket and greased back hair talking like he was 6'5. I know it was part of the character and all but Shia is just annoying as hell. Especially when they gave him a lot of the action scenes while Indie was just sitting in the car...I came to see pensioner Indie dammit! I wasn't bothered by much else in all honesty.

Mr Freeze

hardweir wrote: »

I have not seen it again since that day and never will.

I didn't even open my Indy bluray boxset that I got last Christmas because IV was included. I dunno it does put a taint on the boxset.

the_monkey

6 years later and still sh*t ...


awful awful movie , can't understand how this got good reviews, I think the reviewers were threatened by the major studio to give a good review or else ...

darkdubh

Theres an awfull lot about it that I hated but that ridiculous scene with the CGI ants dragging yer man down the hole was up there with the fridge scene.Compare it to the scene with the rats in Last Crusade.CGI animals in movies are a pet hate of mine and the prairedogs in KOTLS retrospectivly remind me of those wretched meercat TV ads.

Adamantium

Mr Freeze wrote: »

I didn't even open my Indy bluray boxset that I got last Christmas because IV was included

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DHIqUkmj-o

But seriously I prefer the look of the trilogy boxset even if it's only DVD.



I remembered watching Speilberg recently at a conference and someone out of nowhere in the crowd cheered about a reference he made to Crystal Skull and then he remarks "Looks like there was one person who enjoyed Indy IV" Lol, He knows it.

It was the old cutting jokes by LeBeouf that were tiresome, yes we get Ford is old, for the fifth time. There was no real need to have LeBeouf there, surely the character was interesting enough on his own. That time that Indy worked for the CIA during WW2 would have an interesting film. When Ford was allowed to do his thing it was great. They chucked the script and story that Frank Darabount wrote that Speilberg favoured, for George Lucas one, words fail me

Mr Freeze

Adamantium wrote: »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DHIqUkmj-o

Looks like I'm with Elsa on that one!

the_monkey

Adamantium wrote: »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DHIqUkmj-o

But seriously I prefer the look of the trilogy boxset even if it's only DVD.



I remembered watching Speilberg recently at a conference and someone out of nowhere in the crowd cheered about a reference he made to Crystal Skull and then he remarks "Looks like there was one person who enjoyed Indy IV" Lol, He knows it.

It was the old cutting jokes by LeBeouf that were tiresome, yes we get Ford is old, for the fifth time. There was no real need to have LeBeouf there, surely the character was interesting enough on his own. That time that Indy worked for the CIA during WW2 would have an interesting film. When Ford was allowed to do his thing it was great. They chucked the script and story that Frank Darabount wrote that Speilberg favoured, for George Lucas one, words fail me

I'd love if there was a trilogy version available on BluRay without IV ...

nyarlothothep

I haven't watched it all the way through but when it's on it's really not a bad film. The idea is interesting and certainly not off bounds for an Indy film as some might argue. Interdimensional alien beings is pretty much Lovecraftian and they could have played this up with a kind of outlandish spacecraft with non grey aliens, instead they went the conventional route but it was still an acceptable premise. It's entertaining, but it's not in the same league as the other films. I think they just botched a great idea with some poor decisions.

Icaras

Watched it over the Christmas and the stand out worst thing about it (besides from the monkey swinging) is the way all the "twists" are so easily accepted.
Marion is at the camp, Marion now has a son, now hes Marion and Indys son, Indy gives out about him not finishing school but other than that its all good.
Nazis try to get Indy to help but he wont, they point a gun a Marion now hes focused full steam ahead giving them all the answers.
Mac is a double agent, no wait, now hes a triple agent, but hes really gready and only wants money - I can definatly trust him.

Also the car chase is terrible - from the start when the big blade comes spinning towards them, to the horrible CGI to Shia sword fighting while standing on two moving jeeps while getting hit in the nuts by plants. Indy is meant to be a "normal" guy getting into extraordinary situations, it felt like they were setting Shia up to take over the role (which is fine) but they had him doing completly unbelivable things.

darkdubh

Wedwood wrote: »

Few movies have provoked such division among movie goers as KOTCS did in 2008 and since, with only The Phantom Menace probably vying with Indy IV for that 'honour'.

Hatred of this movie probably 'crystalised' after South Park mercilessly lampooned the movie with their 'Lucas raped my childhood' episode, which set the tone for much of the subsequent commentary on the movie. In effect, it became 'cool' to hate this movie.

Four things have been frequently cited as the reasons why:
1. Mutt Williams
2. 'Nuking the Fridge'
3. Swinging with monkeys
4. Aliens (or inter-dimensional beings)

However, when you compare these scenarios to the earlier movies, there are many just as outlandish pieces, though none have incurred the wrath of the fans as the KOTCS ones did.

To illustrate:

1. Mutt Williams - Willie Scott/Short Round. All annoying sidekicks, but Temple of Doom's pair are tolerated.

2. Nuking the Fridge - Jumping out of a crashing plane (which had just skimmed off a mountain) on a life raft, which subsequently slides off a cliff into rapids. (Temple of Doom again)

3. Swinging Monkeys - Monkey Nazi Salute/Monkey whispers into villian's ear where Indy is located in Cairo (Raiders)

4. Aliens - Ghosts (Raiders)

All the above are equally preposterous, but while in the earlier movies they were embraced as part of the movies, the same type of scenes were ridiculed this time around.

6 years on, as the film now recedes into the past, from this vantage point much of the criticism of the movie looks childish or even spiteful.

It's probably true to say this was a movie made out of it's time, given that 19 years had elapsed between Last Crusade and Crystal Skull and it suffered because of it.

That doesn't make it a poorer film, but more an indictment on the film-makers that the world had changed by the time they eventually got around to making a sequel that perhaps should have been made in the early 90's.

Interestingly, many of those who slaughtered KOTCS are now lobbying for the now 71 year old Ford to don his fedora for a fifth and final installment.

It was **** 6 years ago.Its still ****.It will still be **** in 60 years time.