I hate, hate, hate, hate, hate this movie. And while every negative review should at least list some positives, I'll shoot mine at you very quickly (considering there's only three): Very nice father/son relationship between LeBeouf and Ford. Their chemistry together worked, and was the absolute best thing about the film (and I feared it would be the worst thing). Secondly, after a strange opening with his acting, Ford is back as Indy, and he kicks ass. Even if he still delivers lines like he had four strokes (seriously, he only speaks out of one side of his mouth), I think that he delivered a straight Indy performance. He wasn't using his face as much as the previous films, which is a shame because half of what makes his Indiana Jones such a well-rounded character is the facial expressions that Ford gets caught up in. You can really tell that despite the intellect of Ford, he has a very fun time in the pulpy role. Just watch Raiders and Doom and tell me his face isn't one of the most expressive you've seen. And third, Ben Burtt finally lifted his ass cheeks off of the control boards and mixed this film well. Thanks for all of the old sound effects and memories, Ben (see you at Wall-E).

Doom was one of my very first recollected viewing experiences as a child (a baby, in fact) and Crusade was the first indy film that I saw in cinemas (at age three), and, as it stands, I recognize Raiders as being one of those perfect, flawless adventure films that we'll keep on loving and enjoying with our children for years to come, but Doom is my favorite. I can't for the life of me understand the deep-seated hate that it gets while Crusade gets one of the most bafooned free passes since Return of the Jedi. Why is Doom my fav? Nothing beats how different it is against its predecessor. The whole film has an air of doom and gloom that's almost non-existant in the other films. It's the most thrilling (with a final 40-minutes to die for) and the darkest. It's also the only Indy film where Jones sets aside his "do right" hard-on for delivering precious artifacts to museums and puts on his heroic "do good" hat by saving the children of the village and delivering them a sacred and honored part of their religion. The Thugee cult is truly scary, and Mola Ram is one hell of a villian. Creepy and in-control. The plot unfolds like a nice pair of slacks with some of the best pacing of Spielberg's and editor Michael Kahn's career. We go from a beautful choreographed musical number to a thrilling Shanghai shootout straight to a plane crash and then onto the real meat: Indy as savior. And the humor, I love it. Short Round works; he really does. When he tells "evil" Indy the "he loves him", I still tear up. Sure, Capshaw was annoying, but that damsel-in-distress character usually is (and I'm pretty sure Lucas was projecting his thoughts of his soon-to-be-ex-wife onto the character). Plus, what other film had hearts being ripped out, burning Indians, child slaves, crocodiles eating flesh, very scary (and real) bugs, and a PG-rating? You're fooling yourself if you don't think that mine cart chase isn't one of the three best action sequences in the Indy franchise (the first being the "over-under" truck chase from Raiders, and the third being the Cairo market from the same film). Crusade? Just like Jedi before it, a crude re-hash of the original in which the magic wasn't present. Sure, Connery is a terrific addition, but the Nazi villians are wore thin by the third act (especially after the Hitler cameo) and nearly every character becomes a joke. When Connery claims he should've mailed his diary to the Marx Brothers, we should've also had the Marx Brothers acting the main roles. The opening is also dreadful, as it paces along with one set piece in which we learn of all of Indy's traits (snakes, a bullwhip, a chin scar, a fedora and ensemble inspiration, oh my!).

And my blood is still boiling over Crystal Skull. And it's a shame I've completely lost the energy to talk about it. I'm going to tack-on my official review by the end of Saturday, I promise. But right now, I can't be bothered.

And before I depart, after seeing the trailer last night, David Fincher's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button has now become my most-anticipated of '08. It can't get here soon enough. Now that was something to get excited about.

As an avid Indy fan, this film will have to grow on me. I had very mixed feelings about it. I'll start with the good. First and foremost...Harrison Ford. He carried the film with his acting. His reactions, him actually doing some stunts, he definitely brought Indy back. I also liked the fight scenes, they felt very much like the older films. When I say fight scenes I mean just the fighting..not the CGI elements that go along with it. I was glad to see they brought back the same fist punch sound effect but was sad to see Indy not fire his gun once! We didn't get to hear the classic sound of his gun. I liked the teaser scene minus throwing gun powder in the air. I loved how they used lots of sets, especially in Peru. It's nice to not get an entire CG scene like we did in Revenge of the Sith. I also really liked the motorcycle chase. The aliens at the end did not bother me. It brought me back to the final scene in Raiders when all of the ghosts emerge from the ark and Belloq's face explodes. I think if they would have done it with more primitive special effects techniques...Lucas said himself that Indy movies were meant to look like they didn't spend a lot of time on them and thats what made them so good...the CGI element completely takes that away and makes it look too streamlined...that grittiness is gone. The alien idea was welcomed though, it should have been done with a little more taste. There were a few touching moments in the film I liked too. When Indy looks at the picture of his father and the crusade theme comes up...just amazing, again, that Harrison Ford acting does it for me.

By far the best scene in the film is the motorcycle chase in the beginning. That scene is pure old school Indiana Jones. In fact, the entire segment when they are in that college town is the best part...haha greasers vs. socs. HAHAHA

Now for the downright bad. The gophers! This was so unbelievably pointless. There is not one moment in the previous films you can compare it to...especially having it be the first scene! Not very Indiana Jones like. The refrigerator. Having it fly a few miles through the sky and crashing to the ground and having Indy climb out without a scratch was too much. Yes there were crazy moments in previous films...but they were all incorporated so well it gave them a sense of realism (minus the inflatable raft parachute). The only good thing about the fridge scene is the homage to Back to the Future. The kung fu fighting grave protectors...enough said. The monkeys!! Again, enough said..terrible choice having Shia swing from vine to vine and catch up with a car! Plus the monkeys looked terrible...and then they started attacking Spalko! Ugh. I wish they made the ants look a little more realistic too. Oxley was annoying..period. I also have been noticing sequels now (like avp:r, die hard 4, star wars prequels) filling the entire film up with homages to earlier films, which IMO is lazy. As for the ending, less CGI would have been nice.

I really missed Doug Slocombe in this one.

Sorry about the poor grammar..I am just frustrated.

The score annoyed me as well. All of the quotes of thematic material from the previous films seemed shoehorned in here to remind you of how much fun you had watching the original Indy films, but they only served to illuminate how much I wasn't enjoying this one.

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Originally posted by Jeron:
Haha. For me there's more to like about this movie than to dislike

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Same here. I liked the movie. The pace of the movie is a lot more relaxing than what we see in theatres nowadays. The whole movie actually kinda looks like it was made back in the 80s. I wasn't particularly fond of the ending, but I had a good time at the movies ... and that hasn't happened in a while.

As for Williams' score, I have the feeling that his best times are over. I didn't really notice anything notably new in the score.

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I wasn't particularly fond of the ending, but I had a good time at the movies ... and that hasn't happened in a while.

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Excuse me, but are you NUTS?

Have you forgotten who Spielberg is and what he's done all those yearS?

The alien element is both essential in his career but specifically, in the new Indy is so very well done, mystically thrilling and driving the story around, it kicks ass plus we don't get any WOTW junk like some rain killing them instantly despite having been living underground which is wet and full of waters...Yes, it adds to the nostalgia factor that no such movies are being made anymore but i don't think anything's wrong with that, the movie ROCKED.

Yes, the movie had flaws but who careS? I can't remember the last time i had been genuinely* entertained as such and for that i am grateful.

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Originally posted by Demetris Christodoulides:

. . . we don't get any WOTW junk like some rain killing them instantly despite having been living underground which is wet and full of waters.

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I honestly don't see why so many supposed-Indy fans are creaming their pants over this film. Either the nostalgia was tickling their testicles or the mystery-ether of George Lucas was permeating their nostrils. This film is not an Indiana Jones film. At best, it's a Tomb Raider/National Treasure sequel that bred with the CGI from Revenge of the Sith and Harrison Ford just happened to stumble on-set and deliver. All in all, this film reeks of George Lucas grubby, money-hungry hands. This is a one-off cash cow, not an addition to a beloved franchise. An addition to a beloved franchise would include a plot that held real emotional resonance, well-developed characters and villains, and most importantly, imaginative and well-paced set pieces. KotKS has none of this, and Ford has to struggle to escape with his dignity intact (and if you've seen him doing the promotional rounds, he doesn't seem to thrilled about the film). The first negative lies in the script, which is a terrible Frankenstein's monster of a script. Everyone's ideas made it into this, but they were threaded together with such lame-brained attitude by Lucas and uber-hack David Koepp that I can't even tell if Darabont's and Stuart's original scripts would be good anyway (as it stands, you can read Stuart's draft here and Darabont's draft no where but the dungeon of Lucas' ranch, although bits have leaked through the years). Sure, we treated to the great "Doomtown" sequence that was Darabont's contribution (and a nice nuclear blast) but we also get absolute phoney-Looney-Toons-level fare like Indy surviving said nuclear blast in a lead-lined refrigerator (that bounces with such computer-generated buoyancy that not even Bugs Bunny could've survived). The "interterrestrial beings" (give me a break, they're saucer men), or aliens) aren't the bad thing. In fact, in Stuart's script they actually serve a purpose. The Crystal Skull isn't the problem as a McGuffin, it's the fact that Koepp forgot that a McGuffin is meant to be mysterious. I do firmly believe that the actual Crystal Skull got more screen time than Ford (and certainly more than poor Karen Allen, more on that later). I've watched the prior films within a week of the new one's release, and I'm still on the edge of my seat during the franchise's most thrilling moments (which I detailed in my initial post), but Koepp stages things like a slug. The film is obviously meant to be episodic in nature, like its earlier incarnations, but each sequence is so overlong and drawn out that it felt like I was waiting a whole week for the next episode. Surely expert editor Michael Kahn could've worked his way around this pacing problem, but unfortunately he phoned this one in. The dialog is hackneyed and terribly expositional. The earlier films usually had a scene, usually five to ten minutes in length, detailing what we were about to encounter as an audience (Raiders does this perfectly, in the classroom with the government agents), but this film goes to unnecessary lengths to explain things as they happen or after; which is amateur screenwriting at best. And it explains too much. I got that the Crystal Skulls resembled aliens, yet they wanted to tell me throughout the entire third act. And John Hurt's Professor Oxley character, one of the most insulting Deus ex machina in film history (and a blemish on Hurt's excellent career, just the same to Denholm Elliot 19 years prior). Why does this character exist? He doesn't exist as a flesh-and-blood character, Koepp made certain of that. This is a character who exists for the sake of being there and saving these characters when Koepp can't think of anything intelligent for the heroes to do (and trust me, they don't do anything intelligent anyway). This type of character DOES NOT exist in the previous films, and the one you might try and cite - Short Round - has tremendous emotional impact to the story of Doom. Only the banter between Mutt and indy gets some credit, but I'd rest that solely on the qualified actors delivering the lines.

On the bright side, Karen Allen is in the film! On the dark side, Karen Allen is in the film only to APPEASE the fans. As fans, we all know that Marion Ravenwood is the one true girl for Indy. The one girl who's just feisty enough to put up with Henry Jones, Jr.'s recklessness. In fact, I would've loved if THAT Marion made it into this film. Unfortunately, we'll have to do with a presence of Karen Allen, who's aged gracefully (though you often can't tell by the awful over-lit scenes). Unfortunately, you can tell she hasn't acted in a great time, because on top of her limited screen time (in fact, I don't remember her doing anything but driving a jeep and getting married) she displays none of the same chemistry as we've come to expect. Another fault of the script is the reunion of Marion and Indy and the discovery of the family they now have. Yet, we're given little reason to care that Marion and Indy are back together because, dammit, we have action sequences to get to.

And the action sequences we do get to, yet none as thrilling or as claustrophobic or as adventurous, or as suspenseful as even the most lame action sequence of the franchise (I'm looking at you, 75% of Crusade). In fact, next to KotCS, Crusade is a masterpiece. For starters, we've got a uninvolving heist at Area 51 (and a surprise cameo from the Ark, oh my, nostalgia!) which includes one of the most ridiculous CGI rocket car sequence I've ever seen (and it's the only one I can recollect), and we move onto a zombie-karate filled graveyard (which could've been good but goes by so fast that you begin to suspect that what you just saw really was cheesy), an poorly paced jungle escape via dueling jeeps/rapiers (and why this scene exists still haunts me, you'd think one of the intelligent characters would stop the jeep and the "exhilarating" rapier battle once the Crystal Skull fell into their hands), a CGI ant hill, waterfalls (a lot, maybe twenty, but I lost count after three), Peruvian cockroach guards (and why an intelligent archeologist would call them "Indians" baffles me), and some more that I probably forgot. None of these are exciting, and it's not my lack of suspension of disbelief. I have no problem dropping my disbelief, but when the physics are over-the-top Looney Tunes quality and it looks like a video game, I draw the line. The great thing about the originals' action set pieces? They usually involved heavy stunt work, miniatures, and CHOREOGRAPHY. These unions must've been on strike during filming of KotCS. One sequence sets itself apart from the rest by actually FEELING like a classic Spielberg/Indiana Jones chase. The Marshall College sequences are superb. From the diner sequence, to the perfect motorcycle chase. The action serves a purpose, it advances the characters, and it provides some thrills and laughs along the way. I loved the ending in the study hall; now that's a great Indy moment.

Janusz Kaminski's lighting? Wasn't it promised to evoke Douglas Slocombe's classic brown hues and marvelous location work? Something was lost in translation, because it looks like your usual Kaminski affair, complete with obnoxious flares, luminous halos (maybe the movies takes place in Heaven?), and everything looks like it was shot on a set (aside from the Marshall College stuff). Oh yeah, that's because it was.

This could be a case of unrealistic expectations, and I will still do my best to try and appreciate this film over time.

First things first, I am going to avoid the the far too convenient trap of blaming this on Lucas. Spielberg does not involve himself in projects lightly, and Ford makes so few films these days, that you know he had ample time to consider the story and screenplay before signing up, so...

1. Ford is the best thing about this film. In fact, he makes it worth watching even with the abundance of flaws.

2. The pace of the script and the editing feels completely wrong. The scenes just seem to feel rushed, tacked together...something is off. I can only blame this on Spielberg. I honestly think the guy has forgotten how to make genuinely fun,energetic adventure films.

3. Setting this in the 50s was the right thing to do, but the communist and nuclear paranoia just isn't an interesting backdrop for an Indiana Jones story. I think the stupid nuclear blast scene (which actually serves no purpose) exists only to remind the audience of the time and place.

4. Aliens...hmmm...I had suspected as much and did not know how I would react. I don't really have a problem with how they were handled, but the concept just doesn't mesh with the Indiana Jones character. While no less believable than religious mysticism, it just doesn't work with the character.

5. The villain (can't remember her name right now) was incredibly weak. Blanchett's acting was fine, but the character had zero byte.

6. The supporting cast (Shia aside) was a complete throwaway.

7. Shia was fine. I was actually leary going in, and found it quite surprising that this element (and his presence with Ford) actually worked.

8. Sound effects were good....score... blech. Nearly all of the original content on the score release did nothing for me, and its use in the film was only marginally better. Just put the Skull theme up agaist any theme from the original films and the quality will become apparent. Too bad.

9. CGI never has and never will bother me. I agree that the vine swinging was silly, and the nuclear blast unncessary, but the flow of the story and editing were far worse.

I'll always have the first three movies and nothing can take those away. This fourth one is just a little bit extra. That makes it easier for me to just take whatever I like from it and dismiss whatever I don't.

What I like:

Ford back on screen, Shia, Karen Allen, some ambitious action sequences (the motorcycle chase was great fun), the nature of the aliens mission on Earth, the spectacle during the climax and the feel-good ending.

Also, I actually liked John Hurt's "interdimensional beings in point of fact" line. It was such silly 50s B-movie dialogue that I wish the rest of the "interdimensional" material hadn't been handled so seriously.

One terrific scene that I loved: Ford sitting at his desk looking at photos of his dad & Marcus and being told that he is at the point where life stops giving him things and starts taking them away. Genuinely moving. Wish there had been another moment like that.

What I didn't care for:

A lot of the film after Indy finds the Crystal Skull. I wanted to see more action scenes and less talk about the skull. The great thing about "Raiders" is that all of the exposition about the Ark is accomplished in that ONE classroom scene. But here it's all sparsed out like a DaVinci Code mystery, as if anyone in the audience hadn't figured out the mystery by the middle of the second act.

Also, I was troubled to see Indy following Oxley around throughout the third act. That was lazy, lazy writing. You just don't have such an iconic hero put a supporting character on a leash and let him do the rest of the work for him. Awful.

What I barely noticed:

The music.

I think 5 out of 10 is pretty fair.

The good:
- Harrison Ford. Rueful as ever as the hero, and took on the age angle pretty well. I like the way he's become more of an academic over the years.
- Shia LeBouf, even if his hair joke (which was funny once), is repeated ad infinitum.
- The Harvard chase sequence was top stuff, though the motorcycle sliding under the tables began the movie's descent into completely impractical action sequences.
- Ben Burt's sound design for the film was a thing of beauty. It was good to feel punches like that again.
- Film wasn't too long. This is a good thing. (It did feel too long in the middle though...)
- The shot of 'The Departure', with the valley swirling into a frenzy, was a great effect. (As was the atom bomb.)
- John Williams' more original cues. In particular the sequence where Irina 'knows everything' ('The Secret Revealed') features a brilliant blend of her theme with the Crystal themes. This is the old contrapuntally-dense Williams we know and love. Good on Johnny also for making a whole concert suite out of what was essentially a 40 second section from the 'Jungle Chase' cue for Mutt. I am pleased to hear so much effort was made to find new musical opportunities and new themes in this film, especially given how many moments in the music rested on the laurels of the previous films.

The cute:
- The Janitor from SCRUBS as a hard-nosed FBI agent. Nice casting joke there.

The bad:
- The Jungle Chase - some great choreography in parts, but this is where the film really began to jump the shark. The tarzan thing - I'd say it has to be seen to be believed, but I've seen it and I still don't believe it. I was back in that Conveyer Belt sequence from ATTACK OF THE CLONES.
- Ants. Why didn't we see a man's flesh eaten away by the ants? And why are these film-makers recycling sequences from THE MUMMY?
- Cirque du Soleil Peruvian Indians. Circus acrobatics are not scary. This felt like BATMAN RETURNS at one point.
- TALKING about EXPOSITION in an INFORMATIVE before EXPOSITING more TALK. There was a lot of talking in this film. A lot of exposition about something that wasn't very interesting.
- Where was the suspense?
- Bit of CGI eh? It led them to take the action sequences to ridiculous places they shouldn't have gone. ( Like in a car over a cliff, into a tree, and then down to water's level... when the film makes PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN 2 seem light on CG, we're in dangerous waters.
- Ray Winstone was pretty uninteresting. If they wanted there to be any surprise when he turns on them one last time, they should have cut those shots of Cate Blanchett finding tracking markers left by Mac. Who else were we meant to think was betraying them? Mutt?
- John Hurt was not successfully made the humourous mad man he might have been.
- 'They're from the space between spaces.' YSHWEFWEH?!?!?!! Note to David Koepp: THIS CHARACTER IS NO LONGER A RAVING MADMAN WHEN HE SAYS THIS.
- 'I have to return it.' The main character's motivation materialises out of nowhere.
- In RAIDERS, we only really learn the power of the Ark in the final scene. In LAST CRUSADE, we only discover the Grail towards the end of the film. The mystique of these objects was well developed in advance of their appearance. The Crystal Skulls - in addition to being a fairly uninspiring prop - never felt that interesting. It's not John Williams' fault, as his music gives the things about as much mystique as he could. The prop itself and the way it constantly appears in the film is the problem here.
- Johnny overused the Indy theme in this film. After its more sparing use in LAST CRUSADE, to hear the theme in its traditional arrangement so often in the film was a bit redundant. The literal quotes of earlier scores was a bit much too.
- Fan fiction moments: Indy looks at photos of Marcus and his dad, cheesy wedding sequence, 'somewhere your grandfather is laughing'.

The Ugly
- Janusz Kaminski, how was it that even when these characters were outdoors, they felt like they were indoors? That is very much in your department.

Whatever you do, DO NOT post this review at FSM. Remember what happened when you critiqued Williams' score? Do you want that debacle again? Do you want LeHah to put you on "Ignore"? Do you want that hideous horde of "This movie is sooo great because it makes me feel nostalgic"-FSMers to come after you in your sleep?

What, Sex And The City!? HAHA!

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Originally posted by sean:

What, Sex And The City!? HAHA!

[Message edited by sean on 06-03-2008][/B]

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The only thing I disagree on is the Temple of Doom movie. Sorry, I didn't like that one at all.

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Originally posted by nuts_score:
Where do I begin in my review? For one, anyone who doesn't care to read a passionate and negative stance on the latest Indiana Jones film, The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, ought to turn around quickly. Move along, this isn't the thread you're looking for. For anyone else still around, a quick warning: There Will Be Spoilers and Blood . . .

I hate, hate, hate, hate, hate this movie. And while every negative review should at least list some positives, I'll shoot mine at you very quickly (considering there's only three): Very nice father/son relationship between LeBeouf and Ford. Their chemistry together worked, and was the absolute best thing about the film (and I feared it would be the worst thing). Secondly, after a strange opening with his acting, Ford is back as Indy, and he kicks ass. Even if he still delivers lines like he had four strokes (seriously, he only speaks out of one side of his mouth), I think that he delivered a straight Indy performance. He wasn't using his face as much as the previous films, which is a shame because half of what makes his Indiana Jones such a well-rounded character is the facial expressions that Ford gets caught up in. You can really tell that despite the intellect of Ford, he has a very fun time in the pulpy role. Just watch Raiders and Doom and tell me his face isn't one of the most expressive you've seen. And third, Ben Burtt finally lifted his ass cheeks off of the control boards and mixed this film well. Thanks for all of the old sound effects and memories, Ben (see you at Wall-E).

Doom was one of my very first recollected viewing experiences as a child (a baby, in fact) and Crusade was the first indy film that I saw in cinemas (at age three), and, as it stands, I recognize Raiders as being one of those perfect, flawless adventure films that we'll keep on loving and enjoying with our children for years to come, but Doom is my favorite. I can't for the life of me understand the deep-seated hate that it gets while Crusade gets one of the most bafooned free passes since Return of the Jedi. Why is Doom my fav? Nothing beats how [b]different it is against its predecessor. The whole film has an air of doom and gloom that's almost non-existant in the other films. It's the most thrilling (with a final 40-minutes to die for) and the darkest. It's also the only Indy film where Jones sets aside his "do right" hard-on for delivering precious artifacts to museums and puts on his heroic "do good" hat by saving the children of the village and delivering them a sacred and honored part of their religion. The Thugee cult is truly scary, and Mola Ram is one hell of a villian. Creepy and in-control. The plot unfolds like a nice pair of slacks with some of the best pacing of Spielberg's and editor Michael Kahn's career. We go from a beautful choreographed musical number to a thrilling Shanghai shootout straight to a plane crash and then onto the real meat: Indy as savior. And the humor, I love it. Short Round works; he really does. When he tells "evil" Indy the "he loves him", I still tear up. Sure, Capshaw was annoying, but that damsel-in-distress character usually is (and I'm pretty sure Lucas was projecting his thoughts of his soon-to-be-ex-wife onto the character). Plus, what other film had hearts being ripped out, burning Indians, child slaves, crocodiles eating flesh, very scary (and real) bugs, and a PG-rating? You're fooling yourself if you don't think that mine cart chase isn't one of the three best action sequences in the Indy franchise (the first being the "over-under" truck chase from Raiders, and the third being the Cairo market from the same film). Crusade? Just like Jedi before it, a crude re-hash of the original in which the magic wasn't present. Sure, Connery is a terrific addition, but the Nazi villians are wore thin by the third act (especially after the Hitler cameo) and nearly every character becomes a joke. When Connery claims he should've mailed his diary to the Marx Brothers, we should've also had the Marx Brothers acting the main roles. The opening is also dreadful, as it paces along with one set piece in which we learn of all of Indy's traits (snakes, a bullwhip, a chin scar, a fedora and ensemble inspiration, oh my!).

And my blood is still boiling over Crystal Skull. And it's a shame I've completely lost the energy to talk about it. I'm going to tack-on my official review by the end of Saturday, I promise. But right now, I can't be bothered.

And before I depart, after seeing the trailer last night, David Fincher's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button has now become my most-anticipated of '08. It can't get here soon enough. Now that was something to get excited about.

[Message edited by nuts_score on 05-23-2008][/B]

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The twenty percent of men who saw this were:

1. looking for good looking single women at the theatre to pick up
2. went with their wives or girlfriends to please them
3. wanted to see some "really good" sex scenes where sex is very nonchalant and deem their lives very exciting.