Indiana Jones 5 and the Inevitable Hopelessness of it All

[Uncle_Larry]

I take no pleasure in being right about that. It sucks :(

[mrmolecule88]

Curse you Last-Crusade haters! That was the best one!

Also, I’ve been feeling kind of sick today, so I just want to thank Rob_Merritt for making this thread to finally make me queasy enough to puke my guts out.

[marxeil]

I can’t remember a single thing about crusade’s plot. There’s only a vague recollection of a tank chase scene and that’s all :(

[TurinTur]

Occult nazis, supernatural religious stuff, aliens… sorry people, but it’s all the same pulp shit. You can critizice the acting or the “too much irrealistic action scenes thanks to the cgi”, but i don’t find the change of theme jarring.

[Soren_Hoglund]

@MattKeil

Temple of Doom, for all its faults, was made by vigorous men in the prime of their creative power hacking their way through primeval jungle just to get their movie made.

Crystal Skull was made by old men who didn’t want to travel further than the Paramount lot, and it really, really shows.

This is pretty much it. Speilberg said at some point during the production that he tried to go back to being the filmmaker he grew out of, but the end result was more like watching your parents trying to show they can still can be down with the kids. It just leaves you feeling depressed and embarrassed for everyone involved.

@Gordon Cameron

Temple of Doom is better than Crystal Skull. I personally prefer it to Last Crusade as well, because in my opinion Last Crusade tips too far into comedy, while Temple of Doom retains a darkness that I find compelling. But I can see, given the enjoyable Ford/Connery chemistry, why some would prefer Last Crusade.

That’s what I missed most in the Crystal Skull. Last Crusade came close to being fatuous, but Crystal Skull crossed that line without glancing back. There’s no sense of tension, or that the characters that feel they’re in any kind of danger at all. It’s all so unthreatening and mannered.

[jason]

@Naeblis

Occult nazis, supernatural religious stuff, aliens… sorry people, but it’s all the same pulp shit. You can critizice the acting or the “too much irrealistic action scenes thanks to the cgi”, but i don’t find the change of theme jarring.

Aliens, in my opinion, was just a step too far, especially when you consider how many crystal skull legends exists, most of them going the supernatural route and not the alien one.

Lucas is just trying to find a way to make Han Solo be Indiana Jones ancestor.

[Brad_Grenz]

If anything, Indy is descended from Han.

[jason]

@Brad Grenz

If anything, Indy is descended from Han.

That would be the definition of ancestor.

[Omniscia]

@MattKeil

The Oxford chase is probably the best part of Crystal Skull. You know your Indiana Jones movie has problems when the United States is the setting for the most interesting action scenes.

If I’m not mistaken, Oxford is in England, and that chase scene occurred at Yale.

[antifood]

Is there really a difference between the supernatural and aliens?

[RyanMichael]

I would just like to vote for this as the title of the movie, it really is awesome.

[dermot]

I don’t think that the aliens were the problem with Indy4 at all really; I’m in agreement that it was the excessive use of CG as well as some silly plot elements and Shia LaBoeuf’s character. I think they got Indy himself right as well.

Aliens sort of worked because they were the pulp sci-fi/fantasy subject of the day. Except they didn’t work because the film was mostly stupid and only fleetingly managed the charm that made Indiana Jones work in the first place.

[Telefrog]

I had no issues with the commies/aliens threat, nor even the CG use. I didn’t even mind The Beef’s presence. My main issue with Indy 4 was the lack of any kind of peril. At no point did I feel that Indy could actually lose. When Marion drives the amphib truck over the waterfall to land on a tree (!) with only a smirk on her face, it clearly demonstrates that the main characters are in no danger at all. It was maddening. (I guess when you survive a nuclear blast, it’s tough to take any threat seriously.) I want my Indy teetering on the edge.

[Kael]

For me it was the aliens. It was like the movie switched genre’s midstream. Like having a romantic comedy turn into a slasher flick in the last 10 minutes (that would have been such a nice ending for You’ve got Mail).

[SlainteMhath]

@MattKeil

Temple of Doom, for all its faults, was made by vigorous men in the prime of their creative power hacking their way through primeval jungle just to get their movie made.

Crystal Skull was made by old men who didn’t want to travel further than the Paramount lot, and it really, really shows.

QFT.

As campy as ToD was, the settings were real, the action felt right and the overall tone was still one of exploration, wonder and adventure. KotCS had none of this. The settings were terrible, the action felt staged, and there was exactly zero sense of adventure to the whole thing. It was linear, contrived and even ridiculous at times. Frankly, the movie was an embarassment when compared against the original trilogy. There is not a single scene in KotCS which stands out as iconic, whereas the original trilogy had several scenes in each film that qualify as such.

That does not bode well for a 5th Indy film.

[Cormac]

@Creole Ned

I’m actually a little surprised Spielberg bought in to the whole alien angle.

Spielberg is just as much to blame for this film as Lucas. I can hardly remember the last film of his that I actually enjoyed. Jurrassic Park? None of his recent output really struck me as great, though I haven’t watched all of them yet (Munich remains unseen).

He’s been coasting for a while now, and I’m not really surprised that he couldn’t recapture the energy & charm of his 80s output.

[Uncle_Larry]

@Cormac

Spielberg is just as much to blame for this film as Lucas. I can hardly remember the last film of his that I actually enjoyed. Jurrassic Park? None of his recent output really struck me as great, though I haven’t watched all of them yet (Munich remains unseen).

He’s been coasting for a while now, and I’m not really surprised that he couldn’t recapture the energy & charm of his 80s output.

I wonder if he can even watch his old films without bawling. How do you take arguably the most iconic character of American cinema and… I can’t even finish the sentence. BUT WE ALL KNOW WHAT HE DID >:(

Munich was OK.

[Kael]

@Cormac

Spielberg is just as much to blame for this film as Lucas. I can hardly remember the last film of his that I actually enjoyed. Jurrassic Park? None of his recent output really struck me as great, though I haven’t watched all of them yet (Munich remains unseen).

He’s been coasting for a while now, and I’m not really surprised that he couldn’t recapture the energy & charm of his 80s output.

Saving Private Ryan was good, but that was back in 1998. Now he’s directing The Adventures of Tintin: the Secret of the Unicorn. I wish I was kidding about that. What happened to him?

[Ben_Sones]

I didn’t mind the aliens in Crystal Skull one bit. As Naeblis says, it’s pulled right out of the same well as the rest of the pulp adventure stuff that the series is based on. But even putting the aliens aside entirely, it was still a bad film, for reasons that others have already mentioned.

[Jazar]

@Ben Sones

I didn’t mind the aliens in Crystal Skull one bit. As Naeblis says, it’s pulled right out of the same well as the rest of the pulp adventure stuff that the series is based on. But even putting the aliens aside entirely, it was still a bad film, for reasons that others have already mentioned.

agreed.