Man you people are a bunch of whiners. It’s a god-damned movie, not a deep critical analysis of a piece of classical literature. Are you trying to tell me that the first three movies do not require suspension of belief or have plot holes? Right.
I’m glad I didn’t sit with any of you lot. I just saw it with a packed house and I didn’t see a sour face on anyone after the show.
Lighten up.
All I’m saying is that if, beat for beat, this was a sequal to The Mummy or indeed, a stand-alone original movie, people would be a hell of a lot harsher on it. Most reviews I’ve read are along the lines of “yes, the plot is hokey and full of holes, yes, the action is far-fetched and devoid of any real suspense, yes, the plot runs out with a half hour to go, leaving a LOT of cast members with NOT A LOT to do, but hey… It’s Indiana Jones! C’Mon!!”
having said all that, it is kinda wierd going to bed tonight thinking
Dude; You Watched a fourth Indiana Jones Movie today…
Indiana Jones and his Franchizable Orgasm
This was Merchant Ivory meets Ivory Snow.
Clive Staples, not Clive Sinclair.
I’m not going to bother spoiler protecting details about Raiders of the Lost Ark, because if you haven’t seen it already an army of cartoon Nazis is going to crash through your door and make their heads explode at you. That being said, in Raiders Indy uses the bullwhip:[ul][li]In the iconic opening sequence where one of his porters tries to shoot him, []in the temple to swing across the pit (why he couldn’t just climb down the open shaft and avoid the trouble with traps and rolling boulders, who knows), []grabs the whip just before the door closes, []in Marion’s bar to jerk the poker away from Marion’s face, then to attack Toht’s henchmen, []In Cairo, against attackers that attempt to abduct Marion, [] in the Well of Souls in the Tanis dig, to climb up the big statue (that appears to exist only to be shoved through a wall), during the “Truck? What truck?” sequence, and [] being tortured by Marion in sadomasochis…oh, wait, that’s must be from some kind of fan fiction.[/ul][/li]
Anyway, in the first movie, Jones gets more mileage out of that whip than Batman out of his utility belt or McGuyver out of a Swiss Army Knife.
I read a few of the development scripts, and frankly what is being described here just doesn’t surprise me. It sounds like they’ve shoehorned in every half-good idea into the film in the hope of making something stick to the wall, while at the same time trying to evoke nostalgia, which is always a creative void. (See Die Another Day for an extreme example of this in the Bond franchise.) But mostly it smacks of a complete lack of necessity; there was no story to be told here, just a series of action sequences strung together on the thinest strand of a plot. Even Temple of Doom had a genuine story that created necessity in the actions of the characters. Kingdom of the Crystal Skull seems to exist for the singular purpose of supporting an advertising campaign.
I agree with RickJay; the original will stand up to repeated viewings, and gets even richer for the cinemaphile who appreciates just how the movie is able to most smoothly along despite plot holes that should be obvious. It keeps moving so fast, and pacing breaks in the action so well, that the viewer gets neither saturated or cognizant of the problems. It is a genuine classic, from start to the magnificently ironic end. And most people never even notice that, had Indiana Jones stayed home and graded term papers, it would have made essentially no difference to the world at large.
Stranger
We liked it, even took the kids. Sure, the story was shit, but for sheer entertainment there is nothing like seeing a relaxed, funny, sexy Harrison Ford in his signature role. Karen Allen lights up the screen, and when she flashed that grin at Indy (freckles and all), I think every man’s heart skipped a beat in the theater!
My six year old son said something interesting after Irina’s last scene-
We asked him if seeing that fire come out of her eyes was too scary, and he said no. Then he said, “It was because the aliens knew she was the wrong person.” :eek:
Yes, I will be watching Raiders tonight and Crusade tomorrow, but it was a fine addition (if not fantastic), and it blew the socks off of Doom.
7.75 out of 10.
Edit- forgot to add how much I enjoyed the glimpse of the Ark. 
Raiders is one of the most perfect films I have ever seen. The cinematography, the cast, the story… it stands up in every way. A masterpiece. The opening shots in the jungle take my breath away, they are so perfectly filmed.
Sorry, Staples. I always do that, I must be thinking of Sir Clive Sinclair. Amusing fellow.
I figured out Mutt’s parentage right away–when he and Indy were in the university coffeeshop and Mutt mention his mother’s name, Marion. Yes, there are lots of Marions but very few that fit the requirements.
He said Mary Williams, and not Marion Ravenwood.
I just saw it tonight. As I was watching I kept having this feeling that I was watching a movie of someone playing the LucasArts adventure game of the movie. The goofy cartoony-ness was there. Climbing into the lead refrigerator to survive nuclear blast is something Guybrush Threepwood would do. Also, there were all these moments where it looked like someone keyed “Use PAPER on CRAZY OLD MAN” or “Use CRYSTAL SKULL on RAVENOUS BUGBLATTER ANT SWARM OF TRAAL”
This was followed by
“Use CRYSTAL SKULL on CRAZED NATIVES ™” and “Use CRYSTAL SKULL on ELABORATELY CARVED DOOR” and “Use CRYSTAL SKULL on HEADLESS SKELETON”
I like Raiders and think it’s a great movie- one of the greatest- but it also has its share of plotholes, including one which, if you think about it, technically makes Indiana Jones partially responsible for WWII.
(Relevant post here, in another thread, rather than hijacking this one further)
I saw it last night with my brother (big film buff) and his wife (hadn’t seen any Indy movies). His reaction was what I expected, “It was all bits from the other movies stuck together…”. Hers was, “What was the deal with the snake?”…she really wanted to see Speed Racer instead.
I enjoyed it, but I think they hung off of one or two cliffs too many. Trim off 20 minutes or so, and it would have been perfect.
My friends and I wanted to know why the Spanish dudes only
took ONE skull in the first place. There were like, seven of them, weren’t there? Why didn’t they take a skull each?
It was an entertaining movie, if a bit long. We laughed our asses off afterwards poking fun at the plotholes.
I saw the midnight show on Wednesday night. I thought it was good fun - unlike a lot of people here I have only seen the original Indiana Jones movies once and wasn’t that into the franchise. I think it’s a lot like when the Star Wars:Episode I movie came out - those that were really into the franchise were understandably disappointed, but people who were not invested often enjoyed it more just as a silly action-flick.
Anyways, spoiler time. There were a few things that bothered me:
[spoiler]1) Indy says that 7 conquistadors went to the city, found the skull, etc. He even counts them in the graveyard (and was I the only one who thought one of the mummies was going to come to life and walk around while Indy and Mutt were looking the other way?). So, when they go to the temple and fall in the water at the bottom of the shaft, they clearly show skeletons there wearing conquistador armour. Where did those guys come from? Other conquistadors? But Indy specifically says that only the one set of guys ever made it there.
at the end, they make a big point that the treasure was knowledge, not gold. But that whole place WAS filled with gold and other actual treasure. That’s why Mac was stealing it. I thought that detracted from it.
it bugged me how Mac double crossed Indy and tried to kill him or get him killed multiple times, and when Indy had a chance to kill Mac at the end, he didn’t have to, because this big Deus Ex Machina came along and conveniently did it for him. I just found it annoying that Harrison Ford got to keep his hands so clean the whole time and not actually kill anyone.[/spoiler]
Nope, he said “Marion.”
I just got back, he said “Mary.”
And I liked it. The alien stuff was a bit too much at the end, but it was definitely FUN. And better, overall, than Temple of Doom.
I’m pretty sure he said “Mary” which was just one of my (many) problems with the movie: The kid doesn’t know his own mother’s name? That said, I don’t want to overstate my reaction; I didn’t hate it. I didn’t look at my watch (well, cell phone these days) to check the time during it, which is how I personally know if a movie is a lost cause for me. I thought it was mildly entertaining but I also thought it was very silly, and I think people would be less forgiving of its obvious shortcomings if it wasn’t OMG Indiana Jones.
These made me laugh.
He did say Mary. I just thought she stopped calling herself Marion at some point - or maybe her husband always called her Mary and the kid never heard any different.
Also, anyone else spot The Telegram operator from deadwood?
Yes, and as he is genuinely Russian I expected more of a central role for him. Disappointed that he was just some red-shirt (under the bed-shirt) lackey.