Changing the title of the first completely alters the meaning of the title. In the first film, Indiana is as much a “Raider” of the lost Ark as the Nazis. He may be a “good guy”, but he’s still violating a sacred artifact, and it’s only his last minute gesture of faith that saves him from the fate the bad guys suffer.
Imagine if the second film was named “…and the Search for the Missing Stones” or the third “…and the Quest for the Golden Cup.” Both limp, lifeless titles that tell you enough but don’t evoke anything interesting at all.
No, that’s not true. They knew that video stores organize their film titles alphabetically. From a pure branding perspective, it made more sense to have all three films collected together on the rental shelves, instead of having the best one over in the R’s and the other two back in the I’s. The change of the title may itself be dumb, but the reason for it makes perfect marketing sense.
It should be Indiana Jones and the *Head * of Vecna. Lots of laffs.
Apart from jokes, I feel that Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is a bit of a mouthful. Even if it follows the IJ and the X of Y Z structure, it’s a tad heavy. I hope they’ll change it. They should consider Indiana Jones and the Glass Headed Guys!
So far they’ve had the best luck with biblical stuff. It should have been Indiana Jones and the True Cross, or Indiana Jones and the Staff of Aaron. Really, if speculative mythology was admissible, what they should have done was just make a film out of Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. Oooo, even better: Indiana Jones and the Secret of Monkey Island.
Why not? If Krishna made a hundred (okay, I don’t remember the exact number) duplicates of himself to give a hundred cowherd girls good loving simultaneously, why wouldn’t JC cut out the middlemen, as if were, and only duplicate the pertinent parts?
(Oh, I can’t believe I said that. Nobody tell my mom, okay?)
These days, a title like “Main Character and the Set of Adjectives and Nouns” sounds too much like a Harry Potter title. I know it’s a standard of the movies but right now it doesn’t really work.
I don’t mind the new title too much. It’s more or less in keeping with the earlier ones. I’ve got my fingers crossed for the movie - I really really really want it to be good.
