Watched Raiders opening night, was blown away.
Watched TOD opening night, was blown away.
Watched TLC opening night, was amused.
Watched KOTCS opening night, was suicidal.
DOD my first Indy movie I didn’t go opening night.
Not even upset, just indifferent.
I have the exact experience with Star Wars (well, except the original):
Star Wars - 2nd week after opening - mind-boggling experience - saw it 30x over the year it was out
ESB - opening day - insane, ditched school and sat thru it twice - saw it 10x that summer
ROTJ - opening day - kinda felt hokey but I still loved it - saw it 3x in theater
TPM - opening day - disappointed - saw it 3x in theater
AOTC - 2 weeks after opening - really disappointed - never saw it again in theater
ROTS - opening night - loved it despite the obvious - saw it 3x in theater
TFA - screening - liked it for a moment, saw it a 2nd time and didn't like it
TLJ - screening - hated it
TROS - saw it on tv (first SW movie NOT seen in a movie theater)...
I've seen every Indy opening day/night...
I'm seeing this on Sunday, first time NOT seeing it opening day... but at least I'll still wade through it on the big screen
Not to make you chaps feel old (even though thats exactly what I am trying to do!
) but I couldn't tell you what my reaction was on the opening night of any of the original Indiana Jones films on account of not having been born until 4 years later!
How time flies!
My older brother went to see it, despite my warnings re: the alleged plot, and he is actually pretty upset about it all.
Said the opening raised his hopes a little (though he wasn't blown away - just that it was enjoyable overall despite the
slight uncanny valley of Indy) and the rest of the movie was just awful, and to put that in perspective KOTCS grew on him over the years (admittedly from hatred to mere dissapointment)
He said its less cheesy/embarrasing than KOTCS, but Indy's story was just depressing and the movie itself was boring and dour.
He said the ending half was mind-blowingly bad, like WTF were they thinking, what is this, can I GET MY MONEY BACK IF I WALK OUT NOW bad.
He didn't like the new lady character (I know some people seem to love or hate the actress but I will be honest in saying I nor my family have seen her in anything so we have no ideas about her one way or another, I didn't like what I saw in the trailers and my brother seems pretty sour on her in this film)
He felt introducing a new character and making her such a focus in the last Indy film was a huge mistake/borderline insult, as he felt they should have had Indy's son back (either recast or not) or Short Round or both with Indy being the older more distinguished Professor with a fun wicked streak like his dad once was in Last Crusade. Or have him go on an adventure with Marion as a married couple.
With that said he found her less annoying than Willie in Temple of Doom (he
loathes her and I agree with him that she may be one of the worst characters ever) or Mac (Ray Winstone) from KOTCS.
He thought the villain was okay, nothing mindblowing, not as charasmatic or watchable as Belloq, Toht or Mola Ram, nor "so bad its almost good" like Cate Blanchett in KOTCS. He felt Mads had a touch more screen presence than most of the Nazis in Last Crusade.
Overall he said its the worst Indy movie, followed closely by KOTCS.
He said that while some individual elements may not be the worst out of the entire series, he felt this movie was overall the worst and felt that they did a massive disservice to Indy's character. He also said that this is the first time an Indy movie was boring him most of the way through, and say what you will about KOTCS its not
boring (though I personally wonder if boring would be an improvement for KOTCS)
I love Indiana Jones, but my brother
loves Indiana Jones - so its possible his anger/disappointment wouldn't match that of a more casual viewer.