Indiana Jones & The Kingdom of The Crystal Skull Discussion Thread (Spoilers)

[Buttmunch]

Who'd want 13 of those cheesy things anyways lol.

Me.

I just don't see another company making these right now so these are it for now. I'd love a 1:6 version from Sideshow though!

 

[The Mike]

I'm finally going to see this tonight. My wife has heard some of the bad reviews but stayed spoiler free, she already announced though that she will be pissed if its bad so I'm interested to hear her take on it. Thanks to the reviews my expectations are really low which is probably best anyway.

 

[RJMacReady16]

Ever think that those of you bashing the s#$% outta this movie never got Indy to begin with?

Temple of Doom was about magical rocks and Last Crusade had a 1000 year old knight hanging out in a room full of cups but not a slab of bread in sight.

Every Indy sequel was hammy.

I understand hating the SW prequels, but to bash KotCS like this...it's really a shame. I don't know what else you were expecting.

Could it have been better? Sure. Everything could be.

Too much CGI? I agree. But welcome to the modern world of film. It ain't gonna' change. It's cost & time efficient.

When did fanboy (I would proudly call myself one up until now) become synonymous with "b^^^h"?

KotCS was a fun movie and will stand proudly in the franchise. Hell, it's probably the weakest of the series...so what...I'll take a weak Indy movie over a strong Marvel movie any day of the week.

Basically, if you haven't seen it yet, don't listen to the naysayers. Go enjoy yourself. My wife's the cynic of all cynics when it comes to Lucas & the world of destroying a good franchise via bad sequels, but she absolutely loved Crystal Skull.

 

[EVILFACE]

Sure they had hammy stuff.

But none of them had anything close as hammy as a 50's greaser kid swinging from vines with monkeys that had the same hair do as the greaser.

 

[Seretur]

Now you're reaching, Evil.

 

[scubasteve]

Anyone know where this exhibit is going on at?

I only found this pic (no location) -

I'd like to go snag the Ark for my SSC Indy display that I'm working on.

 

[Seretur]

Dude, that looks amazing!

 

[OSCORP]

I don't know what everyone is ^^^^^ing about i just saw it and while it was far from perfect it's hardly the atrocity some of you are making it to be. It was an Indy flick.

 

[IrishJedi]

Yes, where is it?? I must visit!!

 

[The Josh]

I don't know what everyone is ^^^^^ing about i just saw it and while it was far from perfect it's hardly the atrocity some of you are making it to be. It was an Indy flick.

I'm still trying to figure how itis so bad myself.

 

[Wor-Gar]

I just saw it.

I don't have time to post a long review. Everything's been said anyway.

All I can say for now is.....


I liked it.


I can't believe it either.

I attribute my enjoyment to the fact that everyone told me what the terrible parts were so I was prepared and got through them with minimal damage. In this case, spoilers really helped me.

In fact, with exception to the ending and a few bits here and there, I enjoyed this movie more than Last Crusade. Not sure that will hold up, but I'm going off my gut right now before things settle down.

OK, let the tomatoes start flying...

 

[DarkArtist81]

 

[Indiana Fett]

 

[Buttmunch]

Anyone know where this exhibit is going on at?

I only found this pic (no location) -

I'd like to go snag the Ark for my SSC Indy display that I'm working on.

Great shots! I really wish though that the alien(s?) at the end would have been a puppet or stop motion. This alien in the crate looks much better than the CGI'd one.

 

[icruise]

I attribute my enjoyment to the fact that everyone told me what the terrible parts were so I was prepared and got through them with minimal damage. In this case, spoilers really helped me.

I really do think expectations have a lot to do with how people react to things. With the Phantom Menace and Crystal Skull, a lot of people (including myself to a degree) just had it built up too high in their minds. I'm going to be seeing Indy again tomorrow with some friends, so I'm interested to see how I feel after another viewing. I have a feeling I will be like you, and actually enjoy it more now that I know where to set the bar for my expectations. I'm also interested to see what my friends think seeing it for the first time.

 

[MaulFan]

Well, 24 hours later and a lot of great discussion last night, I have to say it was an enjoyable installment in the series and an innocently fun time. The only real criticism that remains with me is that the myth at the heart of this movie was a poor choice for something to resonate with a broad audience. Yes, many fans around the ages of people on this board have been following the creation of this movie and understood the myths of the Crystal Skull before seeing the movie, but for a novice like myself, which will also be a good portion of movie goers, it'll likely come off as the fiction of the production team and not something which has a true history in culture. If they'd chosen a myth to center the adventure on that was more plausible to any viewer, no matter your knowledge base, I think this film could really contend not only with the other Indy movies but also the current summer film lineup.

 

[Buttmunch]

I think the film's set up is just as plausible as the others. Aliens visiting acient civilizations like the Maya and Egypt is actually a real theory that the History channel has devoted countless programs too. Plus, as was mentioned in the film, these civilizations believed them to be Gods, so this is still in fact a religious based McGuffin, despite what everyone thinks.

I think the biggest problem is that many people just don't get it. If you do get it, the film makes much more sense and is much better overall.

 

[Entropy]

I think the film's set up is just as plausible as the others. Aliens visiting acient civilizations like the Maya and Egypt is actually a real theory that the History channel has devoted countless programs too. Plus, as was mentioned in the film, these civilizations believed them to be Gods, so this is still in fact a religious based McGuffin, despite what everyone thinks.

I think the biggest problem is that many people just don't get it. If you do get it, the film makes much more sense and is much better overall.

I think people very much "get it" about the aliens influencing an ancient civilzation, as you said it's an old idea that has been explored in many stories before. I think it's the poor execution of this idea, the muddy, exposition heavy script and the goofy bits (prairie dogs, monkies, crotch shots, etc) that are turning people off.

I haven't read a good explanation of what exactly is going on with the aliens. Anyone who feels they understand care to enlighten? Apparently the ship crashes/lands in Peru thousands of years ago. The aliens become skeletons somehow. Is this through death, their flesh decaying or are the 13 each a separate part of a single alien? Then somehow one of the 13 skeletons loses it's head so they are unable to return to their dimension. Somewhere along the way the ship is turned into a temple by those who received the knowledge of irrigation and such from the aliens. Thousands of years later Spalko returns the skull, it magically flies out of her hands and reanimates the skeleton, the 13 merge into 1 now living alien and bestow on her all their knowledge which she asks for. Her mind can't handle this, her head explodes and she breaks apart and is sucked into the other dimension. With the return of the skull, the alien(s) can now return to the alternate dimension and they blink away.

 

[icruise]

I haven't read a good explanation of what exactly is going on with the aliens. Anyone who feels they understand care to enlighten? Apparently the ship crashes/lands in Peru thousands of years ago. The aliens become skeletons somehow. Is this through death, their flesh decaying or are the 13 each a separate part of a single alien? Then somehow one of the 13 skeletons loses it's head so they are unable to return to their dimension. Somewhere along the way the ship is turned into a temple by those who received the knowledge of irrigation and such from the aliens. Thousands of years later Spalko returns the skull, it magically flies out of her hands and reanimates the skeleton, the 13 merge into 1 now living alien and bestow on her all their knowledge which she asks for. Her mind can't handle this, her head explodes and she breaks apart and is sucked into the other dimension. With the return of the skull, the alien(s) can now return to the alternate dimension and they blink away.

That's pretty much exactly right, and you've done a good job of explaining why the ending doesn't quite gel for me. Can anyone shed any more light on this? Unless I missed something, I don't think the movie did a very good job of explaining all of this.

 

[Entropy]

Also, why did the Soviets need to break into the warehouse with Indy? They take the alien body but do absolutely nothing with it.