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

[MarfMaster]

The only part of KOTCS I liked (I had forgotten there was even one until now) was when Indy's hat rolls down the isle at the end, and we're led to believe Mutt is going to pick it up, only to have Indy snatch it up and place it on his head. Not in my lifetime you little ____head.

 

[Khev]

But what if INDY V actually gets made?

I actually liked the idea of further movies depicting more adventures of old Indy when KOTCS first came out. Not after watching a marathon of all four movies. KOTCS was a fun revisitation, but Indy has run his course on screen, IMO. Let the man settle down with his family, dignity intact. Anything I could want out of the character is already available on my DVD shelf.

 

[jediknight120]

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - 7.5/10

Just finished watching all four Indy movies (chronologically according to the years the stories take place starting with TOD) this week. KOTCS did a nice job of closing out the series. It actually plays better with a fresh watching of the previous films than as a stand-alone picture IMO. The series did feel a bit long in the tooth by the time I got to KOTCS, but it was still fun and even with the absurdity of the fridge and the monkeys it really wasn't offensive in any way (it certainly didn't weaken the character like we saw in TLC.)

I really love the look of the alien chamber and the design of the skeletons, and it was neat that only Indy stood in the foreground as the ship departed at the end. A totally unnecessary movie but a fun epilogue to one of cinema's great icons.

Agreed on all points. The only scenes I really didn't like were the fridge and the monkeys, otherwise it was a fun ride.

 

[Deckard]

There was alot I didn't like and to me felt out of character, and it all retracted from my fun.

The opening was too lengthy, should have cut out after the rocketsled, was a good enough climax, the atomic test and then the FBI talk kills the pacing big time. And of course takes any danger out of anything else.

Cut right from the Rocketsled get away, back to Marshall and it would feel more solid and make Indy's surprise that he was under investigation by the feds more legit feeling.

Some bad acting all around, Karen Allen, even Cate Blanchett, Indy just felt flat when acting off them.

Mutt getting hit again and again and again and again in the nuts.

The Monkeys and Mutt's tarzan impression right into the truck.

The Rubber tree off the cliff after the ants.

The triple agent thing with Mac, and the way Mac dies, he's just laying there for about 10 minutes and it looks like he just ate a heavy dinner and is sluggish intead of weighed down by the gold.

The wasted oppurtunity for a fight between the natives and the russians.

The space between spaces line. The somewhere grandpa is laughing line.

And the Wedding which is beyond poor to me. This is THE GREATEST adventurer ever. Now he's buckled down and can't go out on adventures without his wife breathing down his neck or Mutt coming along. Just doesn't feel like what I want to remember the character by. He was a sauve playboy with the ladies, it's alot of his character.

The fact that Marcus and Henry Sr. are gone from the Indy universe forever. I'd much rather think they rode off into that sunset ready for more adventures togeather, then KNOW they are just dead and gone.

 

[MarfMaster]

It seems we disliked KOTCS for pretty much the exact same reasons Deckard, you nailed every irksome moment/misstep.

 

[IrishJedi]

The Fridge is great.

I liked the FBI interrogation scene, too... particularly the hints of Indy's WWII war hero status. In fact, other than the silly prairie dogs and the goofy cemetery warriors, I like pretty much everything about the movie from the beginning until they get to the jungle camp. That's where things really start to fall apart.

 

[Deckard]

The Fridge is great.

I liked the FBI interrogation scene, too... particularly the hints of Indy's WWII war hero status. In fact, other than the silly prairie dogs and the goofy cemetery warriors, I like pretty much everything about the movie from the beginning until they get to the jungle camp. That's where things really start to fall apart.

Yea I don't think there was anything really wrong with the FBI guys, just that Indy shouldn't be so surprised then back at Marshall when Broadbent tells him the feds were looking into him. I think it works better to just have Indy in and out of the warehouse, and then the feds looking into him lend to the mystery of the whole thing.

The biggest problem with the nuke, even more so then him surviving in a fridge, is that it really detracts from the Ark warehouse scene right before it.

I mean you can't tell me thats not what you were most looking forward to seeing, where the ark is finally and what else is in there? And yet all the discussion just goes right to the nuke and it being "what ruined Indy". It's just a shame.

 

[IrishJedi]

I was never thrilled with the idea that Area 51 held the warehouse from the end of RAIDERS in the first place... considering the facility didn't even have a shack on it until the 50's (and ROTLA takes place in 1936). And I don't like the Ark being used as a gimmick cameo, either. If they wanted to use it (and the warehouse) then that should have been what the Russians were after in the beginning. Have Indy save the Ark again, but in the big warehouse chase/escape some crates are destroyed and that's how the Russians find the alien corpse and go on a search for the crystal skull McGuffin. That's how I woulda done it anyway.

But I will always love The Fridge, and make no apologies for it.

 

[Khev]

The fridge was great. The can temporarily jamming the door from being closed at the last second was a nice touch.

 

[Deckard]

Orange... I think. You gotta give it to Harrison, he's been put in some weird acting spots over his career, back before it was normal to act with puppets or things that weren't there until post. He always comes across as cool and suave Harrison. Unless he wants his family back. Then he doesn't ____ around.

 

[thenammagazine]

The fridge was great. The can temporarily jamming the door from being closed at the last second was a nice touch.

I think you hit the nail on the head way earlier in this thread when you said we didn't need to see the fridge being flung by the blast. Oldschool Spielberg/Lucas would've just shown Indy jumping into the fridge, the explosion and then cutting straight to Indy forcing the burned fridge open a distance away and walking out to see the mushroom cloud. It's funny how in some instances like ROTS, Lucas spares us seeing Anakin slay the younglings knowing the audience is intelligent enough to put 2 and 2 together but then yet dumbs down KOTCS by showing the fridge unbelievably flying through the air and tumbling before spilling Indy out.

 

[Khev]

I think you hit the nail on the head way earlier in this thread when you said we didn't need to see the fridge being flung by the blast.

Yeah. Still not as bad as some make it out to be, but old Spielberg could have made KOTCS into a real classic.

 

[IrishJedi]

Only 2 of KOTCS' main issues can be attributed to Spielberg:

1) The monkey swinging scene

2) The complete lack of scenes showing anyone being shot (even by Indy... in fact, he never even fires his revolver once, which is quite un Indy-like and a clear sign of PC Spielberg).

Everything else that most people complain about (Rocket Sled, Fridge, Ants, Aliens, Flying Saucer, etc) all came directly from Lucas and he was insistent from the very beginning that all of those elements be in the film.

Incidentally, the films' greatest moments (imho) were all developed by Spielberg: The 50's encapsulation of Doomstown, The diner conversation, and the motorcycle chase.

And no other director could have so effortlessly pulled off the opening highway car race and the warehouse sequence.

KOTCS has several issues, but Spielberg is barely responsible for those and is far from being anywhere near the film's weakest links. Same with Harrison Ford, imho. He did the best with what he had.

 

[Khev]

None of those things were as bad as having saucermen from outerspace show up at the end of AI.

 

[The Josh]

As I've said numerous times. Does the film have issues? Yeah, it does but even the issues I seem to find a way to have fun with (even the monkeys). Some of the crazy outrageous stunts are believable because we've seen crazy stuff in other Indy films.

 

[TheObsoleteMan]

I enjoyed Crystal Skull when it first came out, but having rewatched it again just recently, I've come to realize that my enjoyment was due to being in full on Indy mode at the time and wanting to like it. The only thing that held up for me was the warehouse/fridge sequence. I don't care how much people gripe about that fridge, it's totally in line with the implausibility of the previous movies. If Indy can survive the power of the Ark by simply closing his eyes or falling out of a crashing plane on an inflatible raft, he can survive an A-bomb in a lead lined fridge.

After that though, the movie just meanders, like an old man taking a leisurely stroll. Nothing seems terribly important or urgent, and there's never a sense of any real danger. Being stuck in that same South American jungle for the second and third acts makes the whole affair terribly uninteresting, and watching a crowd of geriatrics shuffle out of a church is kind of a sad sendoff to the greatest action adventure hero of the 80's.

 

[Khev]

I enjoyed Crystal Skull when it first came out, but having rewatched it again just recently, I've come to realize that my enjoyment was due to being in full on Indy mode at the time and wanting to like it.

Nothing seems terribly important or urgent, and there's never a sense of any real danger.

Agreed. Its a fun "victory lap" after watching the others, and cool to see Ford's take on an aging Indy, but as a self contained adventure film its definitely lacking.

Spalko isn't any real threat to anyone, not even his kid. She's almost one of Indy's adventuring buddies along for the ride.

Funnily enough I never actually realized that all death by gunfire in the movie is done off-camera. Definitely time to hang the fedora for good then.

 

[Khev]

2) The complete lack of scenes showing anyone being shot (even by Indy... in fact, he never even fires his revolver once, which is quite un Indy-like and a clear sign of PC Spielberg).

There is that scene early on where Indy throws the gun down and it shoots Mac in the foot. I got the impression that he somehow did that intentionally, though it does beg the question as to why he didn't just strafe the crowd. Just as big a distraction with the advantage of possibly taking out multiple targets. TOD Indy would have done that!

 

[IrishJedi]

None of those things were as bad as having saucermen from outerspace show up at the end of AI.

God dammit, I hope you're joking.

 

[Khev]

I couldn't resist.