Good post, Mad Old Lu. Agree with all of it, especially this stuff:
That is absolutely the chunk of the film I can't excuse, either. Other than a moment here or there (the quicksand scene is dumb, but Indy's reaction to the snake might be the most classic Indy of anything in the movie) it's all pretty bad.I personally get a little annoyed from the Peru Graveyard through to the waterfalls point.
So true! In fact, there were a lot of large, practical sets used in the film. The big obelisk? That was a full-size, functioning thing they actually built. But it looks CGI.As far as the special effects, it's very strange that the jungle looks so fake since it was filmed on a jungle location. I believe all they did was add more foliage to the path, and somehow they managed to screw that up and make even the real stuff look fake!