Few movies have burned themselves into my fragile adolescent mind as much as the first two Indiana Jones movies did. Despite the bad rap the second one always gets, it is one of my favorite movies ever, topped by few.

Granted, the first one is amongst those few.

So you might say the series is close to my heart.
I went into the cinema last Friday expecting...?
Seriously, I had no clue.


And now, I’d like to hear people discuss this here.

Did you hate it?
Disliked?
Couldn’t care about it?
Liked it?
Loved it?

Did it surprise you? What did you expect?
Be emotional, intelligent and / or nostalgic if need be!

I’ll be sure to put in my two cents tomorrow, but I hate to give a starting direction. I’m just curious what the Twitch forum thinks…

Wasn’t bad, i knew if i went into it trying to over analyze every scene for authenticity and all that jazz i would be disappointed, and just watched it for the pure action adventure nature of the film/series

just as i did when i was a kid watching the originals, and i enjoyed myself. Not to say that there were some things i didn’t like but overall i can’t complain

My interest peaked maybe a couple of months ago and so I went in less excitable than I imagined. Now I remember making-of’s on my VHS trilogy tapes and come the end of The Last Crusade featurette they let it be known that they had a script for part 4. So from the point of that boxset release it’s been about 13 years so obviously no they didn’t have a script. I kinda wish they had went ahead and used whatever means they had back then to turn out the fourth because even as I went in minus the buzz, I still came out disappointed. It’s been 20 odd years and in that time there have been a fair whack of adventure movies ‘in the spirit’ of Indy - could simply be a case of that filmic horizon being over-saturated, but I don’t believe Spielberg has ever made a clinically bad film that was short of ideas. So why did the bugs remind me of The Mummy. Why did the sword fight on the cars remind me of POTC. Why did the lead lined fridge that can sustain an atomic blast or two remind me of some b-movie horror with giant mosquitos. I’m also quite sure that if Raiders had been made in 2001 there would have been plenty of digital assistance - today we’re used to CGI overkill and Indy 4 was no exception...I was just hoping for more ‘real’ stunts of old I suppose. The alien angle is where they lost me big time, somehow Christian relics and village stones with magical properties were easier to swallow than a collective of all-knowing universe hoppers. Of course the main reason I was there was to see Dr. Jones himself and on this turn I feel I got my money’s worth, with most of the supporting players (bar the bumbling John Hurt who just annoyed me) carrying over well. Could have done with alot more Marion all the same. It was nice to see the fedora and whip back for another round but beyond turning Indy into a family man I don’t really see why it took so long or why it was altogether necessary to tell this particular tale.

Also want to note that the Indy movies make up my favourite trilogy and I’m still content to consider it a trilogy even with a quad collection boxset on the way.

Tomorrow was a few days too early, but… damn!

BtoFu has basically summed it all up so nicely, I feel there is little to add.

(SPOILER WARNING)
For me, the oddest thing was seeing Indy branded as a traitor early in the movie (a nice jab at current politics), but at the end it all pffft… disappeared.

Can anyone tell me why Indy was suddenly no longer blacklisted? Sure I can think of a few reasons, but none of those are shown in the movie. To me it seemed sloppy as hell because so much was made of it in the beginning.

Speed Racer >>>>>>> Indy 4

A little late on this, but I wanted to post my two sense on this movie which blew me away in just how bad it was. I have a review WITH MARKED SPOILER WARNING at my blog, but here is the opening which pretty much sums up how I feel about this film.

All of these years waiting for this film in anticipation, hearing how for years that Ford and Spielberg had turned down George Lucas’s bad ideas, because they only wanted to do this if it was good, and this is the script they ended up shooting? Honestly the only reason anyone has given anyone any praise to this film is because it is Indiana Jones, and has the John Williams score, because honestly everything else is just crap. The story is the worst sort of crap, so bad it hurts, and their is never a moment of worry that our heroes will get hurt, or are even in danger, and characters you are supposed to care about, are so paper thin you never do, and you wonder why the other characters do. The cinematography right from the start is so laughably bad, that I felt like it was done by a bad film student. Even scenes in seemingly simple locations are obviously badly lit greenscreen shots. And speaking of greenscreen, it seems most of the film was shot greenscreen, and badly so, and the digital effects are awful (the groundhogs look terrible and don’t even get me started on the Monkey Scene where this film really jumped the Shark), and I mean bad like this couldn’t have been the much vaunted ILM because these effects stink. Half the time the actors don’t even respond to the digital effects around them, but since they seem to be in no danger at all, why would they? Even the much vaunted return of Marion Ravenwood as played by Karen Allen is a let down. Sure she looks great, but she no longer has any chemistry with Harrison Ford, and as played is a horrible mother, I mean what mother would be trying to correct her sons fencing stance instead of worrying that he is about to die? I know this time out Lucas wanted to follow the films of the time, the 50’s Sci Fi films, instead of the 1930’s action serials, but that is forgetting what the fans love about Indiana Jones, but then from the crapfest Star Wars Prequels who already know that Lucas has no idea what fans want, and doesn’t really care. I mean even the opening and main titles of this film were awful. Staring with the horrible digital groundhogs, and a race between an army convoy and some kids in a 1950’s hotrod (didn’t Lucas get this out of his system with American Graphiti) which turns out to have nothing to do with the film at all, and shows the awful white credits which show zero creativity. Actually a big surprise for me was that Shia LaBeouf was decent in the film, and his motorcycle chase with Ford on the back of his cycle was the closest to something that seemed out of the old films, until it ended with one of the stupidest scenes you can imagine (it was cool that they had the bike at the Arclight though, damn that theater spoils one forever). Honestly I can see why Spielberg refused to screen the film, and only showed Paramount 2 weeks before, because he has to know how bad it is. And why else were there no early press screenings, and while it cleaned up opening weekend, I doubt it will have the legs they wish it did, because it is too stupid, and too silly, and really lost the core of what Indiana Jones was always about.

I enjoyed it, but was a little disappointed. I wasn’t expecting it to be so...silly, for lack of a better word.

I hated it, a good 80% of the films scenes had me rolling my eyes.

Ditto.  For a blow, by blow account of ‘bad decisions’ by the creators try here:  http://www.rowthree.com/2008/05/27/cinecast-87-regarding-henry/

Gah.

This just came out in Japan, hence my late post.

My Girl was looking forward to this whereas I was...cautious.
Turns out..we both were left wanting.

Like you all, Indy was a big part of my life, being a child of the 80’s but that was a damn long time ago and I just couldn’t work up that childlike glee for this one.

Basically, I was very disappointed.
Elements were good, the family bickering, the motorbike chase through the Uni, some shots were amazing [Interrogation Scene; Indy Silhouette over Indy Himself] but the rest was awful.

The alien story just threw me and I could never get back on.
The overuse of CG also made me cringe.
Now, I’m a big fan of Star Wars Ep I- III.
CG does not bother me but in this one...every time a stunt happened, I wasn’t scared for Indy, as he was surrounded by big, colourful CGI.

In Star Wars, you’ve got your Jedi running around, so I’m not grounded in reality.

But Indy..., c’mon, he’s so human and that’s why we love him.
He falls over, gets punched, makes mistakes.

When CGI is everywhere though...it’s not real for me anymore.

I loved Spielberg but since Saving Private Ryan, he’s stripped himself of the wonderful, awe inspiring films that make the whole family ecstatic.
I miss that guy...and Indy 4 felt like it was someone else at the controls.

The worst part of this...after the film, I found myself dying to see the Mummy 3.

I’m really looking forward to it for some big thrills and fun times....

When the hell did The Mummy squash Indy?

Damn...such a waste.

I remember people saying that the cgi fire ants in Scorpion King looked fake.
Well, it’s a few years later with a far higher profile (and budget) movie, and ouch. Just ouch.

Raiders had real spiders and real snakes, and they made you squirm.

Temple of Doom had real cockroaches and some things I haven’t got a clue about what they were. Oh, and a real snake! They made you squirm!

In sharp contrast, Crystal Skull has fake ants that actually look fake. Any squirming you will be doing is because of the IDEA of what you’re seeing, not because of what you actually see. Can you imagine the impact of those scenes if they had figured out a way to have thousands of REAL ants crawl over someone?


(Interestingly, Crusade had the biggest real fucking spider I have ever seen, but it was cut from the movie. It was on the pre-release lobbycards though…
Seeing Harrison Ford with that thing on his belly sure made ME squirm! Maybe Steven doesn’t like his audience squirming for fun anymore?)

Damn!

Now I wanna see that pre release lobby card!

Yeah, the fire ants were just...blah.
The idea of fighting in an ‘Ant Ring’ was nice...but when you know that those buggers aren’t there, why care?

That’s the reason Jackie Chan is so good, when he’s hanging off a bridge...he’s hanging off a damn bridge.
You feel for him and marvel at the skill of the filmmakers...there was no marveling at this flick though.

Maybe it’s our fault?
Maybe our expectations were too high for this one...maybe if it had come out 3 years after Last Crusade...I dunno.

Maybe if we were all retarded Ninjas we’d have enjoyed it more...or exploded.

Complete disappointment.

The only good “discovery” in the movie is Irina Spalko. She is so attractive, not only by her appearance, but by her charisma.