Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - *SPOILERS WARNING*

Oh I get that, it's the "perfect" I don't

Well, here's my take on it all:

I've been a die hard Indy fan since I first saw Raiders in July 1981 (it opened on my birthday).
It was THE film for me! I saw it another 15 times over the following months.
When Temple Of Doom came out (also on my Bithday) in 84 I was shocked by much of it but overall enjoyed it. I was so into Indy in my teens that I bought a bullwhip and learnt to master it quite well. When The Last Crusade came out in 89 I went to the opening with many friends. We all enjoyed it. It wasn't Raiders but it had something and it was very fun! I embraced the trilogy.

For years I've been reading rumours of Indy's comeback. Finally a script was agreed on!
After all this time of waiting it had to be good right? And Marion is back in it! Can't go wrong!

I've just come back from the cinema. I waited a few days to let crowds die down and also for some friends to be freed up to go with me at this time.
I've read the reviews good and not so good. I've thrashed the score over the past week.
I went with lowered expectations just in case it didn't deliver.

I read posts here from other fans who were disapointed and I thought "no guys, come on. Just have fun and enjoy the ride!" I thought I'd love it no matter how corny it may be in places.
Sadly after seeing this I can only agree with you!
There is something missing this time around. Yes, the suspense, goosebump religious moments etc.
Great seeing Karen Allen back but even she couldn't save it!
Way too many corny moments too. I'm cringing just thinking about them! And way too sweet!
Too many scenes that made me ask why is this happening? Is it nesessary?
I found the scoring was a little too flat in places too. And I agree with those who said some of the cues were mixed a little too low in places.

You've read all this before so I won't go on.

Maybe after repeted viewings I'll grow to accept it. Dunno! Maybe I'm just getting old!

I don't get why it doesn't sound as rousing though. Apart from a newer recording, it "sounds" exactly as it always did, but it just doesn't do anything this time around.

What I can't even start to figure out though, is why the action music isn't exciting. It's just kind of ''there''. A Whirl Through Academe musically is fine, but again, it just doesn't do anything.

What's with this score? It's totally emotionless.

She kept saying "I...can...see" or something didn't she? I guess that could imply she could see what the alien race used to be? That's what I'm thinking, as I can't see an logic in the skeletons coming together to form an alien...

But then why did the ship fly off, if everything was dead?

In all honesty, I think what threw a lot of people off was the amount of CGI. I wonder if they'd done everything old-school with all the dodgy effects the previous movies had it would have looked "better" (but obviously more fake).

CGI - when done right - doesn't distract, but even when it fall short by a tiny mark it's noticible. At least with the old effects you'd think "well that looks damn fake, but who cares". With CGI it's the case of "that doesn't look 100% realistic, therefore it sucks!".

The old ones didn't have CGI though. It was models, the odd blue screen and other effects - not stuff that was totally created on computers. I find it quite ironic that Spielberg said "we want to keep the feel of an old movie and stay away from the CGI", and then to have the whole ending sequence that couldn't have been achieved any other way.

He is too short.



Hella gay! Totally hella gay! Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. This was in no way keeping with the Indy feel. It was a pointless, silly sword fight that might have worked if there was some suspense and realism in the sequence. Shia balancing between the two cars getting hit in the nads over and over again... cheap. Totally cheap.



Cringe. Maybe without the monkeys it might have worked. But the CGI monkey's sucked LARGE!!!



Love the idea... the execution sucked! However, The Departure was brilliant!



Agreed that the Atomic Bomb was out of the place you can't compare the waterfall to the Mine Car Chase. Except for the jump over the unfinished track the rest is easily believable and way more exciting. The key word is excitement. It was an essential action sequence in the film. The waterfall in Skull had no point!




The grinning was just fine especially after Indy's "None of them were you" line Perfectly delivered and a perfect reaction by Marion. However, after that, Marion was useless and unnecessary.



A big waste of time.




Another big waste of time.



The tracked music was awful! "Temple Ruins And The Secret Revealed" and "Departure" were the best parts of the score. And Irina's theme when first heard with the sax at the beginning of the film was Williams brilliance. The rest, ordinary. Great music but still not great Indy music. However, the unreleased Warehouse action music was about as close to awesome Indy music as you could get. Williams followed the action perfectly and I would have loved to hear how the action music actually began instead of hearing the tracked Indy theme from Raiders.

-Erik-

It was a fine movie by me. This is coming from somebody that was not looking forward to it. I haven't even seen Indiana Jones 2 or 3. I wanted to see them first, but never had the chance. No hype for me allowed me to enter the theater without the years of waiting all the die hard fans had. I think it was very good.

So what about all the other road they were on during the sword fight?



They gave the impression that Indy had been walking for a while. It wouldn't have been right next to Silo 51, but probably in the same area (I thought the reason the Russians got into the base so easily was because it was empty due to the bomb tets?).

But one thing that makes no sense is why you'd keep every single artifact like that all in the same building. I know it's a story, and in all honesty I don't really care, but I think it's quite comical how silly the US army are at protecting the worlds rarest artifacts.

I must say I am warming to the score a bit, but sadly only to things like ''A Whirl Through Academe'' and ''The Jungle Chase''.

I wish the militaristic motif that comes in at 2:29 in The Jungle Chase (after the stupid monkey bit) was used more throughout the cue.

Gaah, the warehouse chase had the best action music of the movie.

And very coolly, too!
I loved her "yes, dear"!

I Marion.

Thanks for your answer/theorie regarding my Silo 51 question, that explains it. I forgot about that rocket slide thingy and such... hehe. Anyway recalling that part now... I really think that the whole Silo 51 scene was very solid and the score too.

ps. that jungle road, is perhaps the same road the Russians made, somehow they took that road backwards.

Certainly don't want it getting cold do we?



The chipnuts... classic.

You DO have a thing for Grammas, right?

He's an old man, remember? Gramps!