Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

BenT - Tuesday, May 27, 2008 - 12:50 Tags: The Hollywood Woodchipper

I just wanted to chime in and say I totally agree with Mike's opinion of the film and possible give it even a lower score. Probably a 5 out of 10. I blame George Lucas more than anyone for the clumsy, A.D.D. riddled, hodge podge story. What the film really lacked was a proper wave form/narrative arc. It felt more like a constant uphill ramp of crap.
You want a car chase? How about one in a jungle with a giant communist tree chopping machine. Tons of KGBs with AK47s firing point blank at Indy and missing. Mutt in a sword fight only because it was established he was trained in fencing. Not enough? Toss in some giant ants for no reason. Now waterfalls! Random unexplained men in walls to chase you for no reason! Darth Vader as a whiny teen!... Wrong movie but you get the point.
One last gripe, for now anyway, is; Where was the classic Indy font/logo??? You cram that shit down our throats in every trailer, poster, ad campaign and website. Then just toss in some boring font on the real deal? At least Lucas kept it the same for Star Wars.
My scores:

Raiders of the Lost Ark 10
Temple of Doom 9
Last Crusade 10
Kingdom of the Crystal Skull 5

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Yes I totally agree.

Mike - Saturday, May 31, 2008 - 00:35

Yes I totally agree. Although Ben, Spielberg did use the original font from both Raiders and Last Crusade. The only Indiana film to use the big orange letters was Temple of Doom. So technically he did stay true to it's original form. And I have to give him props for that. (Sorry some of these pics are huge. All I could find.)

I was actually rather glad that they kept the original font as opposed to using a more elaborate thing...even though the Indy logo is cool and all.

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Logo complaint cheerfully

BenT - Monday, June 2, 2008 - 07:37

Logo complaint cheerfully withdrawn. Does not change my feelings on this new film though.
One scene I really did like from Crystal Skull was when Indy and Mutt go to the graveyard. The quick fight with the skull masked grave guards and then the search inside the conquistador's grave. It felt like classic Indy with just a bit of amped up modern movie speed.
And yes Mike the opening race scene was a great way to open it up but I didn't really like the bomb test scene. It seemed like an excuse to show Junior in front of a mushroom cloud.

Oh yeah, did you notice in this Indy-lite movie he never fires his gun?

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Wow you're right Ben. He

Mike - Monday, June 2, 2008 - 10:03

Wow you're right Ben. He never shoots his revolver. He fires a rocket launcher, but there was no shoot out with Indy. Dang. Weak. I did like the bomb scene minus the ridiculous refrigerator toss. Made me nervous in a good way. The graveyard scene was too Ninja Crouching Tiger for me. Their decent in the caves was pretty good, yet there was still not the sense of danger of lets say swimming through a sewer of petroleum and rats or spikes flying out of a wall. And I felt as though Indy would have kept the knife instead of putting it back. He lost his edge where you're thinking, "wow, this is the hero I am cheering for?" He had less off color "Indy fights and plays dirty" moments. Although, blow gun in the mouth, very cool. (:

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