Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - possible spoilers now....

[X]

Okay. Let me clear something up. For me watching it at home has never been a bad thing. I worked for five years working at both a cinema and a video store full time and quickly grew to hate the smell of popcorn and almost a decade later I still can't stand the stuff.

I saw phantom menace two days before it opened because I built the film for the theater I was working at. There was less than 12 of us watching it. At least a 3rd of us fell asleep watching the movie. We didn't fall asleep screening Species 2, but Phantom Menace was just boring to me and it didn't get better. The prequels only proved to me that I like Star War more when Lucas isn't directing it or doing the screen play (ie 5 and 6).

I know that might sound like blasphemy, but I wanted to bash my head in when the credits rolled on Episode 1 and swore to myself that I would attempt to avoid nostalgia in the future.

BUT after what some of you have said, I think I might give it a chance there and ignore my popcorn hatred for a few hours.

[Jen]

Spielberg is directing this one... So you're in luck

[Meds]

I still hate popcorn. Nacho's with salsa for me. Hmmmm. Nacho's

[Darth Gaos]

Oh, I forgot another little nod to past Indy movies and to Dr Henry Jones Sr..  There is one point in the forest where Indiana says:  "This is intolerable"

That made smile when I heard it.

[Rico]

I still hate popcorn. Nacho's with salsa for me. Hmmmm. Nacho's

How do you eat those in the dark?  I can barely keep clean eating nachos with lots of light around.  LOL!

[Ktrek]

Finally got around to seeing this today. All I can say is that it had some good moments but quite a bit of it dragged for me and I found myself yawning a lot and not because I didn't get enough rest. The film has too much of a "been here, done that" feel. Karen Allen's acting was quite subpar in almost every scene. Shia Labouf was OK but nothing special. Ford was a little haggard and worn looking but not as much as I expected. I guess they had good makeup artists for him. The skull is nothing more than a mcguffin to move the story along. The ending was rather disappointing and anti-climatic. All in all it was still basically an Indian Jones film but the weakest of the series so far. I'm sure there will probably be a fifth film and it may prove to be even weaker. I hope not. Anyway, I would give this only 2 1/2 stars out of 5.

Kevin

[moyer777]

I love popcorn.  Probably way too much.  It really is the snack of champions!

:boxing :ohbaby :ninja :metallica: :joker :troopersmile

[Meds]

I still hate popcorn. Nacho's with salsa for me. Hmmmm. Nacho's

How do you eat those in the dark?  I can barely keep clean eating nachos with lots of light around.  LOL!

Ha ha it takes a lot of practice and a bib.

[Rico]

There is a discussion going on over on the Replica Prop Forum about the original Frank Darabont script for the Indy movie.  Now, as you all know I did enjoy the movie quite a bit.  But I did feel the story could have been better - tighter.  I'll copy the basics of what is being said here.

Frank Darabont's script for Indiana Jones IV, entitled Indiana Jones and the City of the Gods, is an archaeological wonder in its own right. However, we've received a bootleg copy of the script that's making its way around the internet, which is reported, but not confirmed, to be the real thing. We read it, and it seems pretty legit, or the person who is faking it is a terrific screenwriter. Either way, here's a review. CAUTION: SPOILERS EVERYWHERE - IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN 'INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL, READ THIS AT YOUR PERIL.

First off, the script is largely the same, storywise, focusing on the discovery of the crystal skull, as well as the lost city in Peru where the Gods were thought to live, only to discover that these "gods" were aliens with a culture advanced thousands of years beyond our own.

Also, Marion Ravenwood is in the script. In fact, she's featured even more prominently than in the actual film. And, yes, she and Indy end up married in the end. Oxley's there, as well as a double-crossing friend, and, to my surprise, the "nuking the fridge" sequence and the giant ants are there, as well.

However, also in this script are Dr. Henry Jones, Sr. and Sallah, making awesome cameo appearances that really help cement the whole history of Indiana Jones, and tie the whole saga together.

What's not in the script? Well, Shia LaBoeuf's character, Mutt, for one thing. There's no mention of a son and no appearance of one either. Now, while I didn't necessarily think that Mutt's character was one of the most egregiously awful things about the movie, his absence definitely makes room for more character development on Indy's part, and it allows the story to shine through, in opposition to the constant 'wink-wink-he's-his-son-but-neither-of-them-know-it-yet' portions of Crystal Skull that drove me nuts.

This script is awesome in exactly the places that Crystal Skull was lame. Just those few flips in the sequence removed all of the punch from this really excellent, well thought out, super exciting script, and rendered it vacuous and boring. In other words, Spielberg and Lucas chose the right story, but they neutered it to focus on the wrong things.

There are at least three awesome action sequences in this script, including a fighter plane chase that would have blown the doors off the theater had it actually happened on film. In addition, the double-crossing friend is a Russian, which makes the whole America vs. the Soviet Union thing work a lot better. Oxley's character isn't like a family pet, and there are some nods to the Indiana Jones mythology that really work well here.

Perhaps the biggest difference in the script is the treatment of Marion Ravenwood. First off, she doesn't spend the entirety of the story standing in the background grinning like she's happy to have a job. She's the Marion we came to know and love in Raiders of the Lost Ark, and her story arc is so much more believable in this script that it's a night-and-day experience.

Also, the aliens are mean. They're a legitimate threat, not fascinating, but terrifying, and there's an implication that they have been the reason that humans believe in God for the past several thousand years. The resolution of the plot is so much more satisfying here than in the actual film, and the script just shows that Lucas and Spielberg were too soft to make the choices that turned the plot a little dark and/or scary.

At the end of the day, Indiana Jones and the City of the Gods is 100% a better script than the one that was shot for the film. This would have been the right way to close out the series, and it would have been a return to form that no one could have expected, instead of a movie that everyone places just above the abysmal Temple of Doom in the Indy canon.


And for your reading pleasure, here is a link to a PDF of the script being talked about.  I can't say if this script is entirely genuine but many believe it is. 

http://www.treksinscifi.com/misc/Indiana_Jones_and_the_City_of_the_Gods.pdf

[KingIsaacLinksr]

Sadly, dwelling on what could have been doesn't make what happened any easier.  We must live with the fact that Lucas CHOSE his script.  *shrug*  what can we do?

King

[Dan M]

That's an interesting take.  Obviously, this is all very subjective, like that last line for example which refers to ToD as "abysmal".  Also I love that "everyone places [KotCS] just above [ToD]".  I was unaware of any uniformity of opinion on these things.

Interestingly, I've been following a similar discussion over on the Sideshow Freaks board, and the opinion of the Darabont script isn't nearly as glowing.

http://sideshowcollectors.com/forums/showthread.php?t=35694

I've downloaded the PDF and hope to get a chance to read it this weekend and form my own opinion.

[Rico]

I should of mentioned that the bold excerpt above was taken from the G4 TV network.  Again, reading the script and deciding for yourself is the best way.  I just think it's interesting to see all the variations that these things go through before we get the final product.

[Bryancd]

OK, I FINALLY saw it last night......Hmmmm.

I thought the first 25% of the movie was great. The warehouse sequence and motorcycle chase though the college were classic, fun Indy fair. I was even OK with the nuclear test scene, although that was a bit hard to take. I enjoyed all the scenes between the characters, the dialogue was good, pacing was nice and even. I was becoming very optimistic that perhaps people had been too critical of the film. Just as an aside, I grew up about 45min from Yale where all the college scenes were filmed and have walked all those streets. Kinda cool! All of these scenes had a great "American Graffiti" kind of feel and you could clearly see Lucas having fun with it.

...and then they go to South America and this movie headed south in a hurry. The scene in the tomb where they find the skull had some dense exposition which did nothing but confuse me. Somehow all the fun just got sucked out of the movie just like that. Yes it was nice to see Marion but Karen Allen seemed lost and out of place. The snake bit was terrible. The truck chase through the jungle had promise but when Mutt was straddling the two jeeps while sword fighting, it was just dumb. And don't get me started on the monkey vine thing, what a waste of screen time. I'm all for having fun with an action scene, but it doesn't have to be insultingly stupid. The ants were OK.

By the time they got to the temple and El Dorado, I had really lost interest in the story, well, I was really lost and confused by the story to tell the truth. Even the actors seemed to loose interest. The climax of the film...? So why did Mac say "I'll be OK?" and are the "aliens" benevolent or malevolent? Who knows and unfortunately, who cares. When I hear people talk about this movie being a nonstop thrill ride I can't help but think that they must be very easily thrilled. I don't find anything thrilling in overbearing CGI effects thrown at me which may look good but are still silly. I thought Harrison was great for what he had to work with, Kate was solid as the villain, and Shia was good, so it wasn't the actors I had issue with. The one good thing I can say is that "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" has made me appreciate "Temple of Doom" more! At least Temple of Doom was able to hold on to that Indy spark longer than this film.
By far this is the worst Indy film of the four.

[MouseSlayer]

finally saw it . overall COOL.

[Meds]

Hmmmm you know I still enjoyed the new film and it's great to see Indy back but i watched Raiders again earlier and i'm having to have a really good think. I can put Raiders and Crusade on at anytime. temple hmmm every now and again but when i think about Crystal Skull, you know i just don't think i would watch it all the time. In fact I think i'd put Temple ahead of it. Now i'm not back tracking my previous post because i enjoyed seeing Harrison back in the Fedora but when I am thinking about watching on DVD, out of all 4 films, it would be last. Shame.