Saw Indy Jones 4 today...it ain't no Iron Man!

That's funny right there, I don't care who you are ...

 

I saw some interview with Harrison where claimed he still did his own stunts. After watching the movie, I call bullshit.

 

Saw it as well.
Liked the hat tips to the past movies and even the TV show.
I'd give it a B minus and that might be a little generous given my nerdiness.

 

Just got back from seeing it with Mrs. Birdscribe and the Little Birds.

Liked it until an ending that my son (who saw it with his friends last week) told me was "the worst ending in any movie I've ever seen).

With that basketball-sized matzah ball hanging out there, I wasn't hoping for much... Then, I saw the "Roswell" stencil on the box in the Nevada desert and had a gross inkling what I was in for.

SPOILER ALERT....












Little Birdscribe was right. Awful ending.

ALIENS. FREAKIN' ALIENS? Are you effin' kidding me?

Killing off your prime villian (Blanchett) like that? Please.

You're two of the preeminent filmmakers of the last 35 years and you trash one of the best film franchises ever with ALIENS!!!!!!! I almost expected to hear the "Close Encounters" music as the spaceship went up.

Do better, Lucas and Spielberg. Do better.

 

Don't know how it could be defined as "mawkish" by any standard.

 

Great homage to Alien with John Hurt holding the skull close to his chest throughout.

 

SPOILER ALERT!







I seem to be the only one who understands the alien thing. To me, it makes sense. I mean hasn't one of the theories always been about the Mayan and Egyptian pyramids is that aliens were involved in their construction? The argument was how else could two civilizations build almost identical temples despite the location. And if you do a little research on crystal skulls, many believe they are of Mayan and Aztec origin.

Some people believe the skulls represent some kind of spirituality think. And in this case the Mayans worshipped the aliens because they taught them how to do all these things, be an advanced civilization. I think Lucas and Spielberg took that theory and ran with it to produce this. I think it was a good idea, just poorly executed.

 

Just finished seeing it as we speak. It wasn't ... bad. Some parts were pretty good, even. And I wanted to like it, really did. ... Immediate reaction (and Birdscribe will agree): I'm really disappointed in their sense of history, which is a hallmark of this series. They captured the 50s very well, when they tried, and I was on board for that and even the Peru storyline and the crystal skulls. ... But the aliens? What a farce. Too fantastical for Indiana Jones to go along with. Even Temple of Doom was easier to believe. ... More thoughts to come ...

 

Aliens?

How 'bout a spoiler alert?

 

I agree. I haven't seen the movie and am pretty spoiler free, but if you haven't see the word "aliens" tied to this movie, then you haven't read/watched anything.
One of the previews even has a reference to Roswell.

 

All right, I've had a chance to digest it. Here are my thoughts:


SPOILER ALERT!!!!



























If the film lost me, it was during two scenes:

1) the Amazon jungle chase (especially a) Mutt straddling the two jeeps during the dumb sword fight and b) Mutt doing his best "Tarzan" impression, swinging through the trees to catch up. Terrible use of CGI. The waterfalls, while an indirect homage to a similar scene in Temple of Doom, were worse than the truck-kills-helicopter scene in Die Hard 4. Whatever.)

2) the alien ending. Awful, stupid plotline.

As someone who grew up with the same feelings toward Indy as Piotr (I never dressed as him for eight straight Halloweens, but I sure wanted to ) ... what bothered me most about this flick was that it lost the sense of history that was such a hallmark of the previous films. Indy, as an archaeologist and professor, was truly passionate about historical artifacts -- especially religious artifacts. So the crystal skull/Peruvian storyline was acceptable to me; I can believe that Indy would be into that. And while those scenes seemed to feel like a combination of Temple of Doom and, uhh, National Treasure 2, it was still fairly well done (I'd give it a B+.) ... And while cheesy, they captured the '50s pretty well (also a B+) in the school scenes and the diner, etc. Again, I was on board for ALL of that.

But the aliens lost me.

Maybe I just didn't want to believe Spielberg when he said he was paying homage to the cheesy '50s sci-fi flicks, but I wish he had stuck with paying homage to the culture of those movies without introducing one of the stupid plots that got mocked all the time on MST3K. Because if they made an Indy movie about the crystal skulls, about Marion/Indy, even about racing the Russians to an ancient Peruvian temple ... I'm still on board. That's still fits in with Indiana Jones. ... It's not a classic like "Raiders" or "Last Crusade," but at least it fits. The aliens didn't fit with any part of the Indiana Jones story -- hell, it doesn't even fit with the Young Indiana Jones chronicles.

I didn't understand that. Doesn't make any sense at all for Spielberg and Lucas to do that -- it's like they never even saw the other Indiana Jones movies before approving the script for this one. Very weird.

More thoughts to come soon ...

 

Figures, after 19 years, this movie is dominating my brain tonight. OK, more thoughts:

SPOILER ALERT!!!!


















- What also struck me about the plot was this: Too much old-fashioned action! Am I wrong here, or did it feel more like a Die Hard movie with all the chase scenes and fight scenes and running scenes and explosions, etc., and all of them were so proloooooonged? Felt like about 70 percent of the movie was some kind of fight/chase -- too much so. Even the first scene with Marion was a bunch of bickering, which was annoying.



Enter MAJOR SPOILER ALERT!!!!










- Speaking of bickering, the "parental" scenes were awful, awful, awful. ("Stay in school"? Painful.) ... A lot of the dialogue, really, was just ... not very intelligent. I simply wasn't impressed with the script, in many scenes. Some of it was pretty good -- and I liked the many homages to previous Indy films -- but overall it was kind of a subpar dialogue. I'd give it a C.


Back to regular SPOILER ALERT!!!!











- Again, the homages to past Indy films were pretty cool. (Weird choice for the Connery photo, though. Nitpicky.) The Marcus Brody statue made me laugh (although I question why he deserved one for being Dean of Students, 1939-44.) But no real complaints on that stuff. Definitely worth seeing.

- On Karen Allen ... yes, still hot. But other than, uhh, that major part of the plotline, I didn't think bringing Marion back really contributed much to the film. She didn't say anything meaningful, she didn't do anything meaningful -- she could have been left out and nothing would have been lost. Which sucks, because she was so great in "Raiders."

- On Shia LeBouf ... I liked him. Really fit the role well, and was great as a James Dean-type growing up in that era. Mutt was definitely a better supporting character than Short Round in "Temple of Doom," but (again with the Die Hard 4 comparison), it felt a little like Indy was dragging along a young, snarky sidekick like John McClane did with Matt Farrell. Oh well. ... Was that final scene a preview of new Indy films with Mutt in the starring role, as some have suggested? I don't know. I'd probably give them a chance, if they made 'em. We'll see.

- On Cate Blanchett ... like I said, I could have bought into the whole Russian thing if not for the aliens. She was OK as the cheesy, cliched villain ... not as good as Belloq in "Raiders" but better than the cultists in "Temple of Doom" ... but that whole aliens storyline just lost me. What a waste.

- On Indy ... Harrison Ford can still bring it. Again, I wasn't impressed with the dialogue in this film too much, but no complaints about Dr. Jones. ... He did a great job advancing the character two decades into the 1950s; clearly, Indy had aged but he was still himself. ... As a history buff, I'm biased, but I especially liked the parts where he got "giddy as a schoolboy" about his true passion: archaeology. He was great when he was translating Ox's letter and explaining the legends to Mutt and when they found the first crystal skull and in the Peruvian temple. I wish there was more of that, but I'll take what I can get.






- Oh yeah, one more thought: John Williams' music. ... As someone else noted, I don't know how you can make an Indiana Jones score that poorly, but he managed it. Every time Indy came on the screen, it seemed like his famous theme music started playing. Previously, that had been reserved for major, major rallies or achievements, or at the end of the movie. This time, they played it the whole damn two hours. ... I love that music, but it could have been used better. I dunno, maybe that's just me.