Indy Review

[Andykev]

It was a fun movie for me

I just saw the movie. It was what it was: entertainment. It was great to see the old cars, the clothes, and the airplanes. The special effects were very good. I thought the script and story line was weak, but it was still a fun movie.

You can't nit-pick what you saw in the film. Remember this: the concept was based on the Saturday serials... the Republic episodes where the good guys shoot it out with the bad guys, there are car chases, and their hats never fall off.

There is no way you could survive in an A-bomb test by hiding in a fridge (and how many fridges were "lead lined"?), but this is the same as the old serials where the hero is knocked out, the truck is on fire, and goes over the cliff. It isn't until next week you saw the hero come to, and jump to safety at the last minute.

Previous IJ films have dealt with the Arc, and wrath of God. Then mystical stones and evil. Then Nazi's and the cup of Christ.

Why not aliens and Incas? Now I know what happened in Area 51.lol

 

[chucklehead]

I loved the movie. I ve seen it twice and will probably see it again.
The real tragedy was in waiting so long for the 4th movie.

I hope the next one is soon to be made.

Maybe something in the south pacific, a plane crash, the John Frum Cult, Nan Madol dare i say lemuria? meet up with amelia ehardt as a leader of an amazon type tribe & throw in the space race & the chinese for good measure maybe. when do we start filming?

 

[Edward]

And lots of bantery "back story" that we never get to see only hear about. Wich made me mad..."Oh remember the time when blah blah"
"well if you made a movie about it prior to KOTCS maybe I would"

Wasn't that always part of the Indy thing, though - the feel of each film being one episode in a much longer series? In Raiders, we start off with the idol grab sequence, Temple has Wu Han (a side kick we see nothing more of than his demise) and Lao Che in Club Obi Wan, and Last Crusade the sequence with the boat. To my mind, it's perfectly in keeping that we have this character introduced along with allusions to other adventures we never actually see on screen. (For another example of how this can be done really well, see Mark Gatiss' Lucifer Box novels).

I don't particularly want to see another big screen film as I don't think it could work post 1957, and for me the only big screen Indy is Harrison Ford - I don't think I could really warm to a different actor in that part - which rules out earlier-set sequels. I do however think that there is a very wide scope for a new TV series following Jones' exploits during WW2 - The Adventures of the Middle-Aged Indiana Jones kind of thing. I'd love to see that, and I think the TV format might allow for another actor to fit in nicely. Could be a great role for an unknown actor who resembled a younger Ford.

 

[Feraud]

So it's come down to debating the superiority of Temple of Doom? lol Do we have a popcorn smiley?

You know we have hit rock bottom when we are holding up a generally reviled film (TOD) as a model of filmmaking. lol

I saw Crystal Skull and thought it needed a healthy dose of editing. The sequences went on too long.

 

[rebelgtp]

And not directed at you, jake, but here's another thing that bugged me: before the bomb blast, the rocketsled propelled Indy away from the Area 51 warehouse... but not that far. Immediately afterwards, the town goes *BOOM!* Are they insinuating that the Gov't just blew up the warehouse -- including the Ark of the Covenant? And if the Russians hadn't already killed the guards at the gate, wouldn't they have been killed by the blast?

Also, if there was a planned A-bomb test, where were the scientists/military folk monitoring the blast? I tell you, this movie has more holes in it than a Swiss cheese sandwich.

uh actually the rocket sled did go a fair distance away from the warehouse. also if you are paying attention during the rocket sled it is night time, when Indy is in "Doom town" it is bright and sunny, he had been walking away from the warehouse for quite awhile by time he found what he thought was a town. so we know that he has been walking at least from the vast difference in light at least several hours. It does not go immediately from a nice dark night to bright daylight in the blink of an eye.

as for the scientists that are "monitoring" the explosion, the movie is set in the 50's the A bomb had been around for awhile, they had seen the explosions. More then likely the test was to check aftermath things like that. By this time the scientists were in a bunker under ground somewhere so they were safe from the blast, the very limited view they would have if any would have to come from rather primitive CC cameras (advanced research facility why not?). It takes awhile for someone to get in and out of the blast radius of one of those bombs. By time you could physically get in, check and get back out a dozen people could have wandered in.

 

[A.R. McVintage]

Wasn't that always part of the Indy thing, though - the feel of each film being one episode in a much longer series? In Raiders, we start off with the idol grab sequence, Temple has Wu Han (a side kick we see nothing more of than his demise) and Lao Che in Club Obi Wan, and Last Crusade the sequence with the boat. To my mind, it's perfectly in keeping that we have this character introduced along with allusions to other adventures we never actually see on screen. (For another example of how this can be done really well, see Mark Gatiss' Lucifer Box novels).

See, Edward, the problem with this is that it wasn't like the other ones in this regard. The other films, copying the Bond formula, begin with the ending of a previous story, but with enough information in them you can quickly piece together the "movie that doesn't exist."

This one just set up tons of ideas about really cool exploits that never happened anywhere. The best comparison would be to a film like Goldfinger. We open with Bond dropping a bomb in a facility and then quipping about how Mr. Ramirez won't be able to sell anymore heroin-laced bananas. We don't open with some other character looking at Bond and remarking about the times that they stopped that army of ninjas from attacking Buckingham, defused the nuclear warhead aimed at the Pentagon, and prevented those Russians from melting the polar icecaps.

 

[ShoreRoadLady]

Originally posted by Feraud:
You know we have hit rock bottom when we are holding up a generally reviled film (TOD) as a model of filmmaking.

Shhh! Don't say anything, or they'll make Indy V just to prove you wrong!

I actually liked TOD. It wasn't as good as the others, and the mine car chase sure seemed like a Disneyland ride in the making, but it was campy adventure serial fun.

 

[StraightEight]

I have great hope for the future of American cinema, as the Skull movie now demonstrates beyond argument that:

A: Movies were generally better before computer animation became a substitute for plot.

B: Harrison Ford has a promising career as an actor ahead of him.

and

C: A George Lucas film without a credit for Lawrence Kasdan is nothing more than a two-hour toy commercial.

 

[Matt Crunk]

I must say I enjoyed this installment as much as any in the franchise. As far as the time frame, you can't stay in the 30's forever. I think the 50's and the whole post-Roswell era helped sell the ending somewhat. The whole alien deal was a bit hard to swallow anyway, but then again there have always been supernatural elements in these pictures, and I guess aliens are no farther a reach than thousand year old knights guarding holy grails.

 

[Diamondback]

It's four years later, but the "Doomtown" in the film was modeled after a May 1953 test where they built two full-size towns ("Survival City" being the other) and then popped a nuke on 'em. If you're interested, once per quarter DOE offers tours of the real Doomtown:
http://www.atomictourist.com/nts.htm

Hope the supplemental historical background's worth the thread-necromancy...

 

[Edward]

See, Edward, the problem with this is that it wasn't like the other ones in this regard. The other films, copying the Bond formula, begin with the ending of a previous story, but with enough information in them you can quickly piece together the "movie that doesn't exist."

This one just set up tons of ideas about really cool exploits that never happened anywhere. The best comparison would be to a film like Goldfinger. We open with Bond dropping a bomb in a facility and then quipping about how Mr. Ramirez won't be able to sell anymore heroin-laced bananas. We don't open with some other character looking at Bond and remarking about the times that they stopped that army of ninjas from attacking Buckingham, defused the nuclear warhead aimed at the Pentagon, and prevented those Russians from melting the polar icecaps.

I guess we just differ on that. I had no problem with such allusions to other adventures - makes sense to me there'd have been a lot going on in Jonesy's life between 1938 and 1957 that we woulsn't see. Worked for me.

I didn't have the problem many folks seem to have with CGI being used. Pre-CGI limitations did mean that they had to be more creative and there was less scope for "let's do it because we can" without thinking of whether "we should." Undoubtedly too many movies nowadays do overuse technology. On the other hand, there has been in many quarters a backlash agains tthis which has resulted in a narrow-minded opposition to all-things CGI, which is rather pointless. I agree, I didn't have the sense of anyone being in such real peril in this one as I did in previous films.... largely because I'm not ten years old any more, and I well know that in Hollywood they're highly unlikely to kill off the hero. [huh]

As I've said in other threads, the only things I would really rather not have seen in this one were the fleshed-out alien (the skeleton was enough), and the full-on saucer. Otherwise, it fitted perfectly in with an Indy-in-the-50s world for me, and I very much enjoyed the story. I'll always prefer Raiders, but for me KOTCS holds up perfectly well in the franchise.

I don't feel the need for any further Indy films, though I do believe that the Mutt character could be expanded - I'd like to see him spin off on his own as a sort of primitive, 60s version of Agent Mulder - maybe in the mould of the Dark Skies TV show, which I found great fun.

 

[Mark G]

My favorite part is the opening prairie dogs. In the "Raiders" we see the mountain in the background transformed into the Paramount logo. Now it's a prairie dog mound that gets crushed by a car tire. Talk about making a mountain out of a mole hill.

I have a buddy that works at Paramount and he says that Steven is having a spat over Dream Works and that's how he feels about the present admin. lol lol lol

 

[A.R. McVintage]

I guess we just differ on that. I had no problem with such allusions to other adventures - makes sense to me there'd have been a lot going on in Jonesy's life between 1938 and 1957 that we woulsn't see. Worked for me.

I wasn't telling you whether or not you can or can not like the film; I was simply pointing out that telling about a bunch of past adventures is not anything like actually seeing the tail-end of a prior adventure meaning this film differed from the rest in that regard.

 

[cooncatbob]

All I can say is with all the money in the world why couldn't Lucas get a decent sci/fi fantasy writer to write a good story line.
It's 1957 and the evil commie b**tch is talking about Stalin, he's been dead for 4 years and the late 1950s was the period of destalinization when all the statues and plaques dedicated to Stalin were removed

 

[Edward]

I wasn't telling you whether or not you can or can not like the film; I was simply pointing out that telling about a bunch of past adventures is not anything like actually seeing the tail-end of a prior adventure meaning this film differed from the rest in that regard.

Aha, gotcha. I see what you mean, there is a difference there.... doesn't bother me, though.

 

[IndysGal41]

Irregardless of how good or bed the movie was. It was great to see Indy back on the screen.

 

[Socrets]

All I can say is with all the money in the world why couldn't Lucas get a decent sci/fi fantasy writer to write a good story line.
It's 1957 and the evil commie b**tch is talking about Stalin, he's been dead for 4 years and the late 1950s was the period of destalinization when all the statues and plaques dedicated to Stalin were removed

Having been written by George Lucas, I actually thought the story line was pretty good and fairly believable within the Indyverse (For a universe where God blew up NAZIs, aliens aren't that much of stretch). It's just the way he wrote it and the way Spielberg directed that was mind numbingly painful. Also, chances are Dr. Sparrow was indoctrinated, trained, and educated when Stalin was alive and kicking so it wouldn't be surprising that she talked about Stalin (or possibly, sinisterly or plot holeish, in the Indyverse, Stalin faked his death to throw off the capitalist pigs.) Besides, Indiana Jones and Star Wars were pretty much George's children if you want to take that far. Letting someone else finish the series would be like letting different people raise your kids when you're fully capable of doing the job yourself.

The main issue I had was the with mind numbingly stupid gags and occasional blatantly obvious political beliefs (subtlety is something George has lost over the years. Though I loved the "communists in the soup" bit) intermixed with the universe. For example, no one with a minimal education would use a boa constrictor to help someone out of a sand pit when there are plenty of branches around. The movie wasn't as good as I had hoped and it just turned out to be another F/X laden movie with a plot with so much potential. Oh well, at Harrison Ford looked good for a man his age.