Reactions to Indiana Jones IV (Spoilers)

[Mark S]

Indiana Jones and the American Graffiti Extraterrestrial. It wasn't all garbage but it gave me a better appreciation of Temple of Doom. This had none of the Indy charm in it, the villains had none of the menace of even the Thugee, and aliens just seemed out of place. Is Spielberg going to make another Jaws sequel and throw aliens in it?

[Superman]

Indiana Jones and the American Graffiti Extraterrestrial. It wasn't all garbage but it gave me a better appreciation of Temple of Doom. This had none of the Indy charm in it, the villains had none of the menace of even the Thugee, and aliens just seemed out of place. Is Spielberg going to make another Jaws sequel and throw aliens in it?

No, but Lucas is.

[weemadando]

Indiana Jones and the American Graffiti Extraterrestrial. It wasn't all garbage but it gave me a better appreciation of Temple of Doom. This had none of the Indy charm in it, the villains had none of the menace of even the Thugee, and aliens just seemed out of place. Is Spielberg going to make another Jaws sequel and throw aliens in it?

No, but Lucas is.

I maintain that this will not be over until the remake of Schindler's List with the aliens rescuing the jews from the camp comes out.

[Drooling Iguana]

Will the Nazis try to shoot the aliens with walky-talkies?

[weemadando]

Will the Nazis try to shoot the aliens with walky-talkies?

Almost certainly.

[Shroom Man 777]

Well, they ARE awesome, man. Speed Racer, Armageddon, and eyeballs exploding.

General Grevious was awesome. Did you know that the awesomest thing he said in ROTS, aside from "You LOSE, General Kenobi!" was "Activate RAY SHIELDS!!!" ?

Eh, what about, "You fool! I've been trained in your Jedi arts by Count Dooku!"

"But you forget, I trained the Jedi who killed Count Dooku"

Goddamn, that would've been an awesome line. Too bad it didn't make it in the film, only the book.

Goddamn Kenobi!

[SylasGaunt]

I am consistently amazed by the people who will accept face-melting bible ghosts, heart-ripping cultists, and immortality granting cups and then say a few aliens cross the line on the paranormal stuff.

[weemadando]

I am consistently amazed by the people who will accept face-melting bible ghosts, heart-ripping cultists, and immortality granting cups and then say a few aliens cross the line on the paranormal stuff.

It's completely irrational, but those kind of things just worked and the aliens didn't.

My own take on why? Because with the face melting and the like, we never see God/Kali/whatever and mete out divine vengeance, it's all implied and creepy and thus maintains some mystique. But the aliens, it's all too neatly explained and tied up.

[Pulp Hero]

I re-watched ROTLA last night, and damn I've forgotten how good of movie that is.

It has comparitively little action, really. The movie creates itself with atmosphere. The beginning with the dramatic march through the jungle, Indy looking on like a mad scientist as his diggers up the Arc room in a thunderstorm, the creepiness between Marion and the Nazis in the tent.

I think Crystal Skull was a passable flick, but they should have cut out some plot to give screen time to long shots of character interaction of dialogue-less drama.

[Soontir C'boath]

I think Crystal Skull was a passable flick, but they should have cut out some plot to give screen time to long shots of character interaction of dialogue-less drama.

Except for some bits that were slowed down such as the diner they were in, the movie kept going at 100 mph which was just plain awful. It was as if they were trying to cram 6 hours of story into the two hours they gave it.

[Pelranius]

So what's the deal with the Grail? It apparently doesn't grant immortality, because Dr. Jones I is dead (or does one need to continuously drink from the cup in order to be immortal?)

[phongn]

So what's the deal with the Grail? It apparently doesn't grant immortality, because Dr. Jones I is dead (or does one need to continuously drink from the cup in order to be immortal?)

Apparently you have to constantly drink from it in order to get immortality.

[Drooling Iguana]

I think it's more the fact that you can't cross the seal, although I'm not sure how that would work since according to the movie the Grail wasn't brought to that cave/temple place until several centuries AD.

[Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi]

I think Crystal Skull was a passable flick, but they should have cut out some plot to give screen time to long shots of character interaction of dialogue-less drama.

Except for some bits that were slowed down such as the diner they were in, the movie kept going at 100 mph which was just plain awful. It was as if they were trying to cram 6 hours of story into the two hours they gave it.

I thought the pacing was fine, it was just that there were so many superflous elements (Ray Winstone's character could have been removed entirely with no bearing on the plot) that took up time that would have been better spent fleshing out characters and plot points.

[Big Orange]

* The Score: While the Star Wars prequels started it, this film is a final confirmation for me that John Williams needs to throw in the towel. I'm sorry, but he hit his peak before the end of the 80's and almost everything he's done since has been flat. A lot of it felt out of place at points (ex. the Grail Knight theme after the ship takes off). Oh well, at least we cheered at the Raiders March.

I don't think Williams began to lose it until after Jurassic Park to me, but the score for Raiders of the Lost is pretty shit hard act to follow as demonstrated with these excerpts from YouTube:

Tanis Map Room

Convoy Battle

Epilogue and Credits

[LadyTevar]

So what's the deal with the Grail? It apparently doesn't grant immortality, because Dr. Jones I is dead (or does one need to continuously drink from the cup in order to be immortal?)

Apparently you have to constantly drink from it in order to get immortality.

You cannot die of anything save Old Age. The Grail Knight cheated by continuing to drink, yet even then he was aged and infirm.

[Durandal]

I was pretty disappointed that they showed the flying saucer at the end. It just wasn't necessary. The Soviets were okay, but definitely not the best villains. I wasn't wild about the happy ending with the marriage and all, either. That part didn't feel like Indiana Jones. Getting married just says "And Indy finally grew up ... in his early 70's", which is cute, but Indiana Jones should never grow up. It's like James Bond settling down into a quiet, suburban neighborhood with Money Penny.

Overall though, I enjoyed it. It got a little silly in some parts, but it had that Indiana Jones feel to it most of the way through. Indy and his son worked well together, and there were a couple of nice "Indy's becoming his father" moments. For example, when Indy mutters things like "This is intolerable", or on the motorcycle when his son chuckles after decapitating Marcus' statue and Indy gives him a dirty look. The warehouse scenes were also pretty nifty.

And I liked the whole 50's theme; it was done very well. Lucas must've been rolling around like a pig in shit writing those scenes.

[JME2]

* The Score: While the Star Wars prequels started it, this film is a final confirmation for me that John Williams needs to throw in the towel. I'm sorry, but he hit his peak before the end of the 80's and almost everything he's done since has been flat. A lot of it felt out of place at points (ex. the Grail Knight theme after the ship takes off). Oh well, at least we cheered at the Raiders March.

I don't think Williams began to lose it until after Jurassic Park to me.

Good point.

[Elfdart]

John Williams never lost it. Get your ears checked.

[Vympel]

John Williams never lost it. Get your ears checked.

I gotta disagree. In terms of Star Wars, he shot his last live round with The Phantom Menace, and phoned it in for the next two. Heck, in RotS there wasn't one piece of memorable music - Battle of the Heroes was ok, but that's it. Really, where the hell is the equivalent to the Tanis Map Room scene lately? There's none.

[The Grim Squeaker]

John Williams never lost it. Get your ears checked.

I gotta disagree. In terms of Star Wars, he shot his last live round with The Phantom Menace, and phoned it in for the next two. Heck, in RotS there wasn't one piece of memorable music - Battle of the Heroes was ok, but that's it. Really, where the hell is the equivalent to the Tanis Map Room scene lately? There's none.

"anakin Vs Obi-Wan" was great, as was (your aforementioned) " Battle of the Heroes ", and the ROTS version of the End credits/themes are among my favourite. (His version of the HP theme music worked very well for the first few movies as well, even if he didn't continue with them)
I agree that since then he hasn't done much.

[PainRack]

I loved the 50s atmosphere and foreshadowing at times. Atomic cafe= Wait, isn't that Nevada? Oh Cool. that's where they developed and tested................ oops, indy caught in them. Hey, that's an amphibious tractor, used in WW2, DUKW. Oops, there goes the waterfall.


It helped that the local tv channels showed the previous 3 movies, although once again, I missed Raiders of the Lost Ark and Last Crusade AGAIN. It refreshed the memory sufficient enough that we could catch the homage to the previous movies."Tickets! Shells!"



However, I just have to agree that the last bit and riddle solving was a bit "off". Don't know how they could had fixed that but well........

[Superman]

I liked the 50's theme too. That actually was done well; the scene with the greasers fighting the jocks in the diner reminded me of something out of "Back to the Future." Definitely one of the highlights of the movie. That and the scene where Indy blows that poisoned dart back into the guy's mouth. That was awesome.

The aliens didn't ruin the movie for me, but I think they made for a piss poor story. Indy is an archaeologist; the cultural and historical material for a story is almost endless, and Lucas gives us more fucking aliens. Ok, that doesn't completely make the movie shit... but the CGI overkill makes it pretty damn close (that and the cluster fuck of a story). I'm really tired of watching cartoonish movies. I'd rather see campy face melting like in "Raiders" any day of the week than cartoonish scenes that frankly don't fit in to this genre. The previous three just looked so much better.

[Elfdart]

John Williams never lost it. Get your ears checked.

I gotta disagree. In terms of Star Wars, he shot his last live round with The Phantom Menace, and phoned it in for the next two. Heck, in RotS there wasn't one piece of memorable music - Battle of the Heroes was ok, but that's it. Really, where the hell is the equivalent to the Tanis Map Room scene lately? There's none.

Attack of the Clones was weak, but Revenge of the Sith had Anakin's Dream, Anakin's Betrayal and Anakin vs Obi-Wan -all brilliant pieces of music that more than made up for it. The Harry Potters themes were better than the movies. His score for Memoirs of a Geisha was about as good a score as you'll hear (if you can stomach such a bad movie). The latest Indy score was mostly a re-hash of the old scores, but the music when Spalko and the other Russians get in the truck in the jungle is awesome. The way Williams uses his old cues is also great. My favorite part of the movie is when Indy climbs though the top of the truck and the old theme (Indy and Marion) wells up in the background.

So there's nothing wrong with Williams' music. He's still the best ever (yes, better than Max Steiner).

[Mark S]

Does anyone remember the "Young Indiana Jones" tv series? He mentions riding with Pancho Villa in this movie and something is telling me that was a reference to one of those episodes but I'm not sure?