Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008) (1 Viewer)

[Inspector Hammer!]

I gave off a vibe? Sorry, didn't mean to but I had a big lunch and I...ohhhhh.



I also resent the notion that I liked Harrison and the film simply because I wanted to and for merely nostaligic purposes. As others have said this was an older Indy, in fact I found that to be quite poignant because we recall the man he used to be and we also know that he has seen and done it all.

Indiana is like an old leather wallet, it may be 25 years old and may be beat up and weathered but it can still hold my money quite well.

 

[Greg_S_H]

I don't know enough Hammer to have gotten that vibe, but it was creepy the way those guys and the ones at the final temple moved. When the first one was shown down in the pit, I really thought it was some kind of ghoul.

There was earlier discussion that the killing of the guardians should have been shown. Even with the frank violence in the previous movies, I was still a little surprised when Indy blew the dart into the guy's throat.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

To me this was vintage comical Indy offing someone in an extremely silly and Marx Bros kind of way. I mean when he casually pulled out his gun and shot that swordsman in Raiders it was no more or less brutal and frank than the Road Runner repeadadly "killing" the coyote in the Looney Toones cartoons.

 

[todd stone]

still maturing? the cgi looked HURRENDOUS in this film...

 

[MikeM]

Doug, I think you've stared into the skull for too long.

I kid, I kid.

 

[DaveF]

I've seen no conversation on making sense of the Aliens and the movie's end. Should I give up on this, or is there a logic to it? Though I denjoyed the movie, the ending leaves me wholly perplexed: I can't fathom its internal coherency as I do with Raiders and Crusade.

What I've got is that 5000 years ago there were benevolent, archeologist Aliens that came to South America, taught the the natives how to farm, build crazy-big temples and ground carvings, and -- in their spare time -- collect artifacts from around the world. Which they kept in their South American summer home.

The 13 alien associate professors all died sitting in the control seats of the saucer / temple / boobytrap. There they remain for thousands of years.

Conquistador dude steals one of their skulls -- made of crystal, interestingly enough, with weird latent psychic and magnetic-like powers. The dude dies someplace else and is buried with the skull.

1957, Indiana Jones adventure ensues.

Crystal Skull is returned to its place on its owner's vertebrae, where it now powers up the whole saucer, reincarnates one alien from the skeletons of the 13, opens a wormhole, launches the saucer, kills any remaining inhabitants in the area, and flies home with their treasure trove.

So:

Why did the 13 skeletons transform into a new alien this time, when before they hadn't?

What was the wormhole for? They traveled by saucer, not Stargate.

Why did the benevolent aliens create a launch system guaranteed to kill all the locals?

Why was the alien so pissed off at Irina?

Wouldn't the alien be happy at finally being restored, so it can travel home, yet it seemed terribly annoyed at being woken from its crystalline nap. Just grumpy after an overlong snooze?

I simply can't get my head around this ending. Any help?

 

[Chuck Mayer]

Honestly? I think it'd be at 40% at RT, and we'd be on page 3 of this discussion, not page 76. I won't say nostalgia is clouding any minds, but it certainly is smoothing some normally unforgiveable cinematic sins out.

I disagree with MikeRS (though I've only seen it once, and won't see it again on the big screen). The setpiece in the jungle is missing one huge element that each of the biggies in previous films had...something Spielberg is notoriously good for usually. A thematic point.

Raiders: Get the Ark from the Nazis.
Temple: Save the children and get out.
Crusade: Save his father.
Skull: Get away.

As per usual, the first three were proactive. This one was reactive, and I barely remember anything Indy does except for fighting the Russian. I do remember what Mutt does.

I did enjoy the college town chase. Thought it was better than the boat chase from Crusade.

And I loved doomtown. Spielberg was his usual brilliant self there. Though that had little point as well (narratively), it was important to tone, and it had a lot of energy.

Were I to rank these:
Raiders
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Temple
Crusade
-
-
-
Skull

 

[Norm]

I can't believe people now like TPM over this.

That Pod race was a bore. Like we didn't know who would win.

 

[Brett_M]

I didn't notice any cgi in the film. Guess it didn't register as "horrendous" for me.

 

[dany]

Well i saw it yesterday and for me it was just abit to campy and over the top. Fun but for sure the 4th best of the 4. Still glad i saw it.

 

[teapot2001]

I agree with many of the negative comments, but I still thought it was good. It's not that memorable, and I would've preferred that they didn't make it.

~T

 

[Brent M]

Believe it.

 

[Brent M]

You didn't notice how Shia's legs extended like Plastic Man when he was straddling the two Jeeps during the swordfight?

 

[Mark Hawley]

Not to get into a prequel debate, but I don't feel that's a valid criticism since it could be applied to just about any movie.

Could you say the Death Star battle is a bore just because we all knew Luke would destroy it in the end?

Or what about any action set piece in any Indiana Jones movie. Like we didn't know Indy would survive.

Die Hard movies, boring because we all knew John McClane's gonna save the day and so on.

 

[Edwin-S]

I wouldn't worry too much about it. In fact, you should be proud to be confused over the ending. You are probably in august company with your confusion, because GL and SS, themselves, are probably still trying to figure out the answers to those questions.

 

[DaveF]

Yes, that's what I was afraid of.

The comment a few posts back about this being a reactive, and not proactive, adventure is a good insight. I felt that but hadn't gotten it to words.

Nonethemore, I enjoyed the movie and had a good time. I found it worked -- it did what it meant to and was exciting.

 

[DavidPla]

No more than Short Round's arms extending in the mine car chase.

 

[Michael Allred]

There isn't a *single* scene in "Crystal Skull" that contains the kind of excitement and fire that the 2 vs 1 lightsaber duel at the end of "TPM" had. Not even close. I say now what I said back then, "TPM" was NOT a great movie but it was saved by that fight. I simply cannot say the same for Indy IV, nothing could save that film from being absolutely mediocre.

My rankings:

Raiders
Doom
Crusade
TPM (lol)

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Crystall Skull

 

[Brent M]

We're not discussing Temple of Doom, though. At least I'm not. The fact remains that ILM has done the most seamless CGI work in the history of Hollywood, but parts of the desert chase sequence looked like they were done by a film student on 10 year old equipment. I can't figure out how Lucas and Spielberg could think it looked acceptable.

 

[Radioman970]

No it wasn't. Horrendous cgi? Watch a very old Hercules episode. The cgi looked fine. Maybe you were just looking for flaws a little too closely? Really, give me something specific that has legs... I felt this film was as much fun as TPM. But the CGI was much better here.

(addressing other posts here) The story? This isn't some biopic. It's a summer action movie. You buys your ticket, you overpays for yo popcorns, ya plant yourself for 2 hours and enjoy. What the hell is the problem?