Indiana Jones IV

[Shin Densetsu Kai 7.0]

Thing I am wondering is if the crystal skeleton mail away figure is articulated or not. If it isn't, its still a nice display piece, but it would be cool if it was articulated.

[Vermillion21]

  JsARCLIGHT said:

(This is a picture of the mail away figure: SPOILER LINK Mailaway Figure Photo SPOILER LINK)

That looks frakking AWESOME!!! I've only bought one Indy figure (Indy) and had only planned on getting Indy's dad too ... now I am reconsidering ....

Edited May 24, 2008 by Vermillion21

[Radd]

Just got back from the theatre. Absolutely loved the movie. It's not without it's flaws, Lucas and Spielberg both seem to have lost touch with that intangible quality the ancients called "subtlety". There were a couple of scenes that really would have benefited from it.

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For instance, in that opening scene, we did not need to actually see the broken box with the Ark inside of it. Just seeing the warehouse was enough to evoke that. If they wanted to be really cheeky, do a slow pan over the box. Geeks would have run home right after the movie, popped in Raiders, and checked the lettering on the box to compare, so that they might squeal in glee.

I did like the 1950's flavour to the movie. It felt like Indiana Jones, 20 some years later. At the same time, it felt like a 1950's pulp adventure, every bit as much as the previous movies felt like 1930s serials. Being a fan of both, I rather liked the transition.

The CG critters really were too much. Too many, too often, and too blatantly CG.

But still, loved it. Best movie from Spielberg or Lucas in years. That I've seen at least. I heard Munich was good.

[kalvasflam]

Just saw the movie, have to say, it was just not as good as I had hoped. I don't know what could've made it more entertaining, but this movie just didn't do it for me. Probably because Harrison Ford was a bit too old to be believable, and the Russkies are not as entertaining as the Nazis. The chief Russian bad guy was... well, was just another tall blonde guy that got his clock cleaned.

Overall, I would've been better off spending the money on another money I thought. Oh well, Spielberg hasn't had a hit in ages, and Lucas never really had a hit. But I suppose they'll made enough money off of this, and the clone war money to congratulate themselves on doing really well and probably do yet another sequel...

Edited May 25, 2008 by kalvasflam

[Roger]

  kalvasflam said:

Oh well, Spielberg hasn't had a hit in ages, and Lucas never really had a hit.

Quoted for truthiness.

[Vermillion21]

  Radd said:

Best movie from Spielberg or Lucas in years. That I've seen at least. I heard Munich was good.

Nah man, Munich was bad ... too slow and a major letdown.

[baronv]

Finally saw the movie. My two cents:

I went in it expecting an adventure film, came away feeling a definite sci-fi tone near the middle once the plot was shown. I like Indy films separate from other genres. Kinda like how I'd be disappointed if the Bourne movies somehow integrate Sasquatch or the Loch Ness monster into it, not my cup of tea.

Still, I enjoyed the movie for what it was... a flick with a history of fun adventures and slap-dash action. I could've done away with the cheesy one-liners in the first 20 minutes or Tarzan-Mutt. Wonder now when Shia will be taking over the enterprise for the 5th film?

[transfan52]

  baronv said:

Finally saw the movie. My two cents:

I went in it expecting an adventure film, came away feeling a definite sci-fi tone near the middle once the plot was shown. I like Indy films separate from other genres. Kinda like how I'd be disappointed if the Bourne movies somehow integrate Sasquatch or the Loch Ness monster into it, not my cup of tea.

Still, I enjoyed the movie for what it was... a flick with a history of fun adventures and slap-dash action. I could've done away with the cheesy one-liners in the first 20 minutes or Tarzan-Mutt. Wonder now when Shia will be taking over the enterprise for the 5th film?

I still have yet to see it but im gonna probably be put off by the sci fi tone of the movie more than anything...

Edited May 25, 2008 by transfan52

[crasis]

Yeah, that's my biggest problem with this movie. It absolutely FEELS like an Indy film...until about the last third of the movie

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(monkeys...why did it have to be monkeys??)

. That's when things went from fun Indy adventure to

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WTF?? Close Encounters?

pretty quickly. I do think I need to see it again, now that the shock has worn off. Perhaps I'll like it more this time...?

[Uxi]

Munich was ok. The end was weaker than anything but had a few good gunfights. Much more of a drama than an action film. Daniel Craig and Bana are great.

Ended up seeing Narnia Prince Caspian instead of Indy IV yesterday. Maybe today I'll get a chance.

[transfan52]

After seeing the movie for the first time today I think it is really good! I really like the plot surprisingly.

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The way they approached the whole alien thing wasnt too silly. and you know archeologists have found pictures from incan and mayan ruins depicting creatures of a similar shape being worshipped... Also there are rumors that say the flat tops of their pyramids were used as landing areas for UFOs.

I think its a good thing lucas was able to take unexplained phenomenon in history and make a movie out of it... cool stuff.

[baronv]

Well they kinda used the whole Mayan temple/alien plot in the first Aliens vs. Predator movie. Maybe the crystal skull was an Alien skull and Indy will have to battle a Predator in the next film.

[Uxi]

Heh. Have there been any Indy crossovers? There was the Willow/Star Wars crossover... I know that Indy crossover mentioned before was in jest, but it IS possible...

[gerwalk25]

I watched Indy yesterday. I really liked the plot elements straight out of Erich Von' Danikens' books "Chariots of the Gods" and "Gods from Outer Space" which I both read which were really interesting. I recently found the Documentary from the 70's based off "Chariots" albeit it's in 10 parts. It reminds me of those old 8mm film reels you seen in Elementary School with the funky music and over dramatic narration, good stuff IMHO .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9N6Drxzst6I

[wolfx]

Stupid question....can you technically survive being in ground zero of a nuclear explosion even after coming out of a lead lined refridgerator?

Can you technically scrub yourself clean of radiation like that? 0.o

[Radd]

The sci-fi elements didn't bother me one bit, but a lot of the people I saw the movie with felt that it ruined it for them.

One of the things I thought they did perfectly was to place Indy in the 50's. There was that 50's flavour everywhere. McCarthyism, nukes, jets. The video quality seemed to have this texture to it that made me think of old movies, too. Something I've not felt about any contemporary movie in quite some time.

If it weren't for the blatantly CG animals being dropped into any scene they could be squeezed into, I would have probably praised this movie for managing that. They weren't anything to really ruin the movie, but they were certainly groan-worthy. Some real animals in some of those shots would have looked better, and not detracted so much from the flavour of the film, which it otherwise succeeded with remarkably.

Also, there was one loose end that was never, ever really tied up.

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So, Indy was on the FBI's communist paranoia list, so much so that they ransacked his office at the school and he lost his job. At the end of the movie, he's being made school dean or something like that. They never really explain this at all. He did potentially save the world from Communism, I guess, but it's not like there were FBI agents tagging along with him, more likely he'd be under even more scrutiny in the political climate of the times. I suppose the "returning to job with a promotion" thing could be from discovering the final resting place of those long-lost explorers, though he didn't exactly handle the scene with kid gloves. It just felt like things went a little too well when they returned home. They could have left it at the marriage, and maybe had a small exchange between Indy and Stanforth and bringing up the resting site or something and indicating things were looking up for Indy on the career front. Would have succeeded better in the "happy ending" aspect, and not felt so tacked on.

[Radd]

  wolfx said:

Stupid question....can you technically survive being in ground zero of a nuclear explosion even after coming out of a lead lined refridgerator?

Only one way to find out.

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Can you technically scrub yourself clean of radiation like that? 0.o

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I suspect Indy's old enough that when it catches up to him, they won't really know if it was the fallout or just old age what got him first. But when they were testing bombs and really didn't know that much about radiation, they did scrub down ships, men, and everything else, thinking it might help.

[Max Jenius]

meh. had it's moments but I didn't particularly care for it.

[UN_MARINE]

  Quote

Stupid question....can you technically survive being in ground zero of a nuclear explosion even after coming out of a lead lined refridgerator?

if my 'splosionese serves me right, the flat out answer is "no".

the blast woulda melted the fridge, then blow it into a zillion pieces.

but the fridge thing didn't bother me as much as the CG animals.

it's not like this movie was Aliens or Terminator.

at what point do you take a movie with cheesy fist-fight SFX seriously?

i felt it did its thing as an Indy movie.

the sci-fi thing didn't bother me 'cuz, hey, it was the 50's! the 50's was all about

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aliens

, right?

[Sundown]

Saw it yesterday. Was moderately entertaining, but featured very prominant Lucasian flaws-- including the very first shot, with a obviously CG prarie dog mugging for the camera. I think the shot could even have worked if it were real, but instead it sort of screamed, "watch me, George Lucas, shove CG animals in your face in my cleverness!" It was almost too easy to spot what scenes Lucas was responsible for, and which scenes remained untainted by his touch. The man just doesn't seem able to keep his gleeful, giddy, childish (not child-like) sensibilities in check, and I can see him rubbing his hands at ways he can work in eye-rolling animals and tarzan schticks into the film.

Anyway, I'm one of the ones who hate

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the idea of aliens in an Indy movie

and if I could get over that, it was a decent watch. I do find Von Daniken's theories fascinating even if they represent horrid "archaeology", so part of me wanted to see where the movie would go with that premise, even as the other part rebelled against those elements. I have to watch Doom and Last Crusade to see where it ranks, but Crystal Skull wasn't as collosally tragic as it could have been. I didn't care for how much of the puzzle solving was taken away from Indy, and instead given to a babbling Oxford,

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and the solution to everything was for him to wave the Skull at it

, rather than have Indy come up with a brilliant answer to his predicament, and the writing almost struck me as predictably lazy.

I also agree that the ark in the broken crate, as neat as that was, lacked subtlety. Instead, a crate with a curious scorchmark on its side would have been sufficient.

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I actually liked the nuke scene-- I just didn't like the way the fridge was launched outrageously like a missle with Indy surviving with barely a scratch. It was gratuitous and way over the top. I would instead have preferred a cut to the fridge lying on its side after the blast, still in the remains of the "town", or seeing it roll and tumble along the ground propelled by the blast. There were also moments in the movie that were obvious setups for classic Indy moments, but somehow both Lucas and Speilberg missed them-- Indy struggles to close the fridge and manages to right before the blast goes off. Instead, it seemed obvious that they should instead have had Indy get his hat knocked off while entering the fridge, close the fridge door, then open it a crack to rescue his hat and slamming the door shut again right before the bomb detonates. And when Marion asks Indy what flaw the women he's had after her shared, instead of "They weren't you.", his response should have been "They reminded me of you," for the double meaning it offers and allowing Indy to remain aloof and scathingly wry, while revealing his actual feelings.

The movie also made the ultimate mistake of

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showing live aliens in the movie, especially an Indy movie, rather than keep them mysterious and skeletal. It simply wasn't necessary to show a live, mugging alien for the finale, and the CG was somewhat weak to boot.

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And regardless of their age, is it too much to ask for Indy and Marion to at least not

kiss like old people? I mean, come on. Give me a little passion here. Dip the girl. Kiss her back deeply. This is a romance that's remained unfulfilled for almost 20 years. Remind the audience you're still the spry old Indy (as opposed to merely old Indy) before the credits roll!

Edited May 26, 2008 by Sundown

[Lord of Tetris]

I'm going to just pretend that all instances of "How did Indy survive THAT?" can be attributed to him drinking from the Holy Grail in Indy 3.

[promethuem5]

Saw it today... soooooo good! It's too bad more movies aren't like this anymore... good clean fun, losta fisticuffs and human/believable stunts, and a good clean fun enemy you can get behind like Rooskies... movies are always better with good entertaining villains like Nazis and Commies.

[Radd]

Ja, the CG was pretty poor for ILM in many scenes. Even the sound also seemed kinda weak sauce at times. Seemed very odd for something that ought to have been a flagship title for everyone involved.

[Max Jenius]

  Radd said:

the CG was pretty poor for ILM in many scenes.

Yeah, it really clashed most of the time.

[JsARCLIGHT]

I got back from seeing it with my wife.

As it stands I liked it... but there are parts of it that bug me. My wife on the other hand felt it was, in her words, "totally stupid". We had a nice talk about it on the way home and I can understand all of her qualms about the movie (many of which have been already mentioned here). I think my preconceived notions of what this movie was going to be were kept lower than my wife. I also think that people who come into this thing wearing their fedoras and toting their replica Hovito golden fertility idols will be let down... this is not Raiders. It's more Last Crusade meets Happy Days.

But I personally went in to see Indy punch some commies, and that he did. My personal "issues" with the movie are as follows:

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- Indy seems to be near indestructible now. Drinking from the grail and aging 20 years has apparently turned him into a rock hard impervious substance that doesn't break when dropped, doesn't bleed when hit and doesn't tire when run around. The young Indy seemed to me to be so much more "human" and "breakable" compared to his older self. When young Indy was hit, he bled. When young Indy fell, he landed hard and winced in pain. Old Indy seems to just have become SuperIndy.

- In his old age Indy seems to have suddenly developed an aversion to shooting people. So did all the other "good guys". Sure he fired an RPG but he fired it at the machine and not the guy driving it. The only people who fired a weapon in anger in the whole movie were the reds. So I guess Spielberg's "only bad people use firearms" conscience that he grew in the last few years is still in full effect. Once again something makes me feel that "young Indy" would have grabbed that hood mounted machine gun and laid into the commies with it rather than engaged in a long, drawn out race and chase. Young Indy would have also aired out that nut job in the skull mask at the graveyard.

- In his old age Indy also seems to have developed quite the penchant for spitting out dumb dialog. The whole "I Like Ike" line drew kind of a collective groan from the audience I was in and got a good wince out of me. As did a lot of the babble that came out of people's mouths in the movie. It's like every spot you'd expect a gem of dialog you'd get a chicken mcnugget instead. The scripting was definitely lame.

- I'm not sure how exactly to put this as it almost makes no sense. To me personally the "commies" in the movie seemed to be played up a bit too much. I mean sure you had the Nazis in two of the other movies but somehow they felt "right"... or as right as genocidal fascists can feel. They felt... more "real"... whereas the communists in this movie felt like comic book super villains, over the top stereotypes. Even the "FBI G-men", the general, the '50s sock hop kids and greasers... everyone seemed like a stereotype instead of a flesh and blood person. I was almost waiting for the Fonz to pop up and say "Aaaaaaaaaaayyyyeeeeeeee!" at any second.

- I can fully understand the whole "what was the 'in' movie trend of the '50s?" angle in them using aliens and the reds, but in truth the big "alien menace" movie craze of the '50s was thinly veiled "fear of foreign invaders" replacement. It just seemed a bit "too much" to me to have both aliens and nasty foreign invaders in the movie at the same time.

- As others have said the CG was "obvious", which led to my big time complaint against CG in movies... the "fake" camera. This movie was rife with fake camera moves which personally takes me out of the movie as if you'd flip on the lights. Also in this realm was the "fake action" and the "too crazy to be believed action". Past Indy movies where indeed "unbelievable" in their action set pieces, but they did it in a way that made you think "wow, that was so incredibly lucky to manage that but I can actually see that happening in real life if the stars lined up right" whereas these new action pieces in this movie illicit the response from me of "wow that is so freaking fake and impossible, no human being could do that this is obviously special effects".

But all that said the movie does succeed in being a fun action romp. At current standing having only seen it once I rate it above Temple of Doom but below the other two... in as such making this my new "number three". Repeat viewings of this movie may raise or lower that opinion. As it stands now I probably will not go see it again in the theater but I will buy it on Blu Ray when it comes out... hoping that the other three also come out on Blu Ray. What good is a new movie in HD if the others aren't?

[promethuem5]

I really enjoyed the one FBI guy being the janitor from Scrubs... perfect casting!

[Scream Man]

  Lord of Tetris said:

I'm going to just pretend that all instances of "How did Indy survive THAT?" can be attributed to him drinking from the Holy Grail in Indy 3.

See, I trtied thinking that way, and it didnt help the movie improve...

[Roy Focker]

Your wife has good taste. The movie was stupid. Kinda fun but mostly stupid.

[Mog]

  wolfx said:

Stupid question....can you technically survive being in ground zero of a nuclear explosion even after coming out of a lead lined refridgerator?

Can you technically scrub yourself clean of radiation like that? 0.o

Well, according to the old GI Joe cartoon, all you need to do after being massively irradiated is burn your old clothes and get healed by some Indian/shaman dude.

I had seen the comments about the whole Indy and the Flying Saucer Men floating around, so I wasn't too shocked when the story headed in that direction. Still don't like the idea though.

A majority of the movie just seemed to lack a certain "oomph" to it. Or worse, certain scenes or bits just took me out of the movie completely (like the CG bits in that sword fight).

The movie definitely has its moments (especially the snake bit).

But in summary, it just felt like a rather mediocre effort all around.

[JsARCLIGHT]

  Roy Focker said:

Your wife has good taste. The movie was stupid. Kinda fun but mostly stupid.

Without retreading many of the previously stated reasons, my wife's opinion of the movie swung almost entirely on how vapid and corny the dialog was. She's a big "witty banter" fan and she was hoping to see another Last Crusade with lots of funny dialog between Harrison and Shia. Instead she was treated to (her words) "a kindergarten level dialog script that insulted my intelligence". Her follow up comment of "it's almost as if everyone had a lobotomy, cast and crew alike, and they expected the same of the audience" is kind of deserved in a few scenes but pretty harsh overall.

I think a lot of people (especially Lucas) have trouble with the "high concept" idea that this movie is an homage to the '50's sci-fi actioner B-movies. Audiences went in expecting crisper dialog and better pacing but to a good degree I think Lucas, even though he is a hack, felt that those things would have "removed the homage feel of it". It's kind of a cop-out really... they justify their bad script by saying it's a homage to the bad scripts of the '50s. If that "worked" for entertainment then Uwe Bol is the greatest flatterer of all time with his constant near perfect chain of homage to the great low budget slasher movies of the '70s and '80s.

As I said, if you do your best to kick your preconceived notions to the curb and go in NOT expecting another Raiders then the movie is a lot of fun. And to be honest the non-script related "failings" of the movie are more or less the same failings you can claim about every Lucas and many Spielberg movies from the last ten years.

[Vifam7]

I musta of nodded off during the movie.

I missed something... or rather I didn't understand one part of the movie. Um, what was the deal with the crystal skull and whole thing about the conquistador finding it, and Indy going after it in Peru (the whole conquistador burial chamber)? I mean, the beginning of the movie says Indy found it just fine several years ago and the Ruskies took it.

[eugimon]

  Radd said:

Only one way to find out.

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I suspect Indy's old enough that when it catches up to him, they won't really know if it was the fallout or just old age what got him first. But when they were testing bombs and really didn't know that much about radiation, they did scrub down ships, men, and everything else, thinking it might help.

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That was totally in keeping with the dawn of the nuclear age. People both in the USA and in the Soviet Union used to sit on the roofs of their homes/apartment buildings, put on shades and watch the bomb tests. There's video of people so close that they get hit by the shock wave and it's all shits and giggles for them. Hell, whole swatches of modern kazakhstan still glow in the dark. My wife went there and came back with some little pebbles the local orphans decorated with nail polish and even those things set off a giger counter she had at work.

[eugimon]

  Vifam7 said:

I musta of nodded off during the movie.

I missed something... or rather I didn't understand one part of the movie. Um, what was the deal with the crystal skull and whole thing about the conquistador finding it, and Indy going after it in Peru (the whole conquistador burial chamber)? I mean, the beginning of the movie says Indy found it just fine several years ago and the Ruskies took it.

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the beginning was about the soviets trying to find the body that Indy found at the roswell crash site. Different skull/body from the ones the conquistador found. Irina jokes/comments that they might be cousins.

[Vifam7]

  eugimon said:

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the beginning was about the soviets trying to find the body that Indy found at the roswell crash site. Different skull/body from the ones the conquistador found. Irina jokes/comments that they might be cousins.

Okay. Thanks.

Overall I felt the movie was okay. Certainly nowhere near as good as Raiders or Last Crusade, or even Temple of Doom.

Generally I felt that the setup for Indy going after the skull and it's treasure wasn't as good as the prior films. I agree that some of the CG segments were pretty obvious.

The whole 'killer ants' part was stupid IMHO. I know big vermins and bugs are a part of Indiana Jones movies but I thought it was stupider than ever before.

[Scream Man]

are we at the point where we can discuss without spoiler tags yet? I really can never be bothered using those...