I was not prepared for the Crystal Skull

[BlueStarLizzard]

ok, i'm gonna point out that i liked the story. yes, the CGI and the stupid ants and monkeys were horrid, but i liked the alians and russian enemys. unfortuantly, i think they got to caught up in crap effects and silly stupid stunts and didn't catch the pulp genre they were trying to emulate quite right.

and that was the point. in the 1940's pulp litature and all was based around nazi's and great adventure stories, whereas in the 50's it moved towards evil russians, nuclear war and si-fi. the idea was that was the logical evolution for the indy movies over the time period, since those movies where call backs to that tradition in the first place.

but yeah, KotCS sucked. and for the record i liked ToD.

[Perd Hapley]

Wait.  There was a story?  They could have at least started out properly, by showing us the back story of Indy and Mac in the war.  There's really no point in having a back-stabbing friend, if you don't show them being friends in the first place.  Instead, they just gave us a lot of action, with references to back story, and one character after another from Indy's past showing up on cue.  "Hey, he just happens to be in a trunk with some guy he knew in the war!"  "Hey, now he's talking to a kid that will turn out to be his son!"  "Hey, now the Russians have inexplicably gone and rounded up the chick he hasn't spoken to in two decades!  How did they know he would suddenly start to care whether she lives or dies?"  "Hey, there's an old professor guy he used to know!" 

I watched some featurette thing on the DVD, and they mentioned that they were going for a fifties B-movie feel.  I don't know if they succeeded or failed, but the result was not good.  I would have been fine with Russians and aliens and atom bombs.  Or maybe just two of the three.  It's the fail that I didn't like. 

[Brad Johnson]

I would have been fine with Russians and aliens and atom bombs.  Or maybe just two of the three.  It's the fail that I didn't like. 

I truly think I wouldn't have minded all three if the the emphasis had been on integration rather than exaggeration.

Brad

[Phyphor]

Suspension of disbelief is fine, but most action movies now require "hanged by the neck until dead" type suspension of disbelief.   

[Parker Dean]

Sums it up pretty nicely.

Also leads to another question. When will the Nazis cease to become one of the favorite frameworks upon which to hang conspiracies in the movies? I mean an indie movie is coming out soon that has Space Nazis returning from a secret base on the moon. WHAT GIVES?

A Nazi moon base is not a new contrivance. I recall reading a short story in one of those scifi anthologies edited by J.E. Pournelle in the Eighties that had a Nazi spaceship, Dora, IIRC running from aliens that they had been at war with since WWII. In the story, the moon base had been lost and the ship's captain saw the writing on the wall and passed the info on to some civilian skeptic.

Anyway, since the story is in an anthology it may well be much older than the Eighties and my impression of the writing style is that it is from the Fifties.

[Iain]

& on that note there are at least two zombie movies than use Nazis as the undead.One Japanese & the other ...Scandinavian...I think.

Frozen zombies.

Dead Snow.

Watch it.

[Strings]

Huh... now, where did I put that damn thing. I know it's around here somewhere...

*rummaging through boxes*

AH HA! I knew it was around here somewhere!

*puts on "weird stuff geek" hat*


What bothered me about the whole "alien thing" in KotCS is that it wasn't needed. There are PLENTY of oddities in CA, that could've been used to base the story around. Instead, they went with "nuke the site from orbit".

 Doing the alien thing ruined the movie, IMNSHO. It was WAY too far over the top, as well as causing problems for the first three movies (by switching from "gods" to "technologically advanced aliens").

Heck... with only minor tweeking of known history, they could've had one awesome storyline. Instead, Spielberg let down his fans (which seems to be happening alot lately)...

Thanks, but I think I'm done with Spielberg's products...

[jamz]

A Nazi moon base is not a new contrivance. I recall reading a short story in one of those scifi anthologies edited by J.E. Pournelle in the Eighties that had a Nazi spaceship, Dora, IIRC running from aliens that they had been at war with since WWII. In the story, the moon base had been lost and the ship's captain saw the writing on the wall and passed the info on to some civilian skeptic.

Anyway, since the story is in an anthology it may well be much older than the Eighties and my impression of the writing style is that it is from the Fifties.

Heck, Heinlein did Nazi Moon Base in 1947 with Rocket Ship Galileo.

[MechAg94]

And the Crystal Skull was a GOOD movie... right up until they got captured by the Russians.

I think I realized it was going downhill when those Russians showed up to take over the army warehouse and 10 guys with automatic weapons were lined up right behind the lady and the guards couldn't see them.  That was when I figured the movie would be full of cartoonish crap.  It reminded my of old nightmares like trying to watch The Shadow.

[zahc]

For me, it was over at the magnetic gunpowder.

[BryanP]

Suspension of disbelief is fine, but most action movies now require "hanged by the neck until dead" type suspension of disbelief.   

My suspension of disbelief hasn't quite been hanged.  It was held at gunpoint and forced to perform unnatural acts a few times.   

[AJ Dual]

I think I realized it was going downhill when those Russians showed up to take over the army warehouse and 10 guys with automatic weapons were lined up right behind the lady and the guards couldn't see them.  That was when I figured the movie would be full of cartoonish crap.  It reminded my of old nightmares like trying to watch The Shadow.

Yeah, I think there is a line between "Suspension of disbelief" and "Suspension of Parallax"... 

[seeker_two]

...right up until they got captured by the Russians.

Getting captured by Russians seems to ruin just about anything, doesn't it?...     

[Jamisjockey]

My suspension of disbelief hasn't quite been hanged.  It was held at gunpoint and forced to perform unnatural acts a few times.   

And those unnatural acts are illegal in nearly every southern state!!


Did anyone watch the southpark clips? 

[onions!]

FWIW,this thread reminded me that I own a copy & have never seen it.Until last night.

I liked it overall.

I dis-liked a few things.
-The fridge
-waaaay to many scenes that looked like an indoor set w/bad lighting (all the scenes in "ruins" looked like overly lighted,painted styrofoam-which it probably was)
-the magnetic gunpowder/buckshot.
-too many references to past movies(The Ark,the scorpions when going into the hole[spiders in the first movie],the snake in the sand trap[& he grabbed it!WTF?]

Then theres the biggies,the re-hashes,the un-original stuff.The vehicle fight scene was the underground mine car scene from Temple of Doom above ground.The ant attack was seemingly robbed from The Mummy/Mummy Returns(scarab beetles)-so was the whole disappearing alien city(from Mummy Returns,that is).Even the trip over the waterfalls brought to my mind the leap from the airplane & subsequent ride on a inflatable that was in T of D.I think there's another but...who cares,stick a fork in it!

I had no problem w/the alien angle.That part actually seems plausible to me(the magnetic alien/skull part-not so much).Nice tie in with the Indian tribe that bound their kids heads too.

What I liked:
-Cate Blanchett-----Woof!She's a beautiful woman & those eyes!
-The ending.The kid is picking up Indy's hat & I thought NO!,not a sequel w/a different Indiana!,& was relieved when Indy took his hat back.
-The McCarthy references.It was good to see the storyline brought forward & to get a little reasoning behind the story's undercurrents.That the hottie Ukrainian was just a rehash of the hottie Austrian was...O.K.(Boring,BUT o.k.)

Oh yeah,IIRC,Marion had been married prior.She was spoken of by her maiden name @ the wedding though.Not period correct-or at least unlikely,that.

[Perd Hapley]

Not to dis Cate Blanchett, but she just wasn't any kind of hot in that movie. 

[mellestad]

To the OP:  If it wasn't Indiana Jones, I think I would have thought it was an OK movie.  But since it was Indiana Jones, I thought it was horrible, because they could have done so much better.

I feel the same way about Wolverine.

[Bigjake]

"What Gives" is that a) there's no "pro-Nazi" pressure groups with any traction; and b) Nazis are white guys.

Why do you think the villains who nuked Denver in the screen version of Tom Clancy's The Sum of All Fears were changed from Islamofascists to Euronazi-type white guys?

Just like it was Evil White anti government guys in that most recent Die Hard abortion. 

"Let's ramp a tractor trailer off a collapsing overpast and have our hero jump from the cab and land on a Harrier!!"

It's just like the Indiana Jones thing.  In the other movies, John McClain was just a hardcore badass.  In the last one, he's some kind of comic hero, complete with cheesy family baggage and lame teenage sidekick.   

I really thought better of Bruce Willis up until that one.

[freedom lover]

And those unnatural acts are illegal in nearly every southern state!!


Did anyone watch the southpark clips? 

I watched the whole episode online. The Indiana Jones hysteria was comical and sad at the same time. The rape scenes were gross, disturbing, and slightly funny. I enjoyed the subplot about the Chinese takeover, especially Cartman's final line about unethical dick shooters.

As for the movie, I didn't particularly enjoy it, especially the illogical and completely over the top impossible action sequences. If the action is unbelievable in a movie it ceases to be cool. Like the Last Diehard movie. That Asian chick wasn't remotely human!

[freakazoid]

All the Indy movies where awesome.

"Let's ramp a tractor trailer off a collapsing overpast and have our hero jump from the cab and land on a Harrier!!"

That was obviously a call back to the first one, and it also was an awesome movie.