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Indy and the Crystal Skull
Posted: Sun May 25, 2008 2:52 pm
by a1mamacat
So, I bravely escorted 3 14 years old boys to this show.
Needless to say, I dint sit with them LOL. I could have, though, as the movie had them enthralled, and I hardly heard a word out of them. There was much laughter though.
I enjoyed it myself very much. It tried very hard to stay true to the original Raiders element, and on the whole it succeeded. I loved Raiders and Crusade, dint much care for Temple of Doom, so this one was much appreciated.
Posted: Sun May 25, 2008 2:57 pm
by PlacentiaSoccerMom
We saw it over the weekend. I liked it more than #2, but not as much as #1 and #3. Shia LeBeouf annoyed me and I found Karen Allen's character to be too clingy and emotionally needy.
Posted: Sun May 25, 2008 3:29 pm
by jsuchard
Crystal Skull had an interesting idea, and it generally had the right feel and looked good, but it kinda sucked due to ridiculous plot points and what I call the "unbelievability factor".
Surely, I knew going in that an Indy movie would press the limits of believability. But there is a difference between the hero surviving impossible odds due to freakishly developed skills, luck, and making his "saving throw" [to borrow a term from Dungeons & Dragons], and surviving impossible odds due to, well, the impossible.
For example, I am willing to believe (from the opening scenes of Raiders) that Indy could avoid some darts, whip his way across a chasm, duck underneath a closing stone door, run through spiderwebs, and out-run a giant rolling stone ball and suffer only minor scrapes; this would take a series of very lucky happenstances, but it could
conceivably happen.
In Crystal Skull, however,...
Indy ducks into a lead-lined refigerator to avoid the effects of an atomic bomb test, with the explosion occurring, at most, one or two miles away. I initially thought, "Gee, that just might work! The lead will prevent him dying from radiation poisoning, and if the refrigerator is not vaporized [which, of course, it can't be for Indy to survive], then he will be protected from the blast." What actually happens in the film, though, is that the refrigerator is hurled through the air, probably many hundreds of yards, and Indy survives again with only relatively minor bruises. This is just not physically possible! The trauma from being thrown that far will kill a human being. Aside from the head trauma and multiple fractures, the aorta will get torn from its root, and any human will be killed almost instantly from that amount of trauma. Being inside a hard box does not prevent the G forces/deceleration injury from tearing your aorta when you land.
(I actually had the same kind of beef with a scene from Ironman, where Robert Downey Jr.'s character survives a crash that ought to have killed him; the iron suit does not prevent deceleration injury!)
I also couldn't stand the lame plot device whereby the wise but crazed bearded man was able to communicate only through riddling words.
PSM rates Crystal Skull it better than Temple of Doom, but I am hard-pressed to agree. Although Temple of Doom has some pretty lame parts, I love the opening song and dance number!
Posted: Sun May 25, 2008 5:14 pm
by slam
PlacentiaSoccerMom wrote:We saw it over the weekend. I liked it more than #2, but not as much as #1 and #3. Shia LeBeouf annoyed me and I found Karen Allen's character to be too clingy and emotionally needy.
Just got back from seeing it with my wife and sons. My 12-year old's rating of the 4 movies agreed with yours: #1, #3, #4, #2.
I enjoyed it, but #1 is still my favorite.
Posted: Sun May 25, 2008 7:00 pm
by hf_jai
We just got back too. I'd rank it no where near as good as #1, but ahead of #3 and #2. Worth the price of admission, and that's saying something nowadays. I had a good time, and what more can you really ask?
Posted: Sun May 25, 2008 9:09 pm
by danielh41
All three Indiana Jones sequels are enjoyable entertainment, and I do like them all. But none of the three can really stand next to the original Raiders of the Lost Ark which is a classic of the highest degree (I have it in my top five of all time).
Personally, I enjoyed the new Indiana Jones movie very much. From the moment Elvis's "Hound Dog" started, right through the end credits, I was taken back to my youth. In fact, I took two of my nephews (twins) to see it Friday night. Their birthday is nine days after mine, and they are the same age I was when Raiders of the Lost Ark came out. Since all Indiana Jones movies opened around Memorial Day, I told them that they were exactly the age I was when I saw the original. And by the same age, I meant not just down to the year, but to the week... They thought that was cool.
Posted: Mon May 26, 2008 1:14 am
by silverscreenselect
This movie has a comfortable feel to it, as if Ford, Spielberg and company are doing another variation on something they can do in their sleep. After we went to see it today, we watched Last Crusade on DVD tonight and it was fun to see just how much of Crystal Skull was an entertaining variation on earlier themes. I'm sure that if we had watched the other two films as well, the same would have been true. The feeling watching it was somewhat akin to seeing a veteran rock band on a reunion tour playing their old hits again. Nothing original here, but it brings back good memories.
I really enjoyed the fact that Karen Allen was brough back as the love interest instead of arbitrarily foisting a 30ish actress on Ford. Allen and Ford have terrific chemistry together and she looks great. It's a shame she took so much time off her career.
I feel I have a connection to her from my video selling days as well. I once sold a video to Kale Browne, her ex-husband. It was a trashy horror film that starred John Considine, with whom Browne co-starred on a soap opera. When I corresponded from him about how to send in payment, I commented that his name was unusual and asked if he was the same Kale Browne who was the soap opera actor. He was and he said he bought the tape as a gag gift for Considine.
Posted: Mon May 26, 2008 4:59 pm
by MarleysGh0st
I saw it this afternoon. Overall, I agree with Jeff.
It was nice to see Indy and Marian together again. Nice, also, to see that giant warehouse from the end of Raiders, and to even get a glimpse of the Ark, itself. I didn't sense any chemistry between Harrison Ford and Shia LeBeouf, like there was betwen Ford and Sean Connery.
But the plot holes (that lead-lined fridge being the biggest of all), the shifting terrain, the arbitrarily shifting position of the vehicles during the chase scenes, it was all just too much.
I was picking up on other trivial little things that didn't fit, too.
Indy mentions going to Leipzig to teach. Since that was part of East Germany in 1957, that clashed with the red scare theme.
Would Pan Am still be using a DC-3 to fly to Cuba in 1957? Hadn't they brought in the 707 by then?
And what kind of gift was that, given by the alien to Comrade Irina at the end, huh?
I rank this one with Temple of Doom. But Temple of Doom was pretty bad, IMHO.
<sigh>
Posted: Mon May 26, 2008 5:13 pm
by themanintheseersuckersuit
MarleysGh0st wrote:I saw it this afternoon. Overall, I agree with Jeff.
It was nice to see Indy and Marian together again. Nice, also, to see that giant warehouse from the end of Raiders, and to even get a glimpse of the Ark, itself. I didn't sense any chemistry between Harrison Ford and Shia LeBeouf, like there was betwen Ford and Sean Connery.
But the plot holes (that lead-lined fridge being the biggest of all), the shifting terrain, the arbitrarily shifting position of the vehicles during the chase scenes, it was all just too much.
I was picking up on other trivial little things that didn't fit, too.
Indy mentions going to Leipzig to teach. Since that was part of East Germany in 1957, that clashed with the red scare theme.
Would Pan Am still be using a DC-3 to fly to Cuba in 1957? Hadn't they brought in the 707 by then?
And what kind of gift was that, given by the alien to Comrade Irina at the end, huh?
I rank this one with Temple of Doom. But Temple of Doom was pretty bad, IMHO.
<sigh>
The first production airplane of the Boeing 707 commercial jet series made its maiden flight December 20, 1957, with Pan American World Airways putting the airplane into transoceanic service October 26, 1958, and American Airlines following with transcontinental service January 25, 1959.
Posted: Mon May 26, 2008 5:28 pm
by MarleysGh0st
OK, I'm wrong about the 707.
But surely they had other models in service by then?
Posted: Mon May 26, 2008 7:14 pm
by a1mamacat
MarleysGh0st wrote:I saw it this afternoon. Overall, I agree with Jeff.
It was nice to see Indy and Marian together again. Nice, also, to see that giant warehouse from the end of Raiders, and to even get a glimpse of the Ark, itself. I didn't sense any chemistry between Harrison Ford and Shia LeBeouf, like there was betwen Ford and Sean Connery.
But the plot holes (that lead-lined fridge being the biggest of all), the shifting terrain, the arbitrarily shifting position of the vehicles during the chase scenes, it was all just too much.
I was picking up on other trivial little things that didn't fit, too.
Indy mentions going to Leipzig to teach. Since that was part of East Germany in 1957, that clashed with the red scare theme.
Would Pan Am still be using a DC-3 to fly to Cuba in 1957? Hadn't they brought in the 707 by then?
And what kind of gift was that, given by the alien to Comrade Irina at the end, huh?
I rank this one with Temple of Doom. But Temple of Doom was pretty bad, IMHO.
<sigh>
Oh Come ON!. Expecting factual reality from Harrison Ford, is like expecting good Parenting Advise from Brittany.
It's supposed to be fun, and an escape from reality. Lord knows, I escaped for almost three hours, and bless their little hearts for it.
Posted: Mon May 26, 2008 7:16 pm
by Ritterskoop
I liked it.
I ADORE John Hurt
- who wore a serape and had six lines, repeating himself a lot. Awesome.
Posted: Tue May 27, 2008 2:49 am
by silverscreenselect
jsuchard wrote:Crystal Skull had an interesting idea, and it generally had the right feel and looked good, but it kinda sucked due to ridiculous plot points and what I call the "unbelievability factor".
Apparently, there are some others who agree with you.
http://tinyurl.com/5zdy2h
The Russian Communist party has condemned the film for its inaccurate portrayal of history and called for it to be banned in Russia. Among their complaints are that Ford and Cate Blanchett are second rate actors and capitalist puppets, "serving as the running dogs of the CIA." They emphasized that during the 1950's, they were launching space satellites and not sending terrorists to the United States. Ironically, the same Russian Communist party had lavished praise on an earlier Ford film, K-19, in which he played a Russian sub commander. It's a good thing that American films weren't shown in the former Soviet Union or these guys would have had a fit about every ten minutes.
The movie is playing on over 800 theaters in Russia, most ever for a Hollywood film.
I can sympathize with them on one point. I would hope that the former Soviet Union had better hair stylists than whoever worked on Cate Blanchett.
Others also have had problems with the movie. From Australia:
Indiana Jones also came under fire in Australia, where the head of the World Archaeological Congress called him an “ethical nightmare” for the profession. Claire Smith, of Newcastle University, said that the fictional archaeologist was guilty of an “imperialist assumption that artifacts in far-flung parts of the world needed ‘protection’ supplied by the West”.
She told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation: “In pursuit of fortune and glory Jones ignores international treaties, treats human remains as weapons and destroys archaeological sites in a bid to escape from potential entombment. Archaeologists are concerned with preserving the past, not making a profit from it, and sometimes Jones seems more finely tuned to the commercial value of an artifact than the information it can give us.”
Professor Smith conceded, however, that the adventures gave a boost to archaeology by making “a pedantic and exacting science appear exciting”.
Posted: Tue May 27, 2008 5:57 am
by earendel
MarleysGh0st wrote:I saw it this afternoon. Overall, I agree with Jeff.
It was nice to see Indy and Marian together again. Nice, also, to see that giant warehouse from the end of Raiders, and to even get a glimpse of the Ark, itself. I didn't sense any chemistry between Harrison Ford and Shia LeBeouf, like there was betwen Ford and Sean Connery.
But the plot holes (that lead-lined fridge being the biggest of all), the shifting terrain, the arbitrarily shifting position of the vehicles during the chase scenes, it was all just too much.
I was picking up on other trivial little things that didn't fit, too.
Indy mentions going to Leipzig to teach. Since that was part of East Germany in 1957, that clashed with the red scare theme.
Would Pan Am still be using a DC-3 to fly to Cuba in 1957? Hadn't they brought in the 707 by then?
And what kind of gift was that, given by the alien to Comrade Irina at the end, huh?
I rank this one with Temple of Doom. But Temple of Doom was pretty bad, IMHO.
<sigh>
As for the gift...
It's rather like the "gift" that the Nazis got when they opened the Ark - I rather expected something of the sort.
Posted: Tue May 27, 2008 11:56 am
by tanstaafl2
MarleysGh0st wrote:OK, I'm wrong about the 707.
But surely they had other models in service by then?
It would depend alot on where the flight to Cuba originated. Long haul would likely include the Lockheed Constellation and by 1957 Pan Am could have flown any one of several Douglas aircraft to include the DC-4, DC-6 or DC-7 to places like Miami.
For a short hop such as Key West it is still possible that the DC-3 could be used. After all that run is sort of the birthplace of Pan Am. And the DC-3/C-47 was one hell of a good aircraft. Just don't know if Pam Am was still flying them by then. They tended to be out in front of the industry in purchasing newer aircraft in their heyday.
But in 1957 no doubt it was still being flown into Cuba by somebody. A lot of gooney birds are still flying today!