Topic: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull Discussion/SPOILERS

Valthonin here, the biggest Indy fan ever(its not up for discussion. I am what I am. I am Indiana Jones).

Well.....i saw it. I went to the theaters with 30 or so of my friends to see that first showing at 12:01am. I was fully dressed as Indiana Jones. There were several others dressed as him, but mine was definitely the best put together costume. Me and my gang swarmed the theater as soon as they let us in and practically took over the seats and got the best seating. For the duration of the night, everyone ceased calling me by my other name(its not important) and called me by my true name...Indy.

SPOILERS AHEAD

So, the movie itself. Scale from 1-10 : 6 or 7. And for an Indiana Jones film, thats bad. Raiders and Last Crusade would be 10's and Temple (for me, I actually LIKE Temple of doom) would be a 9. This film is definitely the worst of the series, but I NEVER expected it to be better than the originals. Dont worry though, the film was definitely fun. As in, I did have fun watching it. It was exciting to see my idol on the big screen for the first time ever. It was surreal. There were funny parts, intense parts, action-y parts, thrilling parts...the whole shebang. BUT, as soon as the monkeys arrive and fight the Russians and Mutt Williams turns into Tarzan for a moment, the movie takes a turn for the worse.

I can see exactly where Lucas comes in and chopped up Frank Darabont's original script for this film... He even has his favorite movie killer...small fuzzy creatures that defeat well armed evil soldiers. Now, the monkeys dont beat the whole Russian army of course, but they do delay and fight the Russians in a stupid way... just like Ewoks.

When Marion is driving the car and she lands it on the tree and it perfectly descends into the water....bogus.

DID ANYONE ELSE NOTICE THAT INDIANA JONES DID NOT SHOOT HIS REVOLVER!?!?! What is up with that? He only takes it out ONCE and its seen for 2 seconds. Gimme a break...he coulda shot ONE rooskie(sp?).

The ending....jeez. Aliens? UFO's? For gods sakes...this is INDIANA JONES NOT STAR WARS. It was way too weird, WAY too weird. It also contradicts all the religious centered Mac Guffins (those are the center pieces of the films, for example the Ark in Raiders, Sankara stones in Temple, and the Holy Grail in LC). Indiana Jones has always been centered upon the mystery of God and religion in general...by why oh why...aliens?

The marrage, I didnt have a problem with. Very fairy tale-ish, but cute. It was cool to see Indy settle down with Marion finally.

Personally, I thought Shia would ruin the movie. I didnt consider him a problem in the least. I think he did a great job, thank God for that. Its actually somewhat believeable that he is Henry Jones III, but maybe they coulda gotten a rougher looking kid, idk. But Shia did do a good job.

Part of me is feeling like this was a movie for non mainstream Indy fans. in other words, ppl that DIDNT know Indy too well and werent huge fans, but knew of him.

One of my FAVORITE parts is right at the end when Indy's fedora falls at the feet of Mutt and he picks it up. He's about to put it on, (at this point im flipping out. If Shia puts on that fedora then im going to Skywalker Ranch and personally making sure Lucas never screws with Indiana Jones again) and then Indy snatches it and puts it on his own head. They almost had me there, that was a nice little trick. Cool scene.

The bar fight? Hilarious. "Hey thats my boyfriend!" POW, lol. The dry sand pit? Also funny.

The cameo of the Ark in the Hangar 51 scene was very, very cool. Too see the Ark one last time, and have Indy and the Russians run by it and not realize what was there...awesome.

Thats all for now, sorry i'm a day late. I had my graduation today :D. More too come when I remember it however.

I dressed my husband up as Indy. He didn't mind at all, he said he's actually wanted an Indiana Jones costume since he was a kid. We went to the 3:00pm showing. We both wanted to go to the midnight but I had to work in the morning.

I, too, thought that Mutt/Shia would ruin it. But, no. I was wrong. He was actually good.

I guess the religious thing is cause the people worshiped the skull and the aliens? Or actually I think they were interdimensional beings, that one guy said. Or if there's a difference between that and aliens.

Oh, I loved the end there where Mutt almost puts the hat on but Indy snatches it away like, "Ha, not yet, kid."

Oooooh, I didn't notice that with the monkeys being like the Ewoks. I noticed a few other SW references though. Indy says, "I have a bad feeling about this." And the part where Irena I think her name was? and Mutt are sword fighting on separate vehicles, like Anakin and Obi-Wan were lightsaber fighting on separate things.

Overall, I liked it. :D  But, yeah, it was sort of weird and not like the other three. Still great, but, I dunno. I need to see it again. Which I won't mind doing at all!! It was a great, great movie.

i dressed as Indy, hummed the Raiders' March in line, and ppls all over kept giving me "nice costume". i wanted to whip them for fun, but then i'd get thrown out. i wanted to bring my trumpet so i could play the Raiders' March while waiting for the movie, but my mom said it would be too much space wasted or something like that. the movie definitely wasn't what i expected. the aliens made it weird...

the chase scenes were very cool, with next to no CGI used for the entire thing.

Hopefully...more like "Ha, not EVER, kid."

i saw the movie tonight and had no expectations.
at the end of the movie there was a vibe in the theater like- did that just happen?

the movie entertains for a bit, nice opening w/ indy using some creative cover during an incident in a town getting bombed- but like Val said when Shia started swinging from vines like spiderman. i started cursing Lucas. and it only gets more clownish from there.
four people over sixty go over three colossal waterfalls and have hit the ground running. 
ho-hum.

harrison is the bomb though, that guy can take chicken poop and turn it into chicken salad.
but this salad tastes really stupid at the end.

worst of the four...script wise anyway.

Didnt he shoot that native dude before they found the skull? Or did he just flash it to scare him away?

What was the "purpose" of the crystal skull as the main plot device?

~ The aliens came to Earth about 7,000 years ago and tought the local yahoos how to grow crops, dig ditches, and stack stones into a triangle shape? We humans couldn't figure out how to do that much without alien intervention? They can live as disembodied skulls?

~ The Conquistadores found the spaceship / temple hundreds of years ago, and just took one of the skulls, out of EVERYTHING that was inside? Why the skull? Why only ONE skull, if thirteen skeletons were present? Why were they allowed to take it in the first pace? How did they get inside the alien crypt without a crsytal skull to open the door, if they hadn't stolen it yet?

~ What did the alien carcass in Area 51 have to do with the crystal skull they were looking for?

~ Why did the aliens store a treasure of knowledge and artifacts from the world's cultures of the time for posterity, if it would all be destroyed indescriminately as the spaceship powered up?

~ Area 51 is guarded by like, only 5 men?

~ Why did the spaceship power-up and leave when they returned the skull to it's skeleton? The crystal skull is just an egnition key, or something? Was it actually an alien skull, or a mechanism of some kind, shaped to look like a skull?

~ So, did Galadriel the Commie, like, die, or what?

Awesome flick! Loved every minute, George!

He only aimed it at him and scared him off.

Oh yeah......But he did kill that one dude with his own blowgun, that was great

They helped the one society advance quicker than normal and become highly advanced sooner than our society would for over 1000 years. And yes they have consiousness as disembodies skulls.

I think that the main conquistador probably took the skull secretly after finding the place and seeing its potential.

The alien in area 51 was another interdimensianal traveler that landed 10 years before. The Russians were looking for more info on the travelers.

The treasure and artifacts were either collected for knowledge or by the inhabitants as a shrine.

Yes.

The only thing I could think of is that the skull held the consiousness of the alien and they were waiting to be reunited before launching the ship.

I don't know who you mean by Galadriel... but Spalko (the woman) was overwhelmed with knowledge and her essense (i think) was sucked into the portal along with Mac.

I know right!!!

As for my thoughts... I tried to forget about the stupid parts which got harder and harder at the point that the monkeys came into play. But I ultimately enjoyed the movie, but it failed as an Indiana Jones finale. It needed a real ending other than "They went to the spaces in between spaces." WTF does that mean other than "We don't know what or where they came from."

....why do you answer your own questions?...odd...

I liked it, it was very similar to on of my favorite Stargate episodes, which happens to be about a crystal skull made by aliens. I think the whole alien thing is a nice change to Indy, I think some people just want a Raiders Remake, they won't accept anything new and different from originals.

There has never been a refference or hint towards aliens or UFOs or any kind of extraterrestrial in Indiana Jones. When people think of Indiana Jones, they think of holy religious artifacts, relics of great power that are infused with energy from God or the gods. A change as drastic as this is too much. Plus, this late in the game?

And also........no one wanted a Raiders remake. Its impossible. Nothing will ever be better than the originals. I, for one, WANTED something new of course. A new artifact, new story, etc. BUT....aliens is a big jump. Not impossible for Indiana Jones(nothing is) but there was better than aliens.

Thats the thing, the aliens were gods.

I'm going to watch this movie soon.

Yeah I get the whole plot twist that the aliens were worshipped as gods by the Ugha and stuff, but when I say that Indiana Jones Mac Guffins are usually based on artifacts related to God or the gods I mean like dieties and religions based upon supernatural beings that created all life and rule the heavens etc....not aliens from another planet that imbued the natives with knowledge. Its a different concept than a God that created life.

Actually... aliens from another dimension.

Akator was just a meeting place for the travelers, which they followed by the geogliphs. the geogliphs acted as directions to Akator where the travelers would be in peace with the local civilians, whom worshipped them as Gods, and in returned exchanged knowledge of farming, irrigation, and the people built them a city of gold in respect. in the temple, they would discuss whatever and share their knowledge, or their "treasure". also, just read this FAQ link http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0367882/faq#.2.1.82 it will help answer some questions.

The beginning was pretty cool.  I also liked the cameo from the Ark at the beginning.  I was disappointed that Indy didn't get to see it again, though.  I like the reference to the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, where he talked about riding (or being kidnapped) by Poncho Villa.  That was a nice touch.  The Star Wars reference I caught, too (I have a bad feeling about this).  That was pretty neat dead giveaway.  And, of course, the courtesy Wilhelm scream was in there, too, during the motorcycle chase.  It was sad that the actor who played Marcus Brody had already passed away.  Would've been cool to see him in the movie, or John Rhys Davies character, for that matter.  I don't know if it's because I dated a Russian chick before, but Cate Blanchett looked pretty hot with her hair like that for some reason.  Had that Natasha Fatale (from Boris and Natasha for all you youngins' who didn't grow up on Rocky and Bullwinkle) feel to her. 

The alien thing kind of bugged me a little bit, too.  You could definitely see Steven Spielburg's influence there.  When they were cutting open the wrapped up alien mummy I kept expecting to see an E.T. alien body for some reason.  When I was mentioning to my wife, she did remind me, though, that this is taking place in the 1950's now, and that's around the time all the weird sci-fi space alien atomic monster movies started coming out.  Didn't Lucas and Spielburg both say that influenced their taking up directing in the first place?  You can tell they had fun making this movie.  But the alien thing did bug me, though, still.  Just felt kind of out of place for an Indiana Jones movie, I guess. 

I agree with the monkey and Tarzan thing.  That was just a little....well, weird.  Him picking up the hat at the end was kind of neat.  Kind of like a foreshadowing.  My wife had told me she read online that Steven Spielburg had talked about maybe beginning a spin-off series about the adventures of Mutt, since Harrison Ford is getting too old to do Indiana now.  Trying to breathe some new life into the franchise and all.  I don't know.  Might be something neat for some newer and younger audiences.

Yeah I posted a topic about Lucas' exact quote on that subject. But I really dont want that to happen. In my opinion, nothing beats the ending to Last Crusade. KotCS was just....unecessary. Fun no doubt, but I dont think it should have been made. Not because I didnt have faith in Lucas and Spieldberg to produce another great Indy sequel (which I really did have my worries about it), but because I didnt think Indy needs any more. Riding off into the sunset with Brody, Sallah and his father after finding and drinking from the Holy Grail...that ending can't be beat.

No doubt.  Also gives double meaning to the "Last Crusade."

yeah, but Spielberg had planned to make 5 Indy movies back in the 80s, so really this shouldn't be treated so harshly, as it was already planned.

Ok, I saw it today.  I mimic everyone else thoughts.  Aliens, weird.  Monkeys, retarded.  Driving off a cliff, landing in a tree then driving into the water, impossible. 

I also kind of laughed when they went off the two cliffs and Indy didn't lose his hat.  Then when he took it off my friends and I killed ourselves.

Can't say I'd like Mutt as the next Indiana.  "The Adventures of Mutt Jones"  just doesn't have that ring to it.

This topic make me even more excited  to see the movie......

i have seen Indiana Jones 4.
I thought it was okay but no Raiders of the Lost Ark or last crusade

the ending was ridiculous though

i noticed another similarity to star wars
when the russian leader that Cate Blanchett played died at the end i recall fire coming from her eye socket. in revenge of the sith when General Grevious died flames came from his eye socket.

Indy's 1,2,3, and 4 are good but there are no star wars

obviously there is no star wars it's Indiana Jones!

I have seen that.It is great!

sorry, typographical error earlier

it says
Indy's 1,2,3, and 4 are good but there are no star wars

it should say
Indy's 1,2,3, and 4 are good but they are no star wars

i have noticed something about the indy films

the odd numbered films(1&3) are biblical based stories set mainly in the desert with Nazis as the villains

and the even numbered ones(2&4) are not biblical based, set mainly in the jungle without Nazis as the villain

P.S. whatever happened to the japanesse dude( the kid) and Willie(the whiny female side-kick who is so much lamer than marion) after temple of doom.

I loved it, I was seeing it cause I love the Indy movies but also cause I love Shia. I think he is a great actor and that well...u know i just love him lol. But seriously I thought it was really good, but none of them can compare to Raiders cause it was the first and probably the best (in my opinion).

Short Round joins an Asian gang in San Fransisco, Willie Scott moves to Hollywood and marries a 'hot shot director'.

LOL i needed that. that was funny

You think I'm kidding...

i think she does think you're kidding... i know you're not, i already knew that stuff.

trust me i don't think ur kidding. i just found it so funny how matter-of-factly you said it

seriously how do you know that

P.S it would have been funny if the person who's avatar is hennry jones 3 said "yes i do think your kidding, you got a problem with that." just like in the movie

PPS i think it was a mistake to have Shis say bu!!$hit. i doesn't feel right for an indy film.

i will bet you that he actually adlibbed that becuase he talks like that in real life.

well let's see, they say $h!t in raiders and temple, so why not in this one?

I don't think there was anything wrong with him saying it, but i do think he adlibbed it. And besides, much worse has been said in other movies.

i just thught it was out of place in the story to say that, i felt right in raider and the other one but this time it felt unnesacery.

couldn't have said it better valthonin, if you want my review, read his!
good movie, bad ending.
the best part was seeing the ark.
the best.
good cameo

Cool eh? Yeah that was perfect, i feel like they didnt over do it by havint Indy or anyone else see it. Gotta love cameos...

Indiana jones is about archeology, not astrology
no aliens.

well the inter-dimensional beings were "time-traveling archaeologists" as Dr. Jones put it. Plus, he chases after ancient relics, and fact. Archeology is the study of fact. He said that himself in Last Crusade.

Aliens were tied in with archeology.

true, but i still dident like it.

I would give them these ratings out of 100

Raiders             82%
T of Doom         30%
last crusade       87%
KOTCS             83%

Yes my perspective on them has changed since my last post:/

.......

You give Raiders of the Lost Ark an 80? You, sir, have no idea what you are talking about. I highly question your word on anything to do with films and the film industry.

Well, I would rate them like this:

Raiders of the Lost Ark: 94%

Temple of Doom: 89%

The Last Crusade: 97%

The Kingom of the Crystal Skull: 91%