(Spoilers) Initial Reactions and Discussion for Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Nope. Apparently not.

-matthew

 

Yes, it's the first episode in the Adventures of Young Indiana Jones where he ventures out of the U.S. on his own (meaning not traveling with his father as a child).

Of course, it makes no sense since the line is there to help explain why he knows Quechua, which is actually only spoken in the area of South America where the Incas lived, certainly not in Mexico and much less in northern Mexico.

But it's a clever way to have Indy give some idea of how long he's been doing the "adventure" thing.

 

Disregarding because of inherent flaws =/= not getting.

 

Well, who knows, maybe if there is enough whining on the Internet, some day Spielberg might convince Lucas to let him put out a "Special Edition" of KOTCS where he doesn't show the aliens.

 

I'd prefer the term 'critiquing' as opposed to 'whining'. And that would be one Special Edition I might prefer to an original film.

-matthew

 

Think real hard. You can probably figure it out.

BTW, let me cut to the chase, so to speak. Lots of people desperately want to find reasons to villify George Lucas, for whatever motivation. (There are, by the way, literally millions of ways for people to spend their time more constructively that attacking George Lucas.) We saw this all through the prequels, and we're seeing it again. I saw it coming a mile away. Yes, stubborn old George held the whole thing up. George BAD!!!! Well, sticking to his instincts has made the man a billionaire several times over, so I'd say that's a good plan for George.

You know what? George Lucas CREATED Indiana Jones (along with Philip Kaufman since he had part of the idea for Raiders. At least that's what it says in the end credits) And since he created it, it's his baby to do with as he pleases. No one on the internet created Indy, George did. He knows best because he actually has a track record in the real world. He's a film student who actually went on to make films.

These three had an agreement they wouldn't make another Indy film until all three agreed on the script. Well, they found a script all three agreed on, the movie was made, and it's showing at your local theatre. And by the way, George's company owns the copyright on the film at the end of the credits, and that means he paid for it. And if HE paid for it, I guarantee you his opinion is going to matter. Good for him.

George Lucas is not the villain of Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull. Cate Blanchett is.

 

Well, if that's the case, we're all just victims of miscommunication. I suppose I missed whatever you edited into your previous post - all I saw was a few statements that interpreted Crystal Skull in the context of the rest of Spielberg's career, which really isn't a valid argument. It ignores the specific situation in favor of the general.

But we're passed that, right? The broader point (which I agree with you on) is that in the end, the three were able to find a a very good compromise between no aliens and space men from Mars. I'm a huge fan of the decision to include aliens in Crystal Skull, and personally, I think it was very well done.

 

Lawrence Kasdan created Indiana Jones. It was a group effort but the character came from him. Lucas came up with the premise, Kaufman the plot, Spielberg the style but the character is 100% Lawrence Kasdan. And I imagine he's probably shaking his head to see how far-fetched his down-to-earth Raiders screenplay has fallen. But then he was probably doing that with Temple of Doom as well.

 

I was being facetious in regards to 'someone' not understanding your point. George can do whatever he wants but it doesn't make his decisions or ideas intelligible or righteous. I don't think anybody is debating that. The argument is should he. His money right? Well his money comes from people like all of us and that in turns makes us all 'shareholders' of sorts. So our opinions are valid, regardless of where we fall on the issue. He can choose to ignore our opinions in much the same manner we can vehemently oppose the direction he wants to take a 'product' or an idea.

-matthew

 

I agree with you that it's largely Lucas' creation. He's the one who came up with the idea, pitched it to Spielberg, and then they went and made it come true.

Besides, Lucas and Spielberg know far more about classic cinema than almost any other American director working today, with the possible exception of Marty Scorsese -- and Scorsese makes very different kinds of movies.

They didn't set out to make a masterpiece, I'm sure, just a fairly entertaining popcorn movie. And at that, they've succeeded, I enjoyed myself more at the cinema than anything else I've watched in a few years. Not that I don't have a few minor quibbles - but they are hardly going to get in the way of my enjoying the movie a few more times while it's in theaters, and again some more when it comes out on DVD.

 

Oh and I do agree with the idea that Kasdan is more of the creator of Indiana Jones than anybody else. Mr. Lucas had a very basic idea for a story and Kasdan took that and molded it into the character we all know and love.

-matthew

 

Ahhhhg, I wanted to see it again so badly today but I'm working on Shakespeare homework instead. Indy > homework

Just as a note, I went to my school and all my friends there who just casually like Indy (the general public, basically) LOVED the movie. I thought that was intriguing.


-sj loves kevin spacey

 

Indy 4 was awesome.

And by the way, they pulled in Lawrence Kasdan to help polish the Marion/Indy banter if it hasn't already been brought up.

 

But Kasdan was just a hired hand. His job was to make Lucas happy.

Intriguing? It's hardly a surprise... it's a fun movie, period.

 

Just got back from it...I enjoyed it, but some parts were...weird. More to come when it's not almost 3 am.

 

I liked the movie about as much as I liked either of the other sequels, so I consider it pretty good. It reflects on the 50's era of sci-fi while also maintaining elements of the original trilogy, I don't have a problem with this. And it does go a little over the top, but this is likely to happen with any franchise, like the Rocky movie where the robot he got for Paulie is reprogrammed by Mr T and he has to fight him in the main event to end the Cold War.

 

Hired hand or not, he was hired by a man without any real idea of the film to CREATE the film. All Lucas had was an idea for a treasure hunter, nothing specific and nothing really related to the film itself, Kaufman came up with the plot in the Ark of the Covenant but aside from some general input into how the film should follow, Kasdan basically went off on his own and spent a year creating the film, and the more he wrote the more he made it into is own and drifted away from Lucas' original serial idea. Raiders of the Lost Ark is Lawrence Kasdan's masterpiece that George Lucas has been getting undue credit with for twenty five years.

 

Just got back from my second showing! Did anyone else notice how Harrison Ford kind of imitated Sean Connery's voice with some lines? Like sometimes when he's talking to Mutt or when he was about to launch he bazooka.

 

Well, at the end of the day, it's still Lucas's baby, he owns the rights and he can hire anyone he wants to help him develop the ideas.

If Kasdan was such a genius, he'd have struck out on his own by now with something as big as Indiana Jones.

 

Movies are multiple works. No one is deriding that Raiders is brilliantly written.

However, the script isn't what makes Raiders alone. The action sequences, Harrison Ford's acting, the John Williams Score, and Spielberg's ability to create fantastic visuals all combined together to make the movie.

I'd argue George Lucas is responsible for the majority of the awesomeness in Star Wars and Indiana Jones actually.

However, I'd argue that someone really needs to hire him a permanent full-time editor for every idea in his head because he'd keep them all if he could.

 

More than any other person in the industry, Lucas can really hire just about anyone he wants. I think he self-finances almost everything he's involved with these days, so if he's spending his own dough, he should darn well be able to call the shots, or at least have a great deal of input. No matter who else has been involved, Star Wars and Indiana Jones remain Lucasfilm properties.

 

I could have almost said this movie was okay but when Indiana spoon fed the audience that stupid crap about the alien's treasure was knowledge then I really wished that the story would have ended in 1938 with that ride off into the sunset.

I know "Temple of Doom" and "Last Crusade" were more outrageous than "Raiders" and I know these films makers never took these movies very seriously but this one just doesn't have the heart of the other three. Oh well, if there is an Indy 5 then I'll shell out another 7 bucks but I don't think I'm going back to the theater for this one. I give Lucas and Spielberg credit for keeping me guessing what was going to happen next but the truth is after Henry III rescued Henry II with a snake I could have really cared less what was going to happen next.

I'd like to think that Lucas, Spielberg, and Ford saw this thing as a spoof. You know like what Carpenter did with "Escape from L.A.". If it's a spoof then I like it but if it's not a spoof then this thing just sucks.

 

Or Gremlins 2

 

Indy SAYS stuff like that though.

I think whats very important to remember about this film is its unabashedly optimistic and light hearted.

The tone really threw me off because I haven't watched something like that in a long time.

 

i just saw the movie last night (opening day) and i LOVED IT!!! i thought it was just as good as the first 3 and then some. i loved how it kind of made me feel like the 1950's was a new and exciting time even thought i wasn't even born then and all kinds of things that really made me feel like i was back into the adventure of Indiana Jones -but this time in the 50's instead of the 30's. i loved the way they made Indiana age in a realistic and classy way still being able to kick butt just a little rusty lol. and the jokes in the movie were done very well i think too. it was all perfect for me and i think that one of the biggest reasons why i liked it so much was that to me this was a REAL movie,that comes along every few years and not just the usual crap you see all the time in movie theaters today.its movies like this that are what the young people of today should be watching.