Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

[A Black Falcon]

Just got back from seeing it. It's good. Lots of fun, some great, outlandish action scenes, it's great to see the characters again, lots of references to the old movies while definitely being new, some stuff saying what's happened in the 19 years between the films... it's just a good movie. :)

[alien space marine]

[A Black Falcon]

[DMiller]

I'll be seeing it sometime this weekend.

[Sacred Jellybean]

I hate Shia LeBouf and wish he wasn't in this movie.

Despite that, if my friend doesn't get back to me, I might see this tonight. If he does, I'll see the new Harold and Kumar movie, though I heard it isn't as good as the first. Win/win.

[Great Rumbler]

Shay LeBeef is actually pretty good in this movie, which is coming from someone who hated him in Transformers. Speilberg knows how to get the best from his actors and this comes through with most of the main Indy IV cast.

And the ending wasn't any more ridiculous than the stuff in the other movies, people are just looking for something to nitpick.

Overall, good movie and I would not mind watching it again when it comes out on DVD.

[Sacred Jellybean]

Someone at another messageboard said it went like Raiders > Skull > ? > ?. How would you rank them?

My buddy didn't get back to me, so I'm gonna see this in an hour and a half. Hopefully it's good. I haven't seen any other Indy movies, but I'm willing to turn off my brain for some mindless action and fun.

[A Black Falcon]

I hate Shia LeBouf and wish he wasn't in this movie.

I actually thought he was pretty good in this movie, at least...

Is he the guy who was in Transformers? If so, yeah, there he wasn't so good.

[alien space marine]

[Dark Jaguar]

Yeah, clearly the inspiration was the modern mythos surrounding a lot of things, like the lines in the desert and such.

For more information on crystal skulls, there's this article.

http://skepticwiki.org/index.php/Crystal_skulls

I liked the movie (it made me wonder if a few decades from now we'll be seeing an older Jack Sparrow reprising his role in a 4th Pirates movie). Sure it was far fetched, but they all are, and the important thing is none of them are claiming to be real. I mean the previous three were about the ark of the covenant, shiva stones, and the holy grail.

So, as it's fantastical adventure fiction, it gets a free pass until it tries going just a little too far (I think the lead lined fridge as a defense kinda pushes it, but then again that's the era when kids were told they could hide under their desks to protect from nuclear blast, and I'm pretty sure everything was made of lead anyway so maybe...).

This free pass does not apply to the HISTORY CHANNEL, which recently spread around line after line of unsubstantiated nonsense claims about crystal skulls in a special clearly inspired by the movie. Ugh...

Lost City of the Gods eh? That has a nice ring to it. I actually think Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is a pretty good name myself. It's certainly no "Attack of the Clones".

By the way, this movie made me want to play Illusion of Gaia again.

Oh, another by the way, the "Spoiler" tag has a glitch. It appears that when you click show, it displays the spoilers in ALL posts in the currently viewed page, not just one specific tag.

[alien space marine]

[Great Rumbler]

Someone at another messageboard said it went like Raiders > Skull > ? > ?. How would you rank them?

It's not as good as Raiders, but better than Temple of Doom. That's about as much ranking as I can do right now.

[Sacred Jellybean]

I enjoyed it. I thought it was a lot of fun, and Shia LeBouf didn't piss me off. I admittedly had no rational reason for disliking him, except that he looks incredibly annoying and all I see is the kid from Even Stevens, that awful Disney show. He's an okay actor, and he didn't distract me, so I didn't mind him. I thought there were corny moments, a lot of the family stuff Spielberg does, but it was short-lived. The focus was the action and mysticism. It's obviously a silly plot, but I didn't go in expecting something where suspension of disbelief has to be at a minimum. As my first Indiana Jones movie, I'd have to say that I enjoyed it. My room mate borrowed the rest from a friend, so I'll consider watching Raiders.

[A Black Falcon]

I haven't watched the original three in years... this did make me want to watch them again, though, definitely, to compare them.

[Sacred Jellybean]

Ive seen Shia in other films like Disturbia to make a better judgment of his acting ability.

I haven't seen that. I'd be willing to, but I have no drive to, as it seems like a poor man's Rear Window.

Shia LaBeouf did great, He waisnt annoying or corny so that gives him a pass as a respectable Indy side kick,Essentially he was allot like River Phoenix was in Young Indy.

The whole bad boy leather jacket thing was kind of corny, but he surprisingly pulled it off. With Spielburg's direction, of course. As long as he isn't playing that goofy kid role, I don't mind him. Unless he's playing a goofy kid role and continually gets injured. I might enjoy that.

Indiana Jones had that little Chinese kid
Jonathan Ke Quan in temple of doom, You could certainly find worse then Labeouf.

Haven't seen those obviously, but it sucked that he was Indy's son, Indy getting back with Mary, applause after they get married and kiss, typical Hollywood bullshit. But it was excusable, as it was short-lived.

No where in the movie do you hear the name "William Mutt", It just appears on his greaser jacket. It seems Lucas brought back his American graffiti elements.

That doesn't make much a difference.

The sole complaint which inst major as it doesn't effect the enjoyment of the movie, Is the name! 5 cents that George Lucas was the one who named this movie, To me a stronger title would have been "Lost City of the Gods" like they originally intended too.

Its name? Seriously, who cares. What, do you want it to sound more mysterious and cool with "Lost City of Gods"? It's about aliens with fucking crystal skelletons. "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" is fine.

[alien space marine]

Its name? Seriously, who cares. What, do you want it to sound more mysterious and cool with "Lost City of Gods"? It's about aliens with fucking crystal skelletons. "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" is fine.

Those aliens are the Gods too the Peruvians primitives didn't you see the movie?

It doesn't take away from the movie,But a cool name is still nice to have.

[Dark Jaguar]

One thing's for sure. I really doubt they could get away with calling the next movie "Mutt Jones".

Yeah, anything like those aliens are effectively gods. They certainly showed off those gods far more than the gods in previous movies. I mean I never once saw Shiva. However, ASM, some of us think the name it has actually is pretty cool.

I actually liked Temple of Doom a lot, but that's likely because it was the first one I saw. I'll say this. This makes 3 movies that end with the god they are dealing with at the time melting some bad guy faces. Now it's time for one last question. I thought Indy was immortal after that last movie.

[Dark Jaguar]

You know one thing I've gotta say is I can't get over how utterly racist some of these crazy types are whenever they talk about how "those people "couldn't have made the pyramids/giant stones/skulls" (that's noting that there's no evidence showing any crystal skulls were even around before the victorian times when they first showed up).

Do they really think that the people from ancient egypt or whatever were really so fundamentally different than we are? It's not like they were all idiots or always gave up at the slightest problem.

[Great Rumbler]

Now it's time for one last question. I thought Indy was immortal after that last movie.

Only for as long as he stayed in the temple. Once he left, he became just as mortal as the two crusaders who left centuries ago.

[Sacred Jellybean]

Those aliens are the Gods too the Peruvians primitives didn't you see the movie?

It doesn't take away from the movie,But a cool name is still nice to have.

Right, they're aliens that were worshipped as gods. I saw the movie. My point wasn't that the alternate name was invalid, it was that it shouldn't matter, because it's a popcorn movie to begin with.

Do they really think that the people from ancient egypt or whatever were really so fundamentally different than we are? It's not like they were all idiots or always gave up at the slightest problem.

My friend was actually very offended by the movie and hated because she thought it was too ethnocentric. She thought it stressed the ideas that native brown people were stupid that needed help from extra-terrestials for things like farming. She's an anthropologist (major), what can you do?

Thanks for the skepticwiki link, by the way, very interesting.

[Dark Jaguar]

[Dark Jaguar]

Only for as long as he stayed in the temple. Once he left, he became just as mortal as the two crusaders who left centuries ago.

Oh okay. That explains a lot.

[Sacred Jellybean]

Well she's got a good point. To conclude, without any real evidence that "there's no way they could have made these things" is an inherantly biggoted statement.

Yeah, she does. I wasn't really offended myself, though, because I was able to move past it and enjoy the movie.

What was the "against the grain" comment? I don't remember that.

One thing I never really got was those natives running around were never really explained. Were they remnants of the old tribes protecting their gods or what?

Yeah, that was kind of silly. Maybe they are remnants, and they have a lookout/scout to tell the others if an intruder is coming so they can take their places. Or they run on shifts in those dark holes. Maybe there were some people on lunch break when the shit hit the fan.

[A Black Falcon]

No where in the movie do you hear the name "William Mutt", It just appears on his greaser jacket. It seems Lucas brought back his American graffiti elements.

It's "Mutt Williams", actually, and he does actually call himself that. Indy asks him his name, he says that's his name, Indy says something about it, he says 'I picked it myself, do you have a problem with that' or something like that, and it goes from there...

[A Black Falcon]

[Dark Jaguar]

[A Black Falcon]