Indiana Jones 4 (SPOILERS)

[vakie]

OK, has everyone seen this yet?

I thought it was ok and entertaining, but not as great as the old ones..

There were some great scenes, like the motorcycle chase, and most of the scenes with Ford and Shia.. but there were some awkward scenes as well. Some odd choices made. I'm talking about the fridge, the Tarzan scene, the aliens, "the space between spaces"...

I mean those didn't kill the movie for me, but they were some "WTF?" moments. I guess they're a by-product of the script being in production for over 10 years with a gazillion different writers contributing. The tone just seemed to shift from scene to scene. And even though Spielberg promised it would mostly be practical effects, at times they went crazy with the CGI. I don't know about everyone else, but I would've been happy with small scale action scenes, with no CGI at all. It's enough if Indy's in the scene and he's doing cool stuff, there doesn't need to be a hundred different things happening all at once with CGI monkeys and soldier ants everywhere.. It's just a bit of an overkill.

But with all that said, it was fun and entertaining enough to make me hope they'll make a next one, now that they got that skull story out of their system..

[frulad]

short version of my reaction- The first half is a better movie than the second half. I'm disappointed in that we get two great scenes with Marian, then she is reduced to walking along behind Indy for the rest of the picture like so much baggage.

[SmileOfTheShadow]

So..worth seeing?

[B5_Obsessed]

Just okay for me as well. I blame a couple of things:

One dimensional villain - Blanchett does little more than show up three times, swing a sword, and meet her ultimate fate. Eh. Granted, Mola Ram was one dimensional, but he had a great screen presence. Renee Beloq was probably the most intriguing and human of the bunch, as evidenced by his nice-guy drinking scene with Marian in the tent.

Uneven Indy - was it me or was he channeling John Wayne at the start of the film? He recovered though.

Totally incomprehensible ending - dead aliens become one live alien and the gift they give Spalko is to vaporize her? I would have preferred to simply see her rendered insane and drooling from the limitness knowledge they were bestowing on her.

Where the F*** is John Williams? Here's the real kicker folks. The music was waaaay under par and unfortunately, the music is so ingrained in the Indy (or Star Wars) experience that its absence is acutely felt. Offhand, I can think of no memorable cues in this film, but I certainly do recall hearing a few recycled ones, including the inappropriately culled theme of Henry Jones Sr near the end of the movie. Didn't belong there. I don't know what other projects Williams was involved in at the time, but this one clearly was not getting his full attention.

Didn't mind Shia. DID mind the Tarzan thing.

Sadly, I'd have to put it at the back of the series, even if it is an auspicious series to be included in.

[frulad]

Ooohhhhh. Totally agree about the music. I was so disappointed with the reworking of the Raiders March at the end of the end credits. Blech.

[Jonas]

I thought it was fantastic.

[WorkerCaste]

My two cents: Entertaining and worth the view. Better than the second by quite a bit, but behind the first and third. It was fun to see some of them back again and there were a number of nice touches of nostalgia.