Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (MiceChat Reviews)

[sir clinksalot]

Okay folks, it's that time. Time for INDY.

I'm sure many of us will be seeing it over the weekend or as soon as Thursday. I personally can't wait. We'll be seeing it on Saturday.

So post up your reviews, let us know what you think and make sure to use Spoilers.

[Barbossa]

I bought my ticket for the midnight show tomorrow!

[thrax]

same here, gonna see the movie tomorrow night

[mycroft16]

got ours for midnight as well!
very excited to see this one!

[Twist_of_Fate]

Have mine for midnight. Hopefully the midnight crowd will be fun and a bit more receptive than the Cannes crowd. At the same time, I'd love for this to be like Live Free or Die Hard's midnight opening which was about 50% capacity.

[Wendygirl]

We have a theater near us with an old fashioned huge screen and theater. I have my ticket to see it Thursday with my daughter at 1 PM. She says she will probably start to cry when she hears the music at the beginning. And this will be the first time she has seen an Indy movie on the big screen. For her it has only been DVD's because she was born in 1984.

[Stitchy]

me and hubby have to take turns....no babysitter. I get Thursday! I'm SO excited. I have been a fan ever since I can remember. And now, I get to see one on the big screen!!! Whoooooo!

[cpdisneyprincess]

I guess I'm first! I found a theatre here in Switzerland that showed the film at 8 tonight and in English! I was over the moon excited!!
Overall - I really really really enjoyed the movie. It was a good Indy Romp. There were a few scenes that I felt were downright cheesy - and not in the fun cheesy Indy style - in the JarJar Binks arena.But other then that I really enjoyed it. I do have one major complaint - and while it is pretty major - the film was done well enough that I can, in a sense, over look it and still enjoy the movie.More about that in a moment.
I am quite pleased that they didn't overdo the CGI. There is a lot -but it wasn't like Star Wars Ep I, II, and III where it seemed, to me, to be a CGI "look what we can do" Party. It was at a minimum for me and it still felt like an Indiana Jones movie.
There were some lovely nods to the original films and a lot of wonderful new moments too. Over all the cast was good and the new characters introduced were fun and well played. And it was lovely to see some "old" faces too
Williams score was great - as always. He also did a nice "remix" of the Raider's theme that was at the end of the credits. Nice mix of old themes and new throughout the whole movie.
Ok - my major issue:

Spoiler

Here is the deal. Indiana Jones has always dealt in the Super Natural - spiritual realm. But the whole - alien (or creatures from another demention) thing was just too SciFi for me. Now - if anyone loves a good SciFi romp it's me!! But I felt in this instence it took one genre and smashed it into another and they didn't quite fit nicely together. It was well handled, I will give them that. I just wish they had gone for something else. I spent most of the movie hoping I was wrong (I figured it out as soon as I saw the 51 at the military base....well I sorta figured it out a few days ago when I got a Burger King toy w/ the crystal skull on it and I said "Hey! Looks like an alien" But anyway - I was disappointed that they went into the SciFi rather then the fantasy for this film. Indy Meets the ancient Time Lords from the void.... Donno.

But still - I did love it and will see it again!
I will say it was a really special experience for me since - like many people my age - this is the first time for me to see Indy on the big screen!

[Tui]

Going tonight.

Will report.

[lazyboy97O]

Just got back from the midnight showing and am going back at 4:00 PM. Overall it was good. I would say I rank the films as follows:

1. Raiders of the Lost Ark
2. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
3. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
4. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

Spoiler

cpdisneyprincess, that is exactly the problem I had with the story. I thought about it some more during the credits and realized I felt sort of the same after Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. The reason I think is the background knowledge. I am familiar with the Ark of the Covenant and the Holy Grail. I was not familiar with the stone and cult in Temple of Doom. I am familiar with the Crystal Skulls, but this was not the Crystal Skulls that we know.

The films never give a lot of detailed background on the artifacts in question. I think this is not as obvious when you are already vaguely familiar with the background of the Ark of the Covenant and the Holy Grail. I would say the known background of the Crystal Skulls is somewhere between being alluded to and tossed aside entirely in this film. I think this lack of information leaves one feeling just a bit lost.

[Tui]

Just got back from the movie.

The consensus of most of the theatre was

Spoiler

Aliens? Really? Aliens? WTF??

Overall, it was a fun film.

But let my rant begin

Spoiler

Anyone else feel like they started pushing Indy towards the direction of a secondary character? I know Speilberg has said something along the lines of having Shia taking over for the franchise, but still I came there to see Indy not "Mutt" (Get it? They're both named after dogs lolzzzz)

Ok, we get it, Indiana is afraid of snakes. We could have gone for a quick sly reference that is a subtle as a wink. We don't need some freakin' ridiculous situation with a snake being used as a rope. I just thought it was stupid.

OMG, Shia is so quirky with the way that he always has to comb his hair! LOLZZZZ

And of course, the Aliens. Ok, I understand that at this point they're reaching pretty far to find something interesting for Indy to hunt, and I realize that George Lucas was involved with this film. To me, these Aliens are to this film what Jar Jar was to Episode I. Stick with what you know. Biblicial stuff, Culty Stuff, yeah sure Lucas and Spielberg have had some kick ass sci-fi stuff, but this was like Oil and Water...it just didn't mix. Nerds are very jumpy, you don't need to work that hard to give them a nerdgasm. Have Indy put on that Hat in the beginning and give the nerds a box of kleenex, they're set for the rest of the movie. Just give us some cool story about an idol or something, throw in a few one liners, a car chase, and some cool fights and we are set.

And Shia as Indy's kid. Why? Is it necessary? Yeah it was cool to see Marion back in the series, but really was she even necessary? If you're going to pass the leading role in a franchise to someone, just by making that person the main character's kid isn't going to automatically make it O.K. In fact you kind of screw yourself over if you do that. What if the population demands another Indy movie, but decides they don't like Shia? You're stuck. Still, I prefer Shia over Short Round.

I really didn't know I could bitch this much about the movie.

Everything I said above aside, I did enjoy it. It's good to see with a theatre full of people.

[Barbossa]

I just got back. I give it somewhere between 3 and 4. Here's my rant:

Spoiler

It was fun, I enjoyed it but it did have its flaws unfortunately - mainly with the CGI.

Poor use of CGI - the groundhogs, the tree that the amphibious vehicle was in, and the fencing between the vehicles scene.

John Williams' score wasn't as distinct in this one, as in the previous three.

Seeing a quick glimpse of the Ark was cool. As well as the other references to Marcus and Henry Jones Sr. (I) And the reference to Young Indy riding with Pancho Villa.

The Mutt/tarzan scene I thought was kind of, well, it could've been excluded.

I've noticed with movies lately they're using a lot of pale lighting. I noticed that in Casino Royale, Transformers, other movies, and now Indy IV. I wonder why they do this. It takes the color away. The first three weren't this pale.

It was great to see Karen Allen on the screen again, but it felt that she didn't have much to work with here as in Raiders.

Overall, it was fun though. I will go see it again.

[DisneyGal]

I laughed at parts, was nervous at parts and was going why did they do this at parts. What was fun was that the one airport scene was film at our airport. It was closed for a week for that couple seconds. We cheered for ourselves when it was in the credits.

[princedalton]

I just saw the 12 am viewing of it here in San Jose and I absolutely LOOOVED it!!! The twists and all of the effects and the story and the jokes were PERFECT!!! I didn't even expect to like it as much as I did!!! I have nothing negative about it to say!!! FREAKING BRILLIANT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm gonna see it again tomorrow

and probably at least 3 more times

[Barbossa]

Reading the reviews on Yahoo, it seems people don't really like the whole Alien apect of it. If you want some good background material, read the book Fingerprints of the Gods by Graham Hancock:
http://www.amazon.com/Fingerprints-G.../dp/0517887290

It doesn't have crystal skulls but it covers the whole ancient civilization/alien topic.

He also wrote The Sign and the Seal, a book about the Ark of the Covenant.