Comments on: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

By: GeekBoy

GeekBoy — Wed, 28 May 2008 15:38:31 +0000

Yeah, I’m curious to know why they didn’t go with the usual prologue story this time around. My guess is that there just plain wasn’t enough time. Even throwing us right in the middle of the story in the first scene, it still capped out at two hours. So that’s one reason, but I’m not sure if it counts as an excuse.

In particular, I might have liked to see a “flashback” kind of prologue, like the one in the third movie, but instead dealing with something that happened during Indy’s “spy years”. Because they brushed over all that kind of fast. I was like, “Wait, did the janitor from Scrubs and Richard Widmore from Lost just say Indy worked for the CIA?” It could have even dealt with a previous encounter with Spalko, thereby establishing some background between them. So yeah, definite missed opportunity there.

Having said that, I didn’t actually notice the prologue was missing until many hours after I left the theater. So I guess it didn’t bother me too much at the time.

As for the monkeys and gophers … I got nothin. As somebody on another blog suggested, those were probably details specifically thrown in for the kids in the audience.

And amen to your last comment! It’s very frustrating to hear people claiming to be fans of the franchise piss all over this movie, as if it was Plan 9 From Outer Space or something. Disappointed expectations are all fine and well, and nobody’s saying you have to like the movie or ever watch it again. But chill out. Lucas and Spielberg didn’t run your grandmother over with a car. It’s just a movie.

By: JDG

JDG — Wed, 28 May 2008 15:21:57 +0000

I enjoyed this movie as much as I possibly could.

Three points that can’t be taken lightly.

There was no excuse to not have the typical “James Bond” beginning of the movie like all 3 of the others did.

As soon as I saw the gophers I knew I was in for something special. I mean that in a special education kind of way.

The Tarzan monkey scene.

But hey, they made a movie, and I was totally happy to see it, nothing worse then when fanboys ruin fun.

By: GeekBoy

GeekBoy — Tue, 27 May 2008 21:03:36 +0000

Right. How else do you do the ant scene except with CGI? With the insects in the previous movies, I guess you could get away with some kind of animatronics. But with the ants, you’re talking about thousands of them, and they have to act with some kind of hive mentality. Really, the effect is more similar to the herd dinosaur scenes in Spielberg’s Jurassic Park than like anything in Star Wars, and Spielberg used CGI for that back in 1993. To do it any other way would be cost-prohibitive and look fake.

I guess an argument could be made that Spielberg didn’t NEED to do that ant scene at all, but for my money, that was one of the coolest scenes in the entire movie. If only because it was reminiscent of the “atomic bug” movies from the 50s. Which I thought was part of the point, along with the A-Bomb scene and the flying saucer at the end.

By: Michael

Michael — Tue, 27 May 2008 20:48:26 +0000

Exactly. How were those “other-dimensional beings” any different than those vengeful spirits? What were THOSE supposed to be anyway? As for the ants, it’s not like they used all real bugs and real snakes in the other movies, right?

By: GeekBoy

GeekBoy — Tue, 27 May 2008 17:50:35 +0000

Well, I was referring to Spielberg’s intent about the CGI. I guess to some extent, you can’t really keep away from using CGI these days. And I’m fine with it if it serves a purpose. I thought the ant scenes were awesome. The monkey scenes less so — that was definitely the least interesting sequence in the movie for me. But the aliens at the end didn’t bother me at all, and those scenes felt like the equivalent of the spirits flying out of the box in the first movie, with a souped-up science fiction twist.

By: Athena714

Athena714 — Tue, 27 May 2008 16:18:40 +0000

I was liking it until about the point they met back up with Marion. I thought it was terrible, but I’m glad you enjoyed it! But how, praytell, did they keep the CGI to a bare minimum? The monkeys? The swarming ants? The ALIENS? George Lucas has his ILM fingerprints all over it.

By: GeekBoy

GeekBoy — Tue, 27 May 2008 14:14:47 +0000

Something I was happy to see that the new cinematographer carried through to this movie was the clever use of shadows and silhouettes. I had just been pointing out to Freakgirl the other day, while watching the original movies on TV, how sometimes the main action happens in a shadow on the wall. Which I’ve always thought was a cool creative choice. So I was tickled to see it used again here, particularly in that early scene you’re referring to …

By: Michael

Michael — Tue, 27 May 2008 13:39:36 +0000

I really liked it, too, and especially agree that this one owes a great debt to nostalgia. It felt good to be back again after all these years.

I ADORED the way this film looked. That scene early on outside the hangar, when we first meet Irina Spalko….gorgeous.