Indy Joneses!

[monkey0506]

Seems I'll be the first to post regarding the much awaited new Indiana Jones movie. I didn't even get to watch it, but my roommate says it was pretty great. I work at a movie theater/restaurant and I was too busy serving the customers during the movie to really watch.

One part I did get to see however, towards the end:

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When Gandalf the Grey was being attacked by the giant ants, I couldn't help but think, "Fly you fools!"

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The various snippets of the movie I did get to see seemed pretty good. Seeing as I work there I'm sure I'll be able to catch more and more of the movie until I've seen it all. One item me and my roommate were discussing though is the new face of Indiana Jones.

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What do you think, will Shia LeBeouf do justice to the Indy name? That is of course assuming he continues to star in the films.

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One of the greatest things about the Indy series me and my roommate have agreed is that Ford has always been Jones. None of this rubbish of constantly switching out actors and pretending it's the same person (James Bond anyone?) who miraculously never ages. Hopefully, should LucasArts decide to start pumping out the Indy movies now that Star Wars has had its run, they will carry on this legacy. Jones is a hard name to live up to. Just ask Chris!

[Jon]

I havn't seen the new movie yet, but from the trailers I have seen it looks great!

My favourite Indy was the third due to the great plot 

[Andail]

I've heard most of the scenes with Indiana doing stunts are CGI.

No I haven't, but it wouldn't surprise me.

[Buckethead]

I've heard most of the scenes with Indiana doing stunts are CGI.

No I haven't, but it wouldn't surprise me.

I've read on IMDB.com that CG was only used when obsolutely needed. In fact Steven Spielberg said it was just like it was made 20 years ago.

[Jon]

I heard that Harrison Ford has a stunt double for scenes where he has to run 

edit: I only just realised that this was a joke made by my dad

[Nacho]

I heard that Harrison Ford has a stunt double for scenes where he has to run 

No.

[m0ds]

I've seen it! Went to the first showing, being the fanboy I am lol! It's pretty good, I like! It is true to the originals which is great, and there are some good laughs and injokes which make it funny, but I feel the second half is a bit weaker when it comes to the Indy humour we know and love. Despite that though Ford is definitely still Indy and comes across superbly

Overall I really enjoyed it, and Barnett College does feature afterall!

As for CGI, well, there are noticeable parts, certainly - but I'm almost positive that none of the characters moves/stunts are computer animated. Not like in the Matrix anyway :p Obviously there are stunt people playing the back of Indy in complex shots, but a lot of the stuntwork is seamless, and really nice. There are some fantastic shots in there,

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Like the part when they're all squirted out onto some rocks, and the trailer bit where Indy runs along the boxes and ends up in the front of a truck, going over the waterfall etc

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and the supporting cast do very well! Only three or so scenes seem to rely on CGI heavily...

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And for some reason its all the ones in the jungle! The monkey scene, Shia getting smacked in the balls by plants (the one part which I didn't like, simply cos it looked way too over CGi'd, and maybe the jump onto the tree...though still a funny bit

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Oh, and how could I forget...

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The whole nuclear bomb section

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But with all these things I wouldn't say it was completely satisfying. I only have a few reasons for that though... Blanchett plays her character very well but her character just seems a bit muddled. She supports the entire cast of bad guys who say nothing throughout the film, which was quite dissapointing...no real right hand man. The bad guys just seem a bit weak this time round, which is what I found with Die Hard 4...too little substance to really care about them (in a care to hate kind of way!)

I also found the "mcguffin" that it for some reason took a decade to decide to be a bit crap.

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Aliens

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And this leads to a rather boring end sequence. The Skull itself looks like a cheap movie prop :p I just found it hard to buy into Indy walking around with it... BUT, its Indy, so you go with it, and it still a lot of fun! The movie is quite slow paced and I would've like to seen Indy visit more locations but nevermind! A lot of the good stuff was used in the trailer and as it always seems to be not much more was saved for the movie itself But the quicksand scene is very funny...

There is a strange filter on the camera throughout the movie...not sure why. Skies don't look lush, they just look like over exposed areas. Everyone has an outline, too. I wasn't a fan of the filter...again very similar to the filter change they used in Die Hard 4.

The music is good too but there are no major themes in there (apart from some of the old ones!)...nothing that really stood out, which was a bit of a shame.

As to the question...Shia could be good in the future. His character was quite good in this movie! His character may not have had that much depth but he did some fun stuff. I love the last shot too, between Indy and Shia.....and all the "hat" moments in the movie!

Overall I really enjoyed it and would recommend it! It was just great to see Ford back in that role If I had to give it a computer game style score, it would be 7 out of 10 for me.

See what you think!

[LGM]

m0ds raises some valid points. Mostly I agree with him. I saw the first showing as well, and as a person not expecting much, I was SERIOUSLY dissapointed by the last 30 minutes. What the fuck, Spielberg? What the fuck.

It's AI all over again.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

Lucas' statement that he'd like to do a reverse Last Crusade with Indy playing Sean Connery's 'role' and Shia playing his completely ruined any interest I have in future installments.  There's no need to do pass the torch bullshit, that's just greed in its unrefined form.  If Harrison Ford isn't being Indy then why the hell bother, that's all I have to say.

Shia: completely unnecessary plot contrivance.

[ildu]

Yup, saw it last night. First, I gotta say, I'm a morbidly huge fan of Indy. So, I was a bit hesitant going into it, hoping for the best, but still keeping my real.

All in all, it was surprisingly good. Too much CG, though - they could've made it a lot more convincing and intense if they did some of the scenes traditionally. Harrison was a bit stiff, but after the first few minutes, you don't even notice the age issue. Cinematography was pretty great, pacing was surprisingly good for an adventure film coming out in this day and age. It seemed to be somewhat of a rollercoaster in terms of quality - there were some parts that were so genuine that they could've been from the earlier movies, but they were balanced out by a couple of insanely stupid scenes that made at least me sigh a little in disappointment. For example, the Barnett College scenes were all awesome, whereas some of the jungle chases were NOT. There were 3 scenes especially that were so magnificiently stupid and inane that I wish they'd cut them out for an Editor's Cut or something . Those three scenes were also very cut-outable, so they must've been added just to beef up the story.

Gotta say though, acting was top-notch. Shia was just great, not annoying at all and fit the part perfectly. Cate Blanchett was awesome, and Harrison is Harrison after all, so that's that. I also liked Jim Broadbent as the Dean, but there should've been more of him (with more range).

Pros:
- very possibly won't disappoint a huge fan of the franchise
- some great and genuine scenes that feel like INDY
- some very good characters
- not a bad ending
- some nice traditional direction
- great cinematography
- feels somewhat fresh, even with all the clones out there
- great job on capturing the 50's

Cons:
- too many irrelevent characters and scenes
- a couple of just awful scenes of pure stupidity
- too much action in relation to plot-building (it's a lot more ADHD than the originals)
- some action sequences were just too long
- a lot of frankly very bad 3D
- may feel a bit dumbed-down, or kiddie for older fans

Blanchett plays her character very well but her character just seems a bit muddled. She supports the entire cast of bad guys who say nothing throughout the film, which was quite dissapointing...no real right hand man. The bad guys just seem a bit weak this time round, which is what I found with Die Hard 4...too little substance to really care about them (in a care to hate kind of way!)

Yeah, I agree. And there's no reason for it either, since Commies are actually very frightening . Also, the 'triple agent' dude was way under-developed (and very predictable). I mean, I think I deserve to know a little more about him, if he's like Indy's best friend of 20 years or something. In that time, how did Indy not notice what kind of guy he was?

I also found the "mcguffin" that it for some reason took a decade to decide to be a bit crap.

Oh, don't get me started on that .

The Skull itself looks like a cheap movie prop :p I just found it hard to buy into Indy walking around with it...

Yup, that's what I was thinking the whole time. The real-life crystal skulls actually look a lot more exciting: http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/americas/05/11/mexico.crystal.skull.ap/index.html.

There is a strange filter on the camera throughout the movie...not sure why. Skies don't look lush, they just look like over exposed areas.

Yah, I spotted that 'error' from the trailer already. I think they've added it in to make it look more like the candyapple 50's. Still, it just makes environments look unrealistic, which is not good in an Indy flick.

I was SERIOUSLY dissapointed by the last 30 minutes. What the fuck, Spielberg? What the fuck.

Ditto, friend. Ditto...

[m0ds]

Hehe...its surprising that it has quite a lot of flaws, and if I really wanted to nit pick I would have also said some of the editing was pretty awful too...which is something that worried me from the trailer, cos there was some nasty editing in that too (ie they slowed down the hat picking up by the jeep scene for a second, which was odd) but it really is still a great movie and its very easy to overlook all these issues I also noticed on some of the tracking shots that the camera jolts a bit too...but again I overlooked that, because it did that plenty in the originals too hehe. I'd say they've done well, and I hope it gets a good reception worldwide!

Now its time to wait for Treasure of the Templars, which is definitely on par with this movie. I shit you not

[Miez]

Gosh, am I the only one that doesn't mind the whole central theme of the movie (what the whole final 30 minutes of the movie is about)? I thought it was done carefully not as over the top as I was  afraid of ... not like AI at all!
But then, I AM an incurable fan boy...

[LGM]

Well, i did enjoy the movie to a level.Just not INdy level.

After 20 years, I thought, That's it?

[evenwolf]

Haven't seen it.   But I don't have my hopes too high.


George Lucas isn't the best writer.  He benefits from collaborating with someone talented.    This time he collaborated with the guy who wrote Stir of Echoes, Snake Eyes, and Secret Window.   Those are his original works.  All of them kinda suck in their own way.

The stories this guy has adapted have been all right: Jurassic Park, SpiderMan, Mission Impossible.    But original stories?  Bleh!

[Nacho]

I liked it, most of it... I didn' t liked

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Ants

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And a  couple of too noticeable CGI scenes, but for the rest was ok... I would enjoyed a bit more of old school archaeology in Indy 3 style, though...

[SSH]

Bad:

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The whole ants thing reminded me of the scarabs in The Mummy

The whole psychic abilities of the skull seemed entirely unnecessary and reminded me of Independence Day. Why does Lucas feel the need to add in unnecesary mumbo jumbo that makes it harder to suspend disbelief, like Midichlorians?

Storming the hangar at the beginning reminded me of The Rock

Loads of other unnecessary stuff

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Good:

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Harrison, Shia, Cate

What's wrong with aliens? Is it any more fantastic than the effect of Ark or the Grail?

Waterfalls

Getting down to the river

Atomic bomb

Relentless action

Chase scenes

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One problem I had was for the first 20 minutes I kept noticing when Indy was kept out of shot or in the dark so as they could use a stunt double. I mean, even for a punch! I stopped noticing later on, though, so I think this was just me. Don't try and enjoy AND deconstruct at the same time!

[m0ds]

The Ark, Grail and Temple are all "spooky", and what happened with them were genuinly quite chilling. But there was absolutely nothing spooky about the

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aliens, and their appearance was pretty rubbish to say the least. Blanchett almost goes the same way as the Raiders baddies too. If only her face had have melted too

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At least, thats what I felt, SSH

[SSH]

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Yeah, I noticed that about Cate, too.

Couple other things:

Whole underground machinery triggered by ancient mechanism then running down disappearing steps seemed somewhat "National Treasure"

and when Indy and Mac had their guns pointed at Cate in the hangar at the beginning, he called her Dr Spalko, but didn't later on at his FBI interrogation didn't know who she was...

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[m0ds]

Crazy! I didn't notice him not knowing. Was Indy in the army once? Why do the FBI or whoever call him General Jones? And what was with Mac's exit?

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He's lying on the floor being fat and could easily have just got up and walked the three feet to where Indy and the others were, but looks at Indy and says something like, "Its okay Indy, I'll be alright." and then gets sucked into oblivion. I really didn't like that part...mainly because he was intent on getting out with some loot & ends up on the floor a few metres from Indy and as I said just rolled around like a fat man and could easily have survived and then said some completely unrelated stupid line before his death. Maybe I'm the only one who thought that, but if someone can explain it, I'd be greatful

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[SSH]

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yes, I thought that was odd too. Also like the scene in The Mummy where the treacherous sidekick gets wasted for tarrying too long in the treasure room...

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