The Greatest Adventure of all time...

[mabudon]

Anyone notice that the helicopter shot of the waterfalls in the trailer is an inverted shot of Niagara Falls with all the buildings edited out?? I ain't 100% sure but living here and having been in an airplane that flew right over them before it sure as hell looks like it to me

[Ran]

How much of Lord of the Rings was CGI? Other than Smeigel, none of it really bothered me the way the SW Prequels did.

And for me, I think aliens in the Indiana Jones world doesn't fit because I don't associate aliens with archeology. I do associate religious artifacts and the occult.

[anarky]

Jackson was trying to do what Lucas once did: use special effects to tell the story. Now, for Lucas, it's special effects first, with story as an afterthought.

Sadly, it looks like Jackson is going that way, too, so it's probably a good thing del Toro is directing The Hobbit.

[Senor JabbaJohnL]

True. However, stunts that can be done in "the real world" without being a severe danger should be done that way instead of by CG. Until CG advances considerably more, there's no sense of danger. Spielberg should know this; he's even argued that way in the past. In other words (using one of the latest TV spots as an example), if Indy's going over a waterfall, have Harrison or a stuntman go over a waterfall. Don't have him flailing like a nitwit on a greenscreen and then digitally add a fake-ass waterfall.

But several of the effects in the old IJ movies look really shitty - Mola Ram (I think it was him) falling to his death in Temple of Doom, the plane fight from Last Crusade, the Nazi guy falling towards the camera in a tank in LC, and Donovan turning into the crypt keeper in LC - all struck me as just really poorly done; the first three examples at least showed extreme usage of bluescreen or some other kind of special effects. And no way in hell would they let anyone go over that kind of ginormous waterfall in a jeep, unless they wanted them to die.

[Double_G]

While I don't really have a problem with the special effects in "Temple of Doom" or "Last Crusade", I will say that "Raiders" had the best special effects in the trilogy. They still hold up pretty well. Especially the Nazi Colonel's head imploding when the Ark is opened.

[Ran]

I watched Temple of Doom last night, but fell asleep towards the end. It is good, but I'm going to say that this is my least favorite of the three. I'll probably watch The Last Crusade either tonight or tomrrow.

[Double_G]

I just got back from "Crystal Skull". I'm going to include as little spoilers as possible.

Of course it's not as good as the original trilogy, but I still got some fun out of it.

There's stuff in this movie that's great, like the characters. Indiana Jones is still awesome as fuck. Harrison Ford can do no wrong. Marion's role was a lot smaller than I thought it'd be. It seemed like a long cameo. The new characters are all pretty solid. Shia LaBeouf played a good sidekick to Indy. And Cate Blanchett played a decent villain. As far as Indy villains go, she's no Belloq or Toht or Mola Ram, but I thought she was better than any of Last Crusade's villains. The action setpieces were pretty cool, especially the jungle jeep chase seen in the trailers. The scene with the ants was pretty cool too. In the movie, there's a scene involving Indy and Mutt exploring a graveyard. When you watch the movie, enjoy this scene, because it's the closest to the original films that this movie gets. Also during this scene there's a particularly badass scene with Indy and a blowdart.

Now for the stuff I didn't like.

First off: the aliens. Yes, the movie does center around them. But you only see one actual CG alien in the film, at the end. But by that point in the movie I had made up my mind that aliens and Indiana Jones don't mix very well. And I was one of the ones who was being optimistic about them. It was just so distracting to me. It didn't really ruin the movie for me due to the other cool stuff that was in it that I mentioned above, but it was still unneccessary. But I would take the aliens any day over the following scene...(and don't worry, it's not a major spoiler...I'm actually doing you a favor by warning you)

Are you ready for this?

You'd better be sitting down.

There's a scene where Shia LaBeouf swings on vines. Yes. On vines. Like he's Tarzan. He swings on vines with a bunch of poorly done CGI monkeys. And the monkeys attack the Russians.

I was actually horrified when I saw that. That had to have been one of the stupidest things I have ever seen on screen. And it HAD to have been George Lucas's idea. It was probably his little trademark of senility. I hated that scene much more than anything involving aliens. At what point did anyone think that was a good idea?

Overall, I'd say it's a pretty average movie. It's got some good stuff and some bad stuff. For the most part, the good outweighs the bad, but I still can't get over the Tarzan scene. And I'm pretty sure that was all Lucas.

If you're feeling really skeptical about it, it probably wouldn't kill you to wait for the DVD. *cough* Or you could watch it via online bootlegs *cough*

[Ran]

Overall, I'd say it's a pretty average movie.

That seems to be the common review. One reviewer on G4 said it isn't "Phantom Menace bad", but not nearly as good as the originals.

[anarky]

So, combined with Chewie's inexplicable Tarzan yell, does this mean Lucas has a definite hard-on for Tarzan?

Is a Lucas-directed Tarzan film in the future?

[Ran]

Is a Lucas-directed Tarzan film in the future?

No, he's going to do the prequel on the events leading up to how Tarzan's parents ended up ditching him in the jungle.

[Bizarro The Grin]

gEORGE lUCAS LIKES IT WHEN i VISIT HIM WEARING A LOINCLOTH. hE JUST LOVES TO SWING ON MY VINE.

[anarky]

I was still holding out some hope, but now that I've read more specific spoilers, I think it's absolutely safe to say I won't pay to see this in theaters.

[JON]

I've said before ROTLA is my favorite, but somebody else really put their finger on it- I love the amorality of the Indy character in that one. Shoot a dude? No prob. Leave your girl with the Nazis? Get her later. The character is much more of your standard good guy in the later movies and doesn't really have that edge. So, I really doubt "Kingdom" is gonna be a drop off for me.

[Double_G]

Yeah, if you're unsure if you'll like it or not, my advice is to just wait until it's on DVD. Or if you have the opportunity to see it for free in theaters, by all means, take it.

[Diabolical]

I saw KOTCS tonight and I really liked it.
Probably some SPOILERS in down there...

Almost everyone was great (even Shia LaBeouf was good). The only exception was Cate Blanchette - with her accent she came across as a cartoony villain (not quite Boris and Natasha cartoony though).
And a to Janitor from Scrubs in a small role.

The action was good and Harrison Ford looked good doing all his fighting (something I was afraid could come off really bad looking).
I liked the little nods to past movies. Acknowledging the deaths of Marcus Brody and Henry Jones Sr. or a quick peek at the Ark (even though being back in that storage room did feel a little forced). And if you must know, nobody but the audience sees the Ark.

I do believe this will be the "Phantom Menace" of the Indiana Jones saga though. People will piss and moan about Mutt, the ridiculousness of the fridge, and the over-abundance CG, and the aliens. People are going to put on their 80's nostalgia glasses and not see that much of it is in line with an Indiana Jones movie.

Much like Episode I didn't initially feel like a Star Wars movie, KOTCS doesn't feel like the old Indy movies, which is part of the reason I liked it. Lucas, Spielberg, and Ford were screwed from day one. Just like the prequels, this movie was never going to meet fanboy expectations (especially with all the anti-Lucas venom being spouted left and right these days). If it had been like the old ones, people would have bitched that they tried too hard to make it like the old ones, and then said they failed at it.