Agent Spalko said:
It could still be entertaining but I'm already disappointed. I'm making the call now that it will be the weakest of all the films.
But you haven't even seen the film yet. You've read things, sure, you've seen pictures, but you haven't seen how the film will flow together on screen.
The idea of the whole Voodoo Doll in ToD probably would sound really cheesy on paper, but it made for a tense scene, as would some of the more slapstick moments of LC. In fact, breaking the plot of LC down you'd get:
Nazis seek ancient arifact in order to dominate the world. Indy must stop them. There is a foxy girl with whom Indy has a love/hate relationship, and
the artifact in question is an all important object of Biblical significance. The main villains are a man who, like Indy, has a penchant for ancient artifacts, and is working with the Nazis for his own gain, and also a Nazi soldier. There is someone from Indy's past with whom Indy has a troubled relationship with who has a big role in the film. After the opening teaser adventure, we see Indy at Marshall College teaching. Marcus meets him. Sallah comes along for the ride in this one.
Now, reading that, it would sound alot like a retread of Raiders, no? Which would be unoriginal. LC is in it's core a remake of Raiders, however the details, along with the father son sub-plot, are very different. Add in the details, and the whole slapstick edge to it and you get a different, if heavily forumulaic film.
This film has another edge to it. It's a different time from the original films, a time past the era of men like Indy. The '50s. The Nazis have gone the way of the dodo, as have men wearing hats. Indy is getting older, wondering just who he is and how he'll be remembered. He's still unmarried and family-less in his late middle age, and time is running out for both of those things. He's lost both his father, and Marcus, his greatest mentor in the span of a few short years. He's watched the world go to war again and him, along with the rest of the world, watched as the atrocities which occured during that war were discovered.
Whereas LC was Indy ''discovering'' his father, this is going to be Indy perhaps discovering just who he himself is and what place he holds in the world in an era which has left men of his ilk behind. It might well have the depth of LC and also be an action packed adventure to make up for the lazy action of LC. And if Indy does become a dad, that'll be a twist too as it'd be interesting to see Indy in that role, with his own child. Also, it'd be interesting to see him with Marion again after 21 years.
This film is going to be different, which doesn't equal bad. It's going to be different because Indy is different. The world is different. It's a totally different time than the previous films. He's older. He's matured a little. This is no longer the '30s with it's art deco and fedoras, this is the the post WWII '50s with communist witch-hunts, early Rock N' Roll, the beginning of the generation gap, the waning of fedoras etc. But it is also an ''innocent'' era in some ways, like the '30s.
It's a different era, therefore some traditions can be broken; new traditions can be made. This may be the beginning of another trilogy, but who knows. Just as Indy's adventures in the 1910's and 1920s were different than those in the '30s, so will his adventures in the '50s be different.
As Lucas accurately predicted, you're hating the film before it's even released because it's not the movie you had in your mind (I.E. a remake of Raiders) Even if it was, it couldn't match 19 years worth of expectations, because in that time expectations can grow to unsurpassable heights.