mister64 said:
Henry Sr. doesn't show up (I wanted to see all 3 generations of Henry Jones together!)
That would definitely have been a nice addition, but Henry would have to have been another CGI element. Sean Connery is enjoying retirement too much to return to acting.
mister64 said:
The nuke/fridge scene worked for me (the fridge did say lead-lined). I just assumed the town was on the edge of the blast and Indy's (dumb?) luck saved him from another tight spot.
I have no problem with either the fridge or the inter-dimensional 'aliens', which are two of the biggest issues people seem to have with KOTCS.
Why not a lead-lined fridge? It's the perfect Indy cliffhanger-escape. Indy's a resourceful guy, and he is possessed of the 'Jones' luck. And why not those inter-dimensional creatures? Weve seen all manner of other inexplicable things in the previous movies, and for me these new creatures tie all the others together: they're collectors of human culture and the imparters of ancient wisdom to man. That in itself may explain the inexplicable or supernatural elements present in the first three films.
mister64 said:
Overall I didn't mind the script, but the faults I have with it may not be Koepp's fault. Since he had to answer to Lucas and Spielberg.
Lucas and Spielberg are very protective of their creation. They have a history of being hard on their scriptwriters - numerous scriptwriters seem to have had a go at writing an Indiana Jones film, and failed to meet the vision of Lucas and Spielberg.
Therefore, I agree that Koepp probably didn't have much room to ad lib. It's like Lucas with Star Wars: it's the universe that George built, so he has strict control over what happens in it.
I resisted watching KOTSC for a long while. At first I tried to ignore it, pretend it wasn't part of the Indy mythos. The adverts for the film didn't look promising, I thought Harrison Ford would be too old to bring this classic character back. Then I happened upon the DVD, and immediately found my old Indy enthusiasm re-ignited. Harrison pulled it off, it was tougher for him this time round, but you can't keep an old adventurer down. Twenty years on, I found that the quirky Indiana Jones character was once more alive and well.
For me, KOTCS now deserves its rightful place among the other three movies.
The difficulties with doing this film are obviously that in the 20 years since Last Crusade there are children and adults that weren't around to see even The Last Crusade first time round. To some of us Indy was a familiar character, to others he may have been a totally new character. The movie had to appeal to older fans as well as newer ones if it was to recover its costs.
Maybe it's because it had to walk this fine line, that it divides opinion so strongly. As a consequence Hasbro have suspended producing toys (hopefully its just a suspension and not an extinction). Whereas Star Wars toys continue on and on forever (unstoppable since 1995, perhaps due to the dumbing down of the second trilogy, to appeal far more to younger audiences?)
Matt