My 2 cents...
To my opinion Lucas kinda saved Indy4 (sorry Lucas-haters
)
While arguably better than the early Indy4 drafts, the Darabont script is inferior in every way to the KOTCS one.
To be concise, the prologue is quite uninteresting (I do believe the magnetic alien coffin to be a funnier idea) and far-fetched (Indy being kidnapped by the russians makes a lot more sense than that "old friendship gone wrong" thing)
Marion does indeed have a bigger part, but she becomes quite annoying as the film goes on, and I think the lost son story works better than the jealousy subplot.
The dialog is either dull or really bad
(My favorite line, which kinda sums up how ridiculous the action is :
TURNER
Jones! You just stomped the
president of Peru!)
On several occasions, it?s just a copy-paste from previous movies
(For instance :
ESCALANTE
I have two dozen rifles aimed at
you and your men. I'm not afraid to
die. Are you?)
The villains are quite uncharismatic (can really anyone prefer Yuri to Irina Spalko?) and while John Hurt is a great actor, I?m not sure he could have saved the Mental Apeman characterization of Oxley.
The plot is quite unbalanced : we don?t get to know what the damn skull is supposed to do anyway before half of the movie, and the alien plot pretty much pops out of nowhere at the end (then we are presented with a VERY lengthy explanation)
There?s a thin line between the over-the-top comic-book-style action we?ve come to expect from Indy movies and the ludicrous plotting of the Darabont script
To name but a few : Indy eaten by the giant snake and the President of Peru (what the hell with that President of Peru character anyway????) turning into a frog?
Well, I could go on and on
Suffice to say I?m glad Lucas turned it down and while the KOTCS script isn?t perfect (may I remind you of the numerous plot holes and inconsistencies in the original trilogy?), it?s a lot funnier and exciting story, with better drawn characters and snappier dialog
(As a side-note, I understand and sympathize with Darabont?s resentment about the whole process, but he?s hardly the first professional script writer to have worked on an unused script)