KOTCS at "Marathon"

Henry W Jones

New member
A friend of mine has put off seeing KOTCS because of the reviews and opinions he's heard about the film. He went to the marathon with me and when it was over this is what he had to say....... "It was not as bad as I had heard, its not great, but I expected worse. I thought the aliens were done way better than described to me and the story was decent. I could have done without the fridge and about half of the jungle sequence, but otherwise, it was watchable." I personally found it better when watching off the back of LC. They both have a similar tone and play well together. By the way the F/X in LC did not hold up well. The blue screening was obvious throughout many scenes in the film. Still all 4 films were highly enjoyable. People in the crowd stayed for KOTCS, laughed at the jokes and clapped for the film like its predecessors.
 

caats

New member
I fully believe that Crystal Skull fits in well with the series, but not well with current cinema.
 

Dr.Jonesy

Well-known member
I'll just copy/paste what I wrote in another thread;

'Kingdom of the Crystal Skull' -

What else can I say? The film looked just stellar. Like 'Temple of Doom', it thrives on the big screen as well. This film really is an assault on the senses in the best of ways. The sound was very in your face and crystal clear, as was the picture. Love the look of this film and it was great to see it again. Audience reaction was almost as good as 'Last Crusade', lots and lots of laughs at the right parts, cheers when Indy kicked ass and heavy applause at the end of the film.

But what's funny is that I'd been reading comments from some people on the internet since mid-August about how there's gonna be a "mass exodus following 'Last Crusade'!" and...from both my experience and others in other states that I've talked to (and from a few of you guys here), this "mass exodus" that was sure to happen...never occurred. And I knew it wouldn't happen anyways.

People cheered, laughed and smiled all the way through 'Kingdom' as they did with the previous films. And they clapped at the end just as much as they did for 'Crusade', as well.

Two girls I met (in their 20s) had never seen any of them. 'Crusade' and 'Kingdom' ended up as their faves.
 

Dr.Jonesy

Well-known member
Henry W Jones said:
People in the crowd stayed for KOTCS, laughed at the jokes and clapped for the film like its predecessors.

I had no doubt that this was going to happen, anyway.

:hat:
 

Crack that whip

New member
This mirrors my experience as well. I went to the marathon yesterday, and if anyone left after Crusade it wasn't obvious; it appeared everyone or nearly everyone stayed all the way through the fourth movie. Not only that, but people laughed and applauded and such; in fact, it actually got a better response than Raiders did (!) - indeed, all three movies beginning with "Indiana Jones and the..." got better audience responses than the original, for whatever bizarre reason.

And yet outside the marathon, I continue to encounter this pervasive dismissal of Crystal Skull everywhere. I was even just out shopping with my girlfriend a little while ago and we bumped into an old friend of hers she hadn't seen in years, and in the course of chatting and catching up she mentioned the marathon, and he immediately went into the familiar mode "first three movies are good," and so on. Oh, well.
 

Dr.Jonesy

Well-known member
I dunno, just about everyone I've spoken to about Indy since 2008 loves all four to some degree. Of course it won't be absolutely everyone loving them, but just about. People just watch these films and enjoy them.

The schools I work in, alot of the kids say they got into Indy when they saw the last film or because of the fact that it existed, period. Tis cool to see young Indy fans who actually prefer Indy to 'Star Wars'!
Kids of taste...
:gun:

Going back to Facebook today, same old anti-KOTCS comments going on every once in awhile and racking up the 'Likes' and other comments defending it. But I'm really not sure where those haters were at any of the Marathons. You'd think that if everyone or most people hated/disliked KOTCS that the theater would've emptied after TLC, much less cheered and laughed through KOTCS and applauding it at the end.

The nay-sayer fans say they went and left after TLC and said 'real fans' would (trying to tell us we're not fans I guess)...but I guess there was so few of them that nobody noticed. For all the people that have bashed KOTCS on Facebook's Indy article comments and still do today, they're looking more and more to be the vocal minority than ever, IMO. I honestly have little doubt left.

People commenting on ANY article on a band/movie's Facebook page are always mean, rude and hate everything anyway.

After KOTCS, people left in a great mood, loved the film (all of them) and were happily chatting about Indy V rumors. Like another poster said in another thread, after last night I'm officially done buying the 'Everyone hates KOTCS' bad hype that fans on the net want everyone to believe. A vocal niche of naysayers, I say!

Not talking about anyone here, by the way.
:hat:
 

Dr.Jonesy

Well-known member
Chicago, IL - River East 21;

My brother in law reports that KOTCS was indeed almost as much of a hit as TLC, last night. Laughs, cheers and end of the film applause. If anyone left, he didn't notice.

If seeing how awesome the film did with people at the Marathons isn't an indicator about how the film is very positively seen and received/accepted by the majority of fans/masses, then what is?
:hat:
 

JediJones

Active member
At my screening, Last Crusade got the hugest reactions, with applause as the movie started and during the movie. ROTLA and TOD didn't get that at all. Applause only happened once during KOTCS when Marion appeared for the first time. There was applause at the end for all 4 films.

When KOTCS started, someone booed, and there was laughter and applause from others in response. Then someone yelled out "it's not that bad." There were some derisive remarks about the CGI gophers and someone made a loud groan when Irina Spalko appeared for the first time. After that, people calmed down and no one audibly bashed the movie anymore.

There was laughter at most of the moments you'd expect throughout the films, but I was surprised that I was the only one I could hear laughing at some of the TOD scenes. I find the perfect comic timing of the Club Obi-Wan fight and the spike pit scene to be hilarious. Many people seem to view those as strictly action scenes and don't get the humor in them. To me, Spielberg intentionally stretches out the suspense of those scenes with so much back-and-forth seesaw action that it creates a subtle sense of absurdity that makes them play as comedy as much as they do action. In addition, there was someone laughing at almost everything Sean Connery said in Last Crusade, beyond reason.
 

russds

New member
wow, @JediJones sounds like you had an interesting bunch. The banter during the beginning of CS, the lack of excitement during raiders and Tod, interesting. I also love ToD, and those two scenes, and the comidy/action. I'm actually enjoying reading the love that it seem ToD is getting from other posters, with the crowd being involved, it's always been my favorite.
 
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