Rocket Surgeon said:
Here is where we all stumble over how Crystal Skull fits in with the rest. The intervention of the gods is proffered opinion and the movie leaves it at that, like Raiders. Skull on the other hand spoonfeeds the answers and leaves NO room for interpretation or opinion.
KOTCS stumbles, that's without question. It stumbles in many regards, when compared to ROTLA. The first steps away from ROTLA were taken by TOD, and continued by TLC. You could call them faltering steps, or merely inevitable ones. You either leave Indy with ROTLA, or you make the best of it and see the others in that inevitable light. They aren't
Raiders. Nothing could be
Raiders again. You can't repeat the magic.
So, the steps become far more ragged in KOTCS. The constant need to present spectacle, believing this is what the average Indy fan expects.
I'm forced to rationalize each new spectacle, or ditch the movie in it's entirety. Okay, so there's things in KOTCS I downright dislike. There are also things that evoke that original spark of magic.
The fridge was maybe a spectacle too far, yet inevitable. We know where it came from (
The Atomic Kid and the unfilmed BTTF script). It was a statement, a homage, even '50s kitsch. Indy is not a real man, but a concept. The concept moved into the '50s, and George just couldn't help himself.
The answer: it was an absurd joke.
Now, to rationalize an absurd joke: see the events occurring in a place that is not quite real. Not quite as we expect our world to operate. Add Indy's luck into the mix, and all the other paramaters that are necessary to make sure the fridge blasts clear, and it lands in such a way to protect it's passenger.
Impossible?
Probably.
Yet, there's just that absurd chance that it could work. Maybe not in our world, but in a world that has giant rolling boulders, automatically resetting light traps, Germans digging up half of Egypt, foreign bars in Nepal, and a golden box with a selectively murderous intent.
Rocket Surgeon said:
Your eqivocating aside, the problem I think people have is that instead of honoring Raiders by making a tradition of it's formula for success:building up to a spectacular finale, they instead employed these OUTRAGEOUS plot devices that begged us to suspend an inordinate amount of belief right from the get-go.
The quantity of outrageous plot devices is where my disappointment lies. The unfunny snake/sandpit scene; the waterfalls; swinging with the monkeys; the unbelievable Mac; the under-used Irina; and the very character of Mutt himself.
I'm happy that the movies continue to break the original formula, but not happy that they took so much effort to outdo themselves. It just makes more work when it comes to suspending disbelief.
Man of faith? Hogwash!
