Well, today I finally watched Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull again. It came on TV as I was messing around on my computer, and I found myself watching it almost by accident - after years of deliberately avoiding seeing it again because of the disappointment.
And seeing it again through fresh eyes has totally made me re-evaluate it as a film. This kind of analysis has been done over and over on this site before, so I won't go over what I liked or disliked.
What I would say though, is that by a small bit of editing (re-editing!), Lucas and Spielberg could vastly improve this film.
It would be relatively easy to take out some of the scenes that, even in my more forgiving mood today, are simply horrible.
Take out :-
1) Shia swinging with the monkeys scene
2) Shia always combing his hair
3) Shia getting hit in the nuts repeatedly during the swordfight scene
4) the gophers
5) shorten that terrible quicksand scene
Remove some of the crap dialogue :-
1) the space between spaces
2) I like Ike
3) you're mispronouncing your doublewoos (Indy mocking Spalko's accent)
4) Some of the Family Jones - corny son/dad chat.
The parts I mention all seem to wrench me immediately out of the film world - back into reality - where I am sitting there flinching at the bad decisions made by the film-makers.
I really think that there is a good film in there. Maybe not 9s and 10s out of ten like the previous trilogy, but a good solid 7.
If Lucas can go back and redo the original Star Wars trilogy, then surely he can do it to this film. A movie which would arguably benefit much more from a bit of retouching.
I get the impression that the reception towards this film from the fans still hurts Lucas and Spileberg. Maybe before the 5th one (which looks increasingly likely to happen now), they could bring out a Special Edition as a little thank you to the fans for their ongoing support?
What do you think?
And seeing it again through fresh eyes has totally made me re-evaluate it as a film. This kind of analysis has been done over and over on this site before, so I won't go over what I liked or disliked.
What I would say though, is that by a small bit of editing (re-editing!), Lucas and Spielberg could vastly improve this film.
It would be relatively easy to take out some of the scenes that, even in my more forgiving mood today, are simply horrible.
Take out :-
1) Shia swinging with the monkeys scene
2) Shia always combing his hair
3) Shia getting hit in the nuts repeatedly during the swordfight scene
4) the gophers
5) shorten that terrible quicksand scene
Remove some of the crap dialogue :-
1) the space between spaces
2) I like Ike
3) you're mispronouncing your doublewoos (Indy mocking Spalko's accent)
4) Some of the Family Jones - corny son/dad chat.
The parts I mention all seem to wrench me immediately out of the film world - back into reality - where I am sitting there flinching at the bad decisions made by the film-makers.
I really think that there is a good film in there. Maybe not 9s and 10s out of ten like the previous trilogy, but a good solid 7.
If Lucas can go back and redo the original Star Wars trilogy, then surely he can do it to this film. A movie which would arguably benefit much more from a bit of retouching.
I get the impression that the reception towards this film from the fans still hurts Lucas and Spileberg. Maybe before the 5th one (which looks increasingly likely to happen now), they could bring out a Special Edition as a little thank you to the fans for their ongoing support?
What do you think?