This is my first post on theraider.net despite being a fan of the site for quite a few years reading posts since I first heard Indy 4 rumours, I am glad i will finally get off the mark with Indy 4 fast approaching. Now to my comment:
I am open minded on both sets of views in this thread but agree there should be no more Indy movies unless ford is in them, Spielberg is involved, and they are filmed as soon as possible. However, after thinking about it, while ford is essential for Indy he's not the only thing that makes me love the films. One of the other main reasons is the artefacts in the films (as they are associated with myths I have grown up with), how Indy learns and finds them, and the feeling after seeing the film of whether these myths are true and out there today (the kid in me is still there!).
Therefore I would be willing to give a "son of Indiana Jones" film a chance as long as:
1...There is no imitations, i.e. it doesn't have Shia (or whoever) trying to imitate ford with his mannerisms, clothing etc. The "son" would need to make the film(s) his own, with his own style, and if that gives us the same feelings as the ford films then great. It would need to have the same type of adventures. There could be a slight connection between them such as the Fedora for example.
2...It does not affect the previous films - If I watched a "son of Indiana" type film and it was rubbish then it wont affect my enjoyment of the ford films. I guess that the star wars prequels may slightly affect fans enjoyment of the star wars 4 to 6 films?
Before I go I just one to make a few of points that I believe:
1...As said before, no more Indy films without Ford in them. This will be a big disaster even with a great replacement. It just wouldn't feel right.
2...I suspect that there wont be any more Ford Indy films as I believe Spielberg among others will be on other projects but its nice to think that if Indy 4 is comparable to the previous films then Spielberg and Lucas have more scripts available since Crusade.
3...I recently watched the Transformers movie at the cinema, I liked it (despite some cheesy moments). I think Shias performance was pretty good and he had good "Indy" kind of moments in that film including various face expressions, and good comedy timing.
4...Any future "son" would need to have script writers, directors, producers, music writers etc, better than the current staff. The current staff are probably contracted to other projects in future so future staff would need to be exceptional. How do you replace Spielberg?
5...Can you imagine any of the Indy movies having that guy from the Mummy (Brendan Fraser) or any other film of the same genre playing the role? It would be nowhere the same as the Ford performance and any Indy 6 film would need Harrison.
Sorry for the outburst of opinions and long post, here's my first smiley for Indy 4,
,cant wait, and even if it sucks the series will still highly rate in my film watching experience.