Randy_Flagg said:Even though I tend to criticize KOTCS, I have to agree that the opening act was quite fun, and I wish the rest of the film maintained that level of excitement.
My only real criticism with it is that that Doomtown scene felt tacked on simply because Lucas/Spielberg wanted it in the movie, and couldn't think how else to incorporate it. It really felt as if the opening act should have ended with Indy sneaking off into the night after getting off the rocket sled. Doomtown didn't really move the story along at all. It's kind of like if, in Raiders, after Indy gets into the biplane at the end of the opening act, the biplane crash lands on an island, and Indy has another little adventure with some natives, before returning to the university. In other words: Totally unnecessary filler.
I hear that on a plot level, but I think it's thematically important; I don't think the sense we're supposed to get of Indy being out of his time would come through as strongly without him looking so bewildered in that picture perfect 1950s neighborhood, or without him dwarfed by that mushroom cloud.
(Great to see you around, Randy!)