Joe Brody said:
...did the powers that be make a major misstep in continuing the Indiana Jones franchise on the younger, family friendly trajectory established in Last Crusade?
Yes, though you might find the seeds of this in Temple as well.
Joe Brody said:
Looking back now and seeing the success of the Marvel formula -- and even seeing Disney skewing its live action films to an older audience -- should KoTCS have been targeted to an older audience? And if the Indiana Jones franchise were to be rebooted where should it be targeted?
If its rebooted inside the next ten years it will be homginized, tamed. Eventually you'll see the revolution lash back at the current tepid political correctness as a loss of emotion and identity.
But then again I don't expect it to be rebooted.
Turn the world into a village and all that's left is petty gossip. You may as well put Indiana Jones underneath a beehive hairdryer snacking on bon bons and talking his next adventure escaping Layne Bryant at the Mall.
One of the reasons Star Wars worked is that Luke was the age children idolized as freedom and adults remembered as freedom...reverting to childhood made the prequels like babysitting.
While The Dark Knight might be woven a bit too tight for the kiddies, they'll have something to appreciate more as they grow older...I can't say I continue to appreciate any Tim Burton project besides Sleepy Hollow.
Captain America was softened for the international audience and it suffers for it. Skull was softened for the kiddies because they knew they had the nostagia factor built in...so they hedged their bets on the next generation.
They just lost too much in translation...should have stayed true to Raiders and let the audience rediscover it and appreciate it all the more.
Like they do Raiders.