EyesofMara
New member
What did everyone think of Karen Allen's role in the film? To me it was old Marion, she did really well, and had some good action sequences.
Marion's role
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Benraianajones
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I haven't seen it yet, I like her from the trailer parts I have seen. I have heard she has been made to "motherly" in this one, and she isn't like the "tough -drinking woman" she was in the original. Do you agree?
EyesofMara
New member
Yeah, but when you see the movie you'll understand why hehe. Don't want to spoil anything.
LostArk
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Goonie said:It was god to see her on the big screen again but it felt that she didn't have much to work with. It would have been good to see her at least punch out Spalko and take out some of the Ugha warriors.
Not much to work with? She was awesome during the jungle chase! Just for performance there, she didn't even need to punch out anyone.
Indy fan 235
New member
It would have been great if she slugged Indy when she first seems him like in Raiders. But Marion was great, it was great to see Karen Allen back in the Indy world.
Violet
Moderator Emeritus
Marion was great, Karen Allen did a good job and it made me wish there had been more of her in the film and more lines for her to say. It felt like she only had like 5 lines in the whole thing. I mean come on, she's supposed to be the love of Indy's life and she's totally ignored in the third act.
"A Trail of Human Wreckage" (Fitting...)
She's not the same Marion Ravenwood we watched match Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark. She has all but four lines before being reduced to a convenient prop that bickers, screams, and then aww, marries Jones at the end of the film (quite the come around for a woman left twice by the man she loved, the last time apparently being a week before the wedding? WTF mates.) She has not one moment of delivery where her voice isn?t several decibels above the norm.
I can imagine the presumed fanboy jean-cream that?s suppose to happen when Marion appears on screen, but what you witness between Indy and Marion is not ?chemistry? as some have described it, nor is it clever. In fact, it feels like sucker punching parody. In Raiders, Marion and Indiana played off each other with actual emotion -- there was loss, anger, affection at the Raven. The verbal assault they give each other here is insincere telegraphing. It's too much, too late.
Karen's a sweetheart and all, but she's embarrassing in the film. Her screaming "Get down!" and "INDYYYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE" were enough to make a grown man squirm. Such a bummer.
She's not the same Marion Ravenwood we watched match Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark. She has all but four lines before being reduced to a convenient prop that bickers, screams, and then aww, marries Jones at the end of the film (quite the come around for a woman left twice by the man she loved, the last time apparently being a week before the wedding? WTF mates.) She has not one moment of delivery where her voice isn?t several decibels above the norm.
| She serves to drive two trucks during the film?s Jungle Chase, gets hit on the head for no reason, misses a perfect opportunity to elbow Spalko in the face, and manages to completely disappear from the scene before hopping back into the fray at the last minute to send the entire ensemble over one cliff and not one, but three waterfalls. |
I can imagine the presumed fanboy jean-cream that?s suppose to happen when Marion appears on screen, but what you witness between Indy and Marion is not ?chemistry? as some have described it, nor is it clever. In fact, it feels like sucker punching parody. In Raiders, Marion and Indiana played off each other with actual emotion -- there was loss, anger, affection at the Raven. The verbal assault they give each other here is insincere telegraphing. It's too much, too late.
Karen's a sweetheart and all, but she's embarrassing in the film. Her screaming "Get down!" and "INDYYYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE" were enough to make a grown man squirm. Such a bummer.
lynchpin said:
Didn't feel that way at all. She is still Marion, but a Marion that settled down and had a child. She is at the point in her life when her bite is there, but she cannot deny Indy, nor can he deny her. She is completely insecure in his presence, but once she is given that bit of hope she dare not deny it. Not at this point in her life.
I enjoy your reading about it very much, but there's not one piece of evidence in the film to support it beyond compassionate speculation by people like yourself and I. We can forgive bad performances by making up reasons unexplained in the film, but it doesn't justify them. Saying "Gee, Bob had a bad day, it's okay if he screams and yells a lot" doesn't let Bob off the hook.
"I had a damn good live. A damn good life" is about all we learn about her being a single mother who should have socked Indy for leaving her (twice.)
"I had a damn good live. A damn good life" is about all we learn about her being a single mother who should have socked Indy for leaving her (twice.)
I really loved seeing her back! Could that have put more into her role? Absolutely. There was so much more they could have explored, but they did have limited time and I know full well that she was not the sole focus of the story. I really wish she'd gotten into the action a bit more rather than seeming to just tag along... and I'm rather disappointed that she didn't deck Indy. 
Yeah... but the subtext I read into that was more thought-provoking... the way she said that, it was very much in that "I'm trying to convince myself, not just you" manner.
lynchpin said:
Yeah... but the subtext I read into that was more thought-provoking... the way she said that, it was very much in that "I'm trying to convince myself, not just you" manner.
sanitystream
New member
lynchpin said:
Dead on the money. I HATED the way this film wasted her. Bringing Marion back seemed like an awesome idea... it's what we all wanted...
Except Karen Allen forgot how to act, over the years she turned into a pleasant 50-year old motherly type, and David Koepp appears to have forgotten how to write dialogue whenever he typed 'MARION' in the script.
Oh what a disappointment -- in a movie FULL of disappointments.
Junior Jones
New member
lynchpin said:
Dude, I'm glad I saw the movie before reading this. You put spoiler tags around your comments on the Jungle Chase, but not around the wedding stuff? We saw the chase in the trailer, the wedding comments are way more spoilerish.
I liked what we got of her, but felt she should've been introduced much sooner in the story...perhaps as early as Peru.
| I also think she and Indy needed a quiet moment together other than their brief conversation in the back of the truck. After the lengthy jungle chase and ant fight, the movie really needed to let the audience catch its breath. They should've borrowed a page from the Monkey King/Saucermen scripts, and included a short boat trip upriver. After revealing the skull to the Ugha warriors, it would've been nice to see Indy interact with them. The great thing about lost cities in old B movies, is that they usually came packaged with a lost tribe. But the Ugha warriors feel more like an afterthought, and are far too similar to the earlier, mindless cemetary warriors. This could've allowed another quiet moment, and a nice visual of Indy and Co. surrounded by an entire forgotten race. Koepp has said that Indy ultimately realizes Marion is what he has been looking for in the film. But they missed some really great opportunities to drive that point home. A brief scene of Indy and Marion taking in the spectacle of the lost city, and I'd basically have gotten the "Indy and Garden of Eden" film I'd always wanted. |