I did let myself get rather condescending in that most recent post, for which I am sorry, although I must say, eshine, that your tendency to toss off accusations to the general community here with straw man conceptions of why they didn't like Marion in the new film (they're ageist, they wouldn't know talent if they saw it, and so forth) is a rather disquieting and objectionable one that I'd seek to temper, were it my own.
However, I also feel that one of the best ways to take in the true seriousness of life is to regard it as something of a carnival. Most things offer potential for both laughter and sorrow. This may be an uncommon worldview.
Perhaps also uncommon is my way of regarding art as something strongest when there is palpable loss that stretches over time as a strong element. When the Indy films have always had that (consider Abner's death by obsession, the "falling out," the end of Wu Han's "many adventures," the years of family connection lost before Indy and Henry's reconciliation), and elements of this new film include such concerns too (Doomtown, obviously, and everything else about Indy being out of place and left behind by those who died first - the stuff that justifies the new film's existence), to have the characterization of the one figure returning from the previous films other than Indy himself so bright and cheerful throughout the entire film suggests a certain tonal misstep. Darabont may well have gone too far in the other direction, to be sure (though to call that version of her a shrew seems rather too much), and there are certainly elements I would refine were the job given to me, but I'd expect for - hope for - more strong feelings on the part of this character. Even more reference to it....she melted so quickly, and I see that as a lost opportunity.
These films have always been more than popcorn fodder. That's why I like them, anyway.
(Also, as rather more of an aside that I mention now on the basis of torao's appearance - I liked the bowling bag too. Very <I>North by Northwest</I>, that entire sequence at the hotel, with Hitchcockian wrong man elements and so forth. Also, lovely to see a tinpot dictator as a character type.)