Attila the Professor said:
Based on Last Crusade - which I'm quite fond of - I'm not sure they learned anything from Temple of Doom's perceived shortcomings than that people liked Raiders of the Lost Ark more than its follow-up. (To be fair, Last Crusade is also tonally different than either of its predecessors, replacing Temple's garishness with a more even palette, its hellish darkness with possibly too much lightness and humor, and its shallower characterizations with a starry, meaty-for-its-genre two-hander and more sophisticated writing.)
If they came into it with that same attitude, that may be enough to make the next one halfway decent. Especially if they try to make it more like Raiders (or any of the OT). But my faith in modern Spielberg is a bit shaky. He's not the same man he was in the late 70s-early 90s. He's grown far too soft and overly sentimental (which is saying something considering how sentimental he was back then). Most of his stuff now seems way too light and fluffy. The man is terrified of going even remotely dark and/or taking any kind of a real risk. KOTCS was one of the most "phoned-in" movies I think I've ever seen, from all involved. (Spielberg/Ford/Williams, etc).
As for the look of KOTCS, it looked all wrong. Just way too drastically different from the OT. While they themselves were all different from one another, to me, they all seemed to be kind of under the same umbrella. Not KOTCS. Way too much CGI and (obvious) fake lighting, and the whole color scheme just seemed way too pale and dull.
Please don't get me started on the "jokes". Pretty much all of it was nauseating and cringeworthy. It wasn't charming like LC or goofy-fun like ToD. It was just bad. And the "villain" of KOTCS..... I've seen more threatening villains in Disney cartoons. She was just insulting pathetic. We need a
real villain this time around. Preferably a man (Belloq / Mola Ram / etc) and someone who actually
feels dangerous and intimidating.
What really scares me is that KOTCS happened nearly 10 years ago, and even then they treated Indy like he was ready for the retirement home. I swear, you'd think he was pushing 90. So what are they gonna do for this one, which will debut
11 years after that one?!
This is gonna be a "see to believe" type of deal for me. My expectations are so low... I'm not sure they could get any lower. This might be yet another film that I completely disavow from the franchise, if it's as bad as KOTCS.
I'm glad they're giving it another shot, and I'll give them a chance to prove me wrong, but I'm really not expecting much,
if anything.
I will add though that no Lucas is a major step in the right direction.