Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

[CoryLevy91]

Hate might be a strong word, but I am never going to get past the "Indy survives a nuclear bomb inside a fridge" plot point as the jump-the-shark moment for Indiana Jones movies.

Yeah, I absolutely feel you. Indiana Jones has, before then, NEVER featured anything so fantastically over-the-top that makes little sense that would have surely resulted in him dying like seven times over.



(And no, that isn't the only one.)

People love to pick apart Kingdom like it's some outlier of a grounded, realistic series. It's not, it's right in line with every other entry. The franchise has always been over-the-top and fantastical in a myriad of ways. This argument just holds zero weight for me. If Kingdom had come out three years after Last Crusade or between Temple and Crusade, it would probably be some people's favorite and not even blinked at twice with regards to 'quality'.

People rave about some of the artistry Spielberg puts on display in Raiders. While it's not nearly as abundant in Kingdom, there are several moments where he shows he still has it. Some tremendous use of shadow work, some great oners, amazing camera movement, interesting scenes of just characters talking, all those things are still there.

 

[mccgavin]

Honestly I think Crystal Skull holds up mostly okay despite not living up to the original trilogy. My biggest gripe has to be the overuse of CGI, which has only looked worse over time.

 

[CoryLevy91]

Honestly I think Crystal Skull holds up mostly okay despite not living up to the original trilogy. My biggest gripe has to be the overuse of CGI, which has only looked worse over time.

It's the biggest ding for me. It'll always pail in comparison because of how much CGI is used in comparison to the original film (though Last Crusade has some wonky, bonky looking green screen scenes that look worse as time goes on). It just came out in a time when that was the trend and they probably pushed it a little too far in that realm. The music is also just a tad underwhelming for me and relies too much on previously created pieces.

The characters, story, action, treasure, baddies, camera work, direction, humor, are all great Indy level fare.

 

[TheGentTrent]

I think once Dial of Destiny comes out, we will hear people (justifiably or not) retroactively assess Temple of Doom and Crystal Skull as decent just like they did to the Prequel trilogy of Star Wars after the Sequel trilogy came out.

 

[OLSinFLA]

Hate might be a strong word, but I am never going to get past the "Indy survives a nuclear bomb inside a fridge" plot point as the jump-the-shark moment for Indiana Jones movies.

This always cracks me up. He survived jumping out of planes, over death-defying waterfalls, hundreds of nazis, a giant rolling bolder, a temple build over a volcano ... and that's the thing people harp on. LOL. Besides, Skull is supposed to emulate 1950s B-scifi movies, just like the first 3 were supposed to mimic old time movie serials.

It's the biggest ding for me. It'll always pail in comparison because of how much CGI is used in comparison to the original film (though Last Crusade has some wonky, bonky looking green screen scenes that look worse as time goes on). It just came out in a time when that was the trend and they probably pushed it a little too far in that realm. The music is also just a tad underwhelming for me and relies too much on previously created pieces.

The characters, story, action, treasure, baddies, camera work, direction, humor, are all great Indy level fare.

Whats funny is sometimes people got confused on what was CGI. For example, the sequence through the jungle with the guys fighting on top of the car, so many people assumed the actors were CGI. They were real. It was the jungle that was CGI

 

[Brian G.]

This always cracks me up. He survived jumping out of planes, over death-defying waterfalls, hundreds of nazis, a giant rolling bolder, a temple build over a volcano ... and that's the thing people harp on. LOL. Besides, Skull is supposed to emulate 1950s B-scifi movies, just like the first 3 were supposed to mimic old time movie serials.


Whats funny is sometimes people got confused on what was CGI. For example, the sequence through the jungle with the guys fighting on top of the car, so many people assumed the actors were CGI. They were real. It was the jungle that was CGI

I know I’ve warned in the past, but cmon now. Please stop double posting and use the multi-quote feature.

 

[Jerroddragon]

I think once Dial of Destiny comes out, we will hear people (justifiably or not) retroactively assess Temple of Doom and Crystal Skull as decent just like they did to the Prequel trilogy of Star Wars after the Sequel trilogy came out.

Doom has a great setting but as a film, I just don't I ever need to watch it again.

Honestly Indy 1 and 3 are the only classic's 2/4 are films that while having good parts as a whole....I think are just fine fines that happen to be linked with one of the biggest characters from the 80s

 

[Nick]

Doom has a great setting but as a film, I just don't I ever need to watch it again.

Honestly Indy 1 and 3 are the only classic's 2/4 are films that while having good parts as a whole....I think are just fine fines that happen to be linked with one of the biggest characters from the 80s

As someone who didn’t grow up with the films, to me, Temple of Doom was so off the rails I never watched Last Crusade when watching the movies during COVID.

 

[Jerroddragon]

As someone who didn’t grow up withers films, to me, Temple of Doom was so off the rails I never watched Last Crusade when watching the movies during COVID.

Last Crusade is my favorite of the films

Indy one has the best start hands down but Indy 3 is overall the most fun. Doom setting is great and its part of the reason we have such an amazing Indy ride but yeah....it was the least liked of the first three films for many reasons

 

[belloq87]

I think the last 40 minutes of TEMPLE OF DOOM are incredible. Unfiltered Spielberg action filmmaking on a level we would never see from him again.

 

[Jamesh22]

Odd numbered Indy Movies have always been best so I'm hopefull for 5.

1 is absolute movie making perfection and as already stated 3 is a fantastic movie and enjoyable from beginning to end - adding Connery was a genius stroke.
To me they are just so rewatchable and have given me hours and hours of enjoyment over the years - love them.

 

[Brian G.]

Temple of Doom has definitely been seen in a better light since its release.

Kingdom of the Crystal Skull isn't as bad as people made it out to be. The beginning action scene was great, and the "nuke the fridge" didn't bother me any more than him using a raft as a parachute into the mountains. The swinging monkeys though....

BUT there were crappy plot points (i.e. the Triple Agent twist), a meh ending, and the CGI was pretty rough in parts.

 

[OLSinFLA]

I know I’ve warned in the past, but cmon now. Please stop double posting and use the multi-quote feature.

Where did I double post and use a multi-quote feature. All I did was type a comment.

 

[OLSinFLA]

Where did I double post and use a multi-quote feature. All I did was type a comment I re[plied to two different post.

 

[Nick]

Where did I double post and use a multi-quote feature. All I did was type a comment.

C’mon man…


If you have a post you want to respond to but are scrolling through and reading a thread, please hit the “+ quote” button. You can then respond to all posts individually within one post rather than there being multiple posts back to back. It makes threads a lot cleaner.

 

[CoryLevy91]

I think once Dial of Destiny comes out, we will hear people (justifiably or not) retroactively assess Temple of Doom and Crystal Skull as decent just like they did to the Prequel trilogy of Star Wars after the Sequel trilogy came out.

Honestly, after re-watching the first four films in the lead up as well as some of the pieces I've vaguely seen regarding Dial, with it being central to the ideas of aging and frailty, one of my concerns going into Part 5 is that it'll be almost TOO realistic and TOO grounded and it just won't feel like an Indy movie with its over-the-top moments and super hero-esque invincibility on show from multiple characters. If Indy fans are enjoying it then I'll likely have nothing to worry about (and again, I haven't seen the trailers so if there's hint of some wild action I just haven't witnessed them yet) but that's my biggest concern recently.

 

[Nick]

Yikes.

That $295M budget is going to make it impossible for this movie to be profitable. There's so many films with huge budgets out here flopping left and right this month alone with Elemental and The Flash both at around $200M, Indy at $295M, and Rise of the Beasts at $200M is pretty much definitely going to lose money and it's almost like no one cares because it's just becoming so regular.

Indy would have to make probably at least $700-$800M Worldwide (which isn't going to happen if it opens that low domestically) or so just to break even. Absolutely loony spending, but the budget did get run up far higher than Disney wanted due to COVID restrictions during filming so i'll give them that at least.

Box Office: ‘Indiana Jones 5’ to Lasso $65 Million Opening — a Decent Start Except for Its Huge $295 Million Budget

'Indiana Jones 5' is targeting at least $65 million from 4,500 North American theaters in its opening weekend.

variety.com

 

[Jake S]

yeah, we're going tomorrow afternoon and I checked our theater to see if it's going to be more crowded than we're comfortable with.

it's nearly empty. I know the reviews have been so-so, but ... yikes.

 

[Nick]

yeah, we're going tomorrow afternoon and I checked our theater to see if it's going to be more crowded than we're comfortable with.

it's nearly empty. I know the reviews have been so-so, but ... yikes.

Yeah I’m going tomorrow in early evening. Both Dolby showings at reasonable times (3 & 7) are sold out with the 11 even close to sold out. Other than that, the showings are only about half full or a little more.

Part of it could simply be Indy is an old IP, but as my mom was pointing out, she wouldn’t even know it’s coming out if it wasn’t for me, so maybe the marketing hasn’t been that good + older IP + mediocre reviews = ambivalence from many movie goers.

 

[Jamesh22]

Most people I know didn't even realise there was a new Indy Movie. Whatever advertising there has been is not cutting through.