It was slightly better than "Temple of Doom", but not by much. The story is pretty ridiculous; it's as if they just put in Indiana Jones (still played great by Ford, I'll give him that) in some random adventure, like he was a guest star or something.

Funny, it kind of felt like they rewrote the script dozens of times over 19-20 years.

Well. I don't know if I'll be the only one, but I absolutely had a blast. It was awesome. Felt like the others. I loved it. I don't care what anyone says.

I just got back from midnight screening and I agree with Brian - It Sucked.

I even had low expectations for this after seeing what Lucas did with the SW prequels, and it still sucked. Almost every scene was corny and implausible - even in an Indiana Jones universe. Plus the bad guys were insultingly dumb.

While there were some really nice vintage Indy moments, Crystal Skull had one of the most unbelievable stories imaginable. Yeah, Indy's been after the Holy Grail and the Arc, but you could actually believe that could happen. Not so with this movie, in my opinion.

And I will never, EVER laugh at a monkey after the soon-to-be-infamous "Monkey Scene" in Crystal Skull.

i just got back from a midnight soul raping thunder slaughter of shit.
i cant believe this is the movie they came up with, after all those years, and all this excitement. i hope reviewers call it like it is - fucking horrible.

I just got back back from a midnight showing. It wasn't "Raiders of the Lost Ark" but I place it between "Temple of Doom" and The Last Crusade". The movie also had plenty of Indy moments. The scenes between Mutt and Indiana were a good throw back to "The Last Crusade" and the way Indy escapes from a nuclear bomb is classic. The plot was a little too science fiction for Indiana Jones but it definitely wasn't bad. The most clever scene in my opinion is at the end. I won't ruin it for anyone but lets say Indy isn't ready to retire just yet. Overall, it is a good addition to the Indiana Jones series and is a nice jumping off point for a sequel or spin-off.

I thought it was okay. I don't hate it but it's definitely not my favorite Indy movie. It felt mostly like set up for the adventures of Mutt.

I like that aliens are too hard for people to believe but mystically powerful Jewish zombie wine cups are okay.

If you try to rank this movie among the rest in the series you'll only be setting yourself for disappointment. It's a futile exercise, why bother? The best way to go into this move is not to compare it to the other Indiana Jones films but to every other action movie ever made. Spielberg still does it better than anybody. The set pieces and humor in this movie were better than anything in Die Hard 4, Pirates 3, Spiderman 3 and Transformers. If you grew up watching these movies, doubted that another one would ever get made and it doesn't make you happy to see the Paramount mountain, the red line go across the map or Indy crack the whip again then nothing could.

I just got back from seeing Indy and I honestly don't know how to feel. I loved some stuff and hated others. One thing I know for sure is that Spielberg needs to stop making alien movies. He should have stopped after Close Incounters in my opinion. But if you want an outline of this movie Basically this movie is Raiders minus melting Nazis combinded plus the stupid humor of Temple of Doom with aspects of Star Gate, the Mummy Returns, AVP (the predators teaching ancient humans), and the video game the Infernal Machine. I'm kind of indifferent. It's good but it could have been way better. Now I'm just looking forward to the Dark Knight.

Justin, that was the most awesome thing I've ever read. Awesome. I agree. I loved this movie.

The series would of been fine with out this movie, but it was the most fun I've had watching a movie in a while. But ranks last among the films.

:

I figured it out! George Lucas makes children’s movies…and he always has. If you loved "Indiana Jones and the Kindgom of the Crystal Scull" you’re a child, if you hated it, congratulations, you’re an adult.

:

I loved it! It was funny, entertaining, very well made (filmed, directed, cut, and scored), and it had just the right amount of fantasy you need for a movie of this kind. Oh, and Cate Blanchett was awesome.

Guess it's time to let go of the past. It had some great parts and I was even willing to go with the basis behind the skulls, but it let me down and here's why:
1. Think back to "Phantom Menace". 3 things killed that- "Yippee!", Jar Jar and Midichlorians. Crystal Skull had it's equivalent- a fridge, some monkeys and some pandering "America's Funniest Home Videos" humor. Monkeys in the Indy-verse are traitorous, Nazi-loving bastards that we are happy get poisoned or a tasty chilled treat /serving dish. Lucas-berg seems to have forgotten this, or are trying to make amends with the monkey community.
2. Impotent bad guys. Previous bad guys you didn't mess around with. Bellocq would rob you blind and tempt the fury of God, Donovan sold out his country and shot Indy's dad straight up, and Mola Ram ripped a guys heart out of his chest while it was still beating! All Cate Blanchett does is manage to lose acting cred and look like a bad cosplay version of a more menacing villainess. It looks like she is wearing a bad stripper wig, an old Ghostbusters jumpsuit and a sword she boosted from a Civil War re-enactor. Her accent seems like a female Chekov. There was probably a fantastic Russian actress just waiting to pull it off, instead we are left to think, "oh hey, look it's Cate Blanchett". Did she need to be in it? Would anyone have not wanted to see it if she hadn't been in it?
3. Lucas and Spielberg both need to move on. I know Lucas was the story guy here and I can't help but think that Spielberg was hesitant to call him on his shit, since he had meandered into the same territory in A.I. Spielberg did great with E.T. and Close Encounters, but AI sucked and we got a lot of A.I. in this one.
4. Setup the Cold War/McCarthy-ism political climate, start to make it interesting and then toss it aside like a 4 year-old child moving on to the next shiny present under the Christmas tree.
5. Treat us like the children we are (or were) not what you think a child likes now. We all fell in love with the originals (many of us at a very young age) and we didn't need a tidy happy ending or general wackieness then and we don't need it now (ie Jar Jar). The one smart thing Lucas has done lately was remove the inane Ewok song ending of Jedi, but that seems to be more the exception nowadays. We all want our heroes to live "happily ever after" but we don't need to have it slathered on the screen like cake frosting (with sprinkles). Spielberg is a great story teller and can be subtle and effective, he just chose not to be.

Which really sums it up. CHOICES. They just made obviously bad choices. After 19 years, they chose this story, warts and all. And the weakest parts of the film could easily have been avoided by someone just saying "Hmmm, wait a minute, what else could we do instead?". Have you ever seen that person with the really big mole on their face and you ask yourself "why haven't they taken care of that" or "why hasn't someone told you you need to take care of that?".

Where was the discretion, dedication and respect to the original series that we were told kept this thing from happening sooner?

Probably packed away in an anonymous crate somewhere in the Nevada desert.

I loved it. Then again, I wasn't expecting some dark and brooding "reboot" of a franchise like some. I expected a fast paced, fun, action packed and respectful addition to the series. Rock on Steven, and thanks George (for not directing, haha.) and such...

PROS
*Motorcycle chase
*Most of jungle chase
*Ford, Blanchette
*Delightfully rendered environments

CONS
*Useless Peripheral Character Syndrome (TM Lucasfilm)
*MacGuffin requiring clumsy, poorly written exposition (TM Lucasfilm)
*"Swinging with Monkeys"/ Desert Gerbils
*Gonad smacking plants
*Woefully rendered action

Trim some of the crud and it's not a completely awful movie.

Could have done without that Cheeseball closeup on Dr Jones. Sr's photograph. Apparently I wasn't the only one that noticed it's ridiculousness: the theater was in stitches!

I thought, overall, it was a great movie. The story was pretty good and Shia did a lot better than I expected. As has already been pointed out, the whole Shia and monkey scence wasnt really the greatest. That and the whole alien part at the end I didn't really life. But once you get past that it was a really really good movie in my opinion.

I didn't know what to think of this flick. I hated the "Swinging with Monkeys" scene. It felt soooo out of place. Also, surprisingly ILM did an awful job on the CGI. Weird since Transformers and Pirates had better and more CGI.

So I'd say that George Lucas didn't rape the corpse of my childhood, but he gave it a good, rough tongue-kissing.

When Mutt started swinging with the monkeys, I thought to myself, "Self, that right there is your Jar-Jar Binks in the Indiana Jones universe. At least it's only a 30-second Jar-Jar."

Fire George and make number five!

Another thought occurred to me during the spaceship scene...

There will be no aliens in X-Files, but there ARE aliens in Indiana Jones? Am I on earth 2?

I liked it. But, the prairie dogs were really stupid. Mostly for the terrible CGI employed.

The monkey scene was solidly unforgivable.

Just got back from the midnight screening
and I dug it definetly fit in with the rest liked it better than temple of doom and all of that could have been ruined by that final scene
I can imagine george demanding that monkey chase scene be kept

Best of the four. Damn that was good.

Did anyone else notice the similarities between this movie and The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones issues four and five? Even Ray Winstone's flashlight at one point, seemed to be an homage to that storyline.

It was basically Live Free, Die Hard, but with Indiana Jones. Anyone else seeing that?

The first and third movies ruled and had Germans as the bad guys, the second one was kinda iffy, possibly due to lack of Germans, the fourth one threw in completely over-the-top CGI action sequences and an annoying rising star sidekick.

Did I just describe Indiana Jones or Die Hard?

I'm not comparing the two in terms of content, I just see a pattern.

And yeah, CGI. What the hell. Is it really worthwhile to digitally animate groundhogs than to get real ones? I just don't get it.

And the monkeys. Oh, God, the monkeys.

Whoever said that it would've been better if it wasn't an Indiana Jones movie was totally right.

those cgi groundhogs just kept make me think of Caddyshack.

i can't count the amount of times i slapped my head in that movie because of the poor decisions.

the whole movie was a joke to me, i kept saying to myself, "are they really going to go that way?" then it happened and I'd ask myself, "why?" and remember, oh yeah i forgot, George Lucas is terrible.

I can't believe the theater applauded at the credits, what a bunch of sheep.

i really did like it alot.

yeah a million pieces were ridiculously silly,
but yeah, why should people think that a holy ark with
ghost lasers melting faces is alright and aliens arent?

yeah sure it didnt have a perfect feel to it...
- but spielberg has changed alot over the years
this has a very "new spielberg" feel to it [minority report,
war of the worlds(not in a bad way) feel]


Janusz Kaminski is becoming one of my top fave cinematographers


And that car chase scene alone was brilliant
- but thats what was weird, the action scenes bere basically the best
there have ever been, but the "regular" stuff was pretty stale in points


i think shia was one of the best things holding this movie together
(as much as i dont necessarily want to admit it)
-and it was a little strange that they tried to milk his ability to shed
tears on cue a little bit too much...


god ford is old though






.....but, a trailer for BENJAMIN BUTTON was fucking fantastic



overall, probably a 7.5 out of 10

It was entertaining. But they could had cut the ending.

But my neighbour ruined one of the best scenes. Right when Indy enters the village he said out loud: Here come the .... . I was so angry. Because its one of the coolest scenes in that movie :/

I wanted to love this movie, I really did, but after watching it, i just couldn't.
I didn't hate it, but it was rough.
Ford and Labeouf were the only adequate things in the movie.
The rest of the supporting cast seemed almost like throw-ins.
The villain was nothing to fear.
The action was there, but it seemed stale.
The escapes were almost too easy, there was never any real fear for the main characters lives.
The opening action sequence I did enjoy, but after that, the story feels pretty slapped together.
It just seemed lazy, thats it, a lazily put together film.

I saw it last night too. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. It boggles the mind that Spielberg and Lucas could have thought that this was a credible script for an Indiana Jones movie. If you're ten years old you may have loved it, but if you're an Indie fan then prepare yourself for two hours of cinematic soddemy.The plot was so weak and thin it was positively anorexic, and in desperate need of medical attention. It was like quickly flicking through the channels on tv and trying to make a movie from it. Particuarly bad was: survivng an atomic bomb in a fridge, using a snake to climb out of a sand trap (was finding a branch in a jungle too much to ask), swinging with monkeys, sword fight on trucks, gymnastic killer ants, driving off cliff onto tree, aliens at end.... the list goes on. The film looked like a set and the casting was awful. Cate blanchett as the villain was as scary and believable as the story line. Just in case there's any confusion..... I didn't like it, and felt utterly abused and visually raped by this poor effort.

I've been reading the reviews to make a educated judgement call wether i wait for it on DVD because as you know these films often are hiped to the point of diisapointment then they suddenly appear on DVD says alot, What I've read from CNN to the film reviews isn't to promising, but then again when hollywoods best films were foreign last year says alot about writing, why is everthing espeacilly sequels always rehashed scripts? Thats the general idea i get wether they liked it or not, very disappointing and i haven't seen it yet, i hate to make a judgement cvall but i haven't read anything above that rings out fabulous!

Another thing i notice thosed that loved had no more than twenty five words or less to say they liked it? those that didn't like had volumes to say as if the postings from those who loved it were in desperate defense, i going to have to see it and make a call thumbs up or down

Well it's been a few hours since I saw it, and I've had the chance to get a little rest...and I still am not sure how I feel about it.

Shia LaBeouf did a great job, though I almost laughed out loud when he first appeared on screen (I think it was that hat). I thought the action scenes were phenomenal, and they really made the film for me. There were parts that had me on the edge of my seat, and I was totally in that "Fuck Yeah! Indiana Jones is the man!" zone.

But then there were moments when I would feel my face forming into a grimace, and it started with the CGI prairie dogs at the very beginning. Totally unnecessary. The monkey scene was the stupidest thing I think I've ever seen in any legitimate movie. And I don't know if I was hearing things or what, but I thought Cate Blanchett's Russian accent was pretty bad, especially at the beginning of the film. She was almost there, but she sounded very Australian with her pronunciation of "O"s, especially when she said "Dr. J'O'nes."

Crystal Skull isn't going to crack my top 3. If the whole movie would have been as good as it was in parts, it could have been the best of the 4...or at least passed up Temple of Doom.

And one more thing-Am I the only one that thought they were going to reveal that Mutt took his name from the dog after Indy asked him "What kind of name is Mutt?" I was positive that Marion would say that or something.

I thought it was a good popcorn movie. Not much there, but it was fun to watch. Indy was incredibly bad-ass as usual. Only one thing: WHY SO MANY ANTS?! I hate ants. Can't stand 'em. I avoided them thoroughly after the movie as well. Yeesh ants are awful.

I loved it. No, it wasn't a "great" movie like Raiders. But it was a fun ride like Temple and Last Crusade. The chase stuff was great and I didn't mind the monkeys. It was a little cheesy, but it wasn't anywhere near the annoying moments of the Star Wars prequels.

While I didn't like the ending (I'm still confused on exactly what the aliens wanted/were doing) I can overlook it. Again, I don't watch the Indy movies for their plots. I watch for the chase scenes and the characters. This movie had all of that.

Mostly, it was just great seeing Harrison Ford acting again instead of just calling it in. The expression on Indy's face when he sees Marion again is pure magic. It reminds you why we all love the guy.

To add to to my earlier comments. Harrsison and Shia made a sterling effort to try and turn a big steaming pile of dog turd into something watchable. The reason that this film was soooo bad was certainly not their fault, and hopefully they are the only two people whose careers were not affected by this spiteful film. I'm going to take a deep breathe and count backwards from ten, and forget this film ever happened.

The common thread here is "Expectations", what do you expect out of a sequel, certain aspects that were no in the other movies?
Why is there always a chase scene thats predicatable? I feel for fans that went into the theater hoping for entertainment and at one point felt like there dollars wee supporting a 'big pile of steaming dog turd" Its like this I'm a Star trek fan I've seen them enough to vocal the lines from memory and no matter how corny i watch it to the very end..But no matter how bad the reviews the concept of the hero and the action of the film is still great concept, we all yearn for adventure but not if it predictable, then its lame maybe they(lucas) hyped it too much from Burger king to the Florida lottery they marketed the shit out of it and maybe that in itself left a bad taste in everyones mouth before the opening scene even started, thats not the films fault remeber the first film just fel out of the can and was a hit becuase it was unexpected and harrison was anobody maybe in their lies the fault?

I'm from Perú, and in the premiere yesterday many of the viewers felt insulted. Nos because of the movie itself, but because Spielberg has created a new Perú. ¬¬

Nazca in Cuzco???? Villa speaking quechua? WTF?? Couldn't they at least have researched a LITTLE more to get things right?. I know, the Nazca Lines are AMAZING in this movie, and it's probably something worth watching, but it's our country they're messing with. U.U

Talking about the movie, I though it was fun, entertaining, and well directed. The script was kind of weird, and it started kind of slow, but to the end we could see the magic Spielberg has with action scenes. I LOVED the race through the jungle. It was an OK movie, and I didn't actually expect THAT much from it.

Visit PERU! The Nazca lines are far more IMPRESSIVE! And they're not in Cuzco, by the way xD

“Yes! A CGI alien! Lucas, you didn’t let me down! (Though it would have been nice to see more than one, you doofus.) And you Spielberg, with that flying saucer hidden in the ground! What an ending! Sci-fi & archaeology are better than peanut butter & chocolate!”

HYUK HYUK HYUK!

I'll wait for the DVD.

i bet you most of the peeps that marked it as good are fanboys who havent seen it yet

also the holy grail is more plausible because it matches with some religious fortay same with TOD AND ROTLA what was the religion for this movie scientology?

@Justin

You made my day with that comment.

Jelohac hit the nail on the head. If you go into the theater expecting a fantastical children’s movie you'll get exactly what you expect. But, if you're expecting a true to life action adventure, you'll be disappointed.

Tonally, the movie was on par with Nim's Island, which i liked because I was expecting a kids movie. Although I was disappointed that Leonidas didn't scream "THIS IS NIM'S ISLAND!!!"

You really need to understand that any commercial (oops, i mean movie) Lucas makes is purely intended to sell toys and E rated video games.

I hate George Lucas' obsession with shitty CGI. Could someone please explain that to me? The CGI hurt the movie more than anything for me. Well, that and the plot. Everything I feared they'd do they basically did, except for that very last scene but if they get another movie you know it's gonna happen. One of my friends made a good point, Lucas got famous out of luck, if CGI had existed in the 70s and 80s his movies would have actually lived up to his "visions" and therefore blown chunks.

Was disney a consultant on this? No Ripped hearts or gun shot to the gut type stuff. Indy has more powers than Superman, it was a joke. Bring on DK

It could have been trimmed down by about 20 minutes(the scene with Mutt and Indy finding the skull was WAY too long) It dragged whenever there was explaining going on or characters just watched things happen. I loved the nuclear bomb stuff and as other people have pointed out the blacklisted angle should have been explored more. Also it could have just ended with Indy sitting down on the mountain, we didn't need the bonus ending.

It was good fun but needed some tightening.