Indy 4

Dark Lord · Indy 4

Just saw it. I'll give a review and try to avoid major spoilers. But if you want to be spoiler free don't read below the stars.

If you haven't seen it, wait until it's on DVD. I went in with no expectations...I mean I think I was being pretty realistic. I was expecting something on par with Temple of Doom...which is my last fav of the series (or was) but still I think under rated.

This movie was decent. It kept me entertained...
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BUT...there were some essential Indiana Jones elements missing:
1. Tomb raiding and puzzle solving. Very very little tomb exploration in this movie, and next to no clever booby traps! There's a couple, and there's some tomb exploring but not at the amount you would expect in an Indy film.

2. Sex...or sexiness. This film was as chaste as chaste could be, even more so than Raiders. The female villain had potential to be sexy in a dominatrix sort of way but instead they put her in a gray jump suit and did nothing.

3. A clearly defined threat from the colorful villains. In all other Indy films the villains are seeking the ancient doodad so they can conquer the Earth and be big evil types. In this film the Commies would seem to be doing that, except nobody seems to know exactly what the skulls are and what they do, so it's hard to believe that the Russians would be as bold about tromping on our soil to get it. Not to mention that in the interest of sensitivity the Russians (all but kate blanchett) were fairly low key and realistic, rather than cartoonish stereotypes as the Indy Nazis were.

The movie is very convoluted IMO.

And there were some things that were Indy flavored that they just did too much:
1. Chase scenes. Way too many! I know Indy movies are usually one big race or chase but we don't need the mine car chase reenacted four times in a row...by the time Mudd is swinging Tarzan style through the trees and Marion is purposely jumping boat-cars into a tree to catapult herself you start to lose your suspension of disbelief...and in an Indiana Jones film that is saying alot because I expect some crazy unrealistic stuff!

2. Fist fights. I mean how many times have we heard the story about Harrison pulling his pistol to shoot the guy in Raiders instead of doing the long drawn out fight? It's film legend...so why on earth do we have to watch the fight that never should have been 3 or 4 times in this film?
Indy should engage in lots of fisticuffs but at some point it's just ridicukous...how many 6'5" 275 lbs world boxing champions can Indy knock out in one film?

3. Side switchers and double agents. Apparently in this film the side a character is on depends on how easily they want Indy's escape to be. Seriously, one guy flip flops so much that by the end of the film I really don't know who he was working for.

They also were fairly sloppy with plot holes...or maybe I was growing bored with the "two vehicles side by side while passengers have a fist fight" chase scenes. The crystal skulls are super magnetic when it's convenient or dramatic but not when it's inconvenient.
There are people guarding the ancient city that nobody knows the location of...even living in the pods in the walls without any explanation as to why or how.

The good stuff: There's still lots of fun Indiana Jones moments and the chase scenes are pretty cool for awhile. There's also some really creepy scenes with some "undead" and the usual.
All in all I'd give it 1.5 stars. I rank it just under Temple of Doom. Not great, not good but not horrible either.

Personally I would like to see some other producers take over the franchise with Shia LaBeouf as the lead...although as Indiana Jones and not his character from this film.

Redfang

Woohoo, for once I've seen a film before DL has! I saw it last Saturday.

I kind of liked it. There were some brilliant scenes, when considering them separately, but the film wasn't really a complete thing. Still, I think I liked it a bit more than ToD. Or perhaps I've just seen ToD too often already.

SPOILERS

That bike chase (and the situation in the bar leading to it) was just fantastic. And so was, for instance, the sandpit. I wanna see those scenes again!

bouncergriim

I thought fors sure the indy 4 would be more exciting the the indy 500, really puts pressure on those drivers to perform rather than just try to avoid crashing for hours.

skatingtortoise

i liked john hurt in this.

compared to others, i place it below temple of doom only cos i quite like temple of doom.

if youre in doubt, i say go see it. its entertainingat the very least, and i can think of worse wys to spend 2 hours.

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have to agree with DL on the bad guys - Indy just never seems to be in much danger, and much much too competent to boot. where was the tension of the grail room, the island in raiders, or even the temple sacrifice scene?

Dark Lord

fen

I just thought the whole hook behind the Skulls was rubbish and really not very in cannon for the rest of the movies. But I guess it was to be expected considering Lucas and Spielberg's track record.

Redfang

If we're SPOILERing anyway, I'd guess the whip was in the sand already. Just the idea of somebody throwing your worst fear at you while you're stuck and can't move; that was great. The lecturing that it was not actually quicksand was kinda funny too.

Dark Lord

That was pretty funny because that's totally something a professor would do. Life or death moment? Still time to educate!

The whole thing about people not liking the alien aspect to it doesn't bother me. I mean the other movies all had the popular myths about the relics be completely true. (although ToD had more room to maneuver than the others) so why not have the alien theory about the skulls be true?

Personally I would have rather seen Indiana Jones and the Spear of Destiny. Could have fought the commies all over Europe and then to wherever the final resting place was.

And I would have rather seen more cartoonish communists, like I said.

Nyarlathotep

...And no one comments on Nuking the 'Fridge?

Dark Lord

Yeah that was just...yeah.

fen

Dark Lord

I could believe the lead lined fridge okay (although I don't know how many advertised that. lol) what bothered me was Indy surviving the mile long toss and subsequent landing completely unscathed. Not only unscathed but not even knocked out!!

That's completely separate from the fact that for some reason that was the only bit of debris to come flying out from the houses. What about the cars, other fridges, stoves, grills, bicycles, etc?!

The whole scene seemed more like a Warner Bros. cartoon than a pulp adventure to me.

Stout Youngblood

Dark Lord

Heh heh heh, both of which seem more believable than the foolishness in here. Even mythbusters showed there was a chance (however small) that the raft thing could work...plus they did land in several feet of snow.

And the mine car thing vs. the jungle chase is a perfect example of what I mean. In the mine car chase the miraculous stuff happened by accident, by chance and by luck. Indy hit the switch sending them down the wrong track to lose the guys following them, but the jump over the edge was a complete accident and they only landed by sheer luck.

In Indy 4 Marion purposely jumped the car-boat into the tree to drop them into the water and to snap the tree back into the russians. Which by the way, it showed them all fall but the woman...and somehow at the bottom she had a whole new force of men again.

It's one thing when the roller coaster PULLS the riders through crazy town...it's another when the riders steer it that way.

As ridiculous as ToD got, it was still considered almost suicidal when Indy cut the rope bridge. And he did it only when it was a last resort.
he didn't wink at Short Round and say, "Trust me!" as he did something ridiculous instead of just running away. There was other directions they could have driven other than off the cliff.

Ultimately IMO the problem isn't any one scene...for me the problem was that my threshold for suspending my disbelief was maxed out with the fridge scene...it makes it hard to swallow your dinner when the appetizer is a 16oz steak.

fen

My main problem is that it was Pulp Science Fiction, not Pulp Fantasy adventure like the previous three. I didn't pay to watch Star Close Encounters of the Wars Kind with Indiana Jones... (Actually I didn't pay at all, but that's another story.

). If Lucas and Spielberg had wanted to make a Pulp Sci-fi 1950s flick they should have created a new franchise instead of botching a previous one.

Heck, I'd go see a Pulp Sci-Fi Adventure if Lucas and Spielberg were behind it automatically. It would be amazing fun to see them "do" the classic saucermen from mars in a pulp style.

Of the two summer movies so far Iron Man was miles better as it stuck to it's genre and didn't attempt to be something more than it is. Indy had moments that were classic, brilliant and fun then moments which were just awful.

Just to sum it up, my favourite quote about the movie from a pair of poster over at the Eastern Fringe.

Dark Lord

I hate comments about "raped my childhood" or whatever. That sort of hyperbole doesn't really belong in a critical review of works of art, even low art like summer blockbusters. If your childhood was so shallow that it was defined by a trilogy of movies then I feel bad for you.

This movie was in no way so awful that it should be avoided at all costs. I could name 100 movies worse than this one, movies that I have paid to see and even own on DVD.

Sometimes people can be just plain ridiculous.

It wasn't great, and it was probably the worst of the Indy series but it wasn't the worst film ever...it's not even the worst film in theaters right now!

If I was forced to see Indy 4 again, or Zohan I would go to Indy 4.