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This makes me wish CRYSTAL SKULL had more of that focus on Indy and Mutt in the second half of the movie.
But Skulls flaws really don’t bother me that much until the last half hour because most of the film just moves so briskly and is filled with classic Indy gags, and I like Mutt quite a bit more than Helena (who frankly, reminds me more of Mac than I’d like). The main point in Dial’s favor is that it never quite hits the same lows that Skull does, like the Tarzan bit, but its baseline quality is so much less inspired and more stodgy. Even Skull’s score, which got a bit of flack at the time has more memorable unique cues than Dial, which I don’t remember anything of outside of the times it quoted Raiders and Crusade.
Also very glad the new 4k disc of Skull retooled the color grade, most of the movie actually looks surprisingly in line with the original trilogy. It still can’t fix those problematic jungle VFX plates, but it’s a huge improvement overall.
If I could mix the two into one film I would, as each has the elements which the other lacks. DOD could do with the gags and Spielberg wit which KOTCS has (even if it's Spielberg on a low gas mark, it's still Spielberg and you can feel it); whereas what DOD has which KOTCS needs is the story which has actually been worked out, complete with character development and emotional core, together with a sense of danger and peril, and actual genuine overseas locations. Mix them together and I think you've got an Indy movie which would sit alongside the originals.
I think both have good macguffin plots though, and I'm glad they both went with new, differently out there ideas and not just Christian relics again.
Apparently Mutt gets mentioned in the TV news report in the shop window too..?
Yeah I do really like both the alien and time travel angles, I just think they could have been clarified and/or simplified a little. Honestly I wouldn’t have minded if they committed to those aspects even further, like I was kind of hoping Dial would spend more time in the past, seeing Indy have a big action setpiece with a chariot or something could have been a lot of fun.
She's done her PhD on the Antikythera, yet she's just interested in the artefact to make money and pay off her debts by selling it to the highest bidder. She faces Voller and his crew, but it's just that she's double-crossed him, and doesn't even consider that he could have nefarious motivations.
Many things about her are told, not shown. We have to accept that she owes a lot of money, just like we're supposed to accept nearly halfway through the plot that she was engaged to some guy in Tangiers then broke off, which is only used to make the tuktuk chase more complicated, with one more vehicle, but echoes nothing before or after.
And finally, even if she's still only interested in the money, rather than studying the full, reunited Antikythera, she admits that she's memorized all of her father's diaries about it.
It's definitely not Waller-Bridge's fault. If anything, if she had handled the writing for Helena, she would have probably found a way to make her behaviour quirky but consistent, just like she did for Fleabag or Villanelle in Killing Eve.
Yet, the writers didn't screw the main thing, her relationship with Indy, as the father figure that she lacked when her own father became insane, as a few of you have already posted it.
And they also give subtle clues in the final scene that
Now, regarding country hopping, sure it was fast-paced compared to previous entries (well, at the same time, you can't have large unknown areas to explore in Mediterranean Europe), but have you seen Star Wars, Episode IX: The Rise of ADHD? It's basically, "We've been on this planet for ten minutes, you're about to notice that the plot makes very little sense, let's move to a different world instead!"
Yeah, that could work. I wasn't too disappointed in how they did it though, and there was a least a pretty big action setpiece in that climax. It was nicely different to the old ending of Indy and his foes in a solemn temple where the artefact's power reveals itself, and yet also in keeping with the usual Indy ending too.
I'd have certainly liked Skull to have been spookier: an Indy film about aliens where the climax is as powerful as Close Encounters? Should have been possible, but we didn't get that. Do something chilling, like the idea that Spalko angered them, and they'll be coming back someday...
I like to imagine that
It would have been quite fun if Voller had even pondered where the rifts came from, and Indy spat at him: "I gotta good idea: flyin' saucers!" and Voller had just rolled his eyes as if Indy was mocking him, not realising that Indy was being serious!
Yes! That's it!
I didn't expect either to fare as poorly as they did but it's also not as surprising given their bloated budgets. I know reshoots and the like don't help but spending $400 million-plus on a film is just absurd to me in today's climate.
Honestly, I was expecting a blast.
True. Their budgets though.
I do hope so. With more and more films costing $250-400 million-plus and with a lot more hitting the three hour mark, I don't know what they expect.
We’re not in the 1980s anymore. $50m would be too unreasonably dirt cheap for big budget tentpoles. That’s around same budget for SUPERMAN IV when you adjust for inflation.
Really well said.
I’ve always said I don’t care about the length of a film as long as it’s good but yeah I am starting to feel it with blockbusters these days, even when it’s a good one like this. Bond could make themselves stand out in a good way if they buck this trend with the next one.
I'm more than okay with it if doesn't overstay its welcome, but more often than not these days, Indy included, I do. Felt the same way with NTTD, the latest John Wick, nearly all of these lengthier blockbusters of late.