Indiana Jones IV vs. Die Another Day (Bad vs. Bad)

edited January 2012 in General Movies & TV Posts: 5,745
Both the films had 50+ actors attempting to keep a franchise made popular by muscular young men alive, and both sucked. Which do you prefer? I'm going to run through some of the similarities first -

1. Age.

Brosnan and Ford had both aged rather drastically since their last respective outings. They simply didn't appear to be able to do most of what the older films required them to do.

2. References.

This ruined both of the films. In Die Another Day, there are dozens of references to the 19 films before it, and it gets to a point where its sickening. In IJ IV, there are 20, if not more, direct, shot for shot or quote for quote references to the three previous films in the series, and its horrendous.

3. Acting.

Brosnan has never been the strongest actor of the Bond group, but Die Another Day was actually suprising. Harrison Ford, as well, is a rather good actor in most of his work, as in IJ IV. Yet, in both films, many of the lines have either poor or awkward delivery and it only further makes you grimace.

4. Characters.

Both films suffer from pointless characters, as well as stupid traitor plots. In Die Another Day, we have Amanda Frost (I think was her name) who, really not surprisingly, is a traitor to Bond's villain towards the end of the film. Really, its undramatic and isn't done very well. In IJ IV, we have Indy's 'right hand man' who is one of the only original features of the film, who is apparently confused as to whether he's helping the US or Russia, and switches annoyingly and rather pointlessly multiple times in the film.

As far as pointless characters, in Die Another Day we have Jinx. For someone who is supposedly 'Bond's US counterpart' she gets herself into alot of trouble and doesn't seem very professional.. at all. She does nothing really to help Bond, or the film for that matter. In IJ IV, the character Mutt, later to be
Jones' son
has no plot whatsoever besides to get Indiana to embark on this new adventure. Other than that, all his other scenes just add a little, pointless substance to the film.

5. Distrust.

In both films, are supposed 'hero' isn't trusted by those he's supposedly supporting. In Die Another Day, Bond is removed from operations after being traded out of Korea. He then has to essentially do most of the work himself. In IJ IV, Indiana is under a 'watchful eye' by his very own FBI, after being a hero to the US for decades. Its really just a stupid gimmick thrown in to add 'drama' that doesn't work very well.

6. CGI.

In both films, its poorly used and only hinders the films. In Die Another Day, we have the glacier surfing scene. In IJ IV, the nuclear blast is relatively impressive, but still not done by the likes of ILM, who are true masters at CGI art.

Green screens were also used very poorly in both films. In IJ IV, most of the sword fight is done in front of a green plate. In DAD, the horrendous surfing shot is also green-screened-in.

7. NO REALISM.

In either plot. Nuff said.



I think it came down to saying "maybe we SHOULDN'T do this in the film".

My choice over the two, of course, would have to be Die Another Day.
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Comments

  • Agent007391Agent007391 Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start
    Posts: 7,854
    What kind of sick, twisted SOB pits these two guano heaps against one another? I don't know which one's actually worse!
  • talos7talos7 New Orleans
    edited January 2012 Posts: 8,217
    I have to go with DAD. I was profoundly disappointed with the last Indie; it nuked the Fridge!!
  • Indy easily wins for me. Because atleast I enjoyed it up until Shia LaBaouf shows up and kills every scene he's in. But the mere fact Harrison Ford is playing Indiana Jones in the film is enough reason for me to watch it. Indy 4 to me was disappointing but mostly watchable. I tried watching DAD a few weeks ago for the first time in years and simply couldn't. It's just that bad. Not a single positive thing about it. CS atleast has Harrison Ford and a John Williams score.
  • Posts: 645
    Sure Indiana Jones IV had some shotty parts, but wasn't that bad.
    There is another Indy movie coming out as well.

    Also DAD isn't horrible except for the whole electric suit deal......

    If I had to choose, I'd say Die Another Day failed.
  • Plus Crystal Skull benefited from a really cool opening at Area 51 and a pretty damn good motercycle chase. Both were light on CGI on solid on excitment. Ironically the only scene I like with Shia LaBeouf is when he's not saying anything.

    Who do you guys think is more annoying? Jinx or Mutt?
  • talos7talos7 New Orleans
    Posts: 8,217
    Mutt! One can hit the mute button and enjoy Jinx ;)
  • Who do you guys think is more annoying? Jinx or Mutt?

    Actually, I quite enjoyed Mutt and thought that La Beouf was good in the film. I was pleasantly surprised that his character was shown to be intelligent and resourceful - I thought he would be comic relief and helpless but he was smart enough to figure things out on his own and Indy was clearly impressed with him (it helped that Ford and LaBeouf had good chemistry together).

    I also thought that Ford, while older, was still credible in the action scenes and he finally displayed some of the spark that he hasn't shown on film for years. I saw the film a few months back and enjoyed it until Marion and John Hurt's character showed up - after that the film slowed down and got more silly. But I enjoyed it a lot more than when I saw it during first release.

    As for comparing DAD with Indy IV I just find them to be too different to make a direct comparison. Both have really good things and...not so good things and both are pleasant diversions in their own way.

  • talos7 wrote:
    Mutt! One can hit the mute button and enjoy Jinx ;)

    Touche.
  • Posts: 1,856
    I'm Surprised no-ones picked up on Maranda/Amanda Frost yet
  • DarthDimiDarthDimi Behind you!Moderator
    edited January 2012 Posts: 24,187
    Virage wrote:
    I'm Surprised no-ones picked up on Maranda/Amanda Frost yet

    Oh I picked her up a long time all right... ;-)

    Anyway, this thread serves no purpose IMO. DAD and Indy IV both work from completely different franchises with different intentions, different people behind it and, most importantly, different sources in the sense that there's no source material for the Indy character at all, which is important in the justification of Ford's presence.

    There's no comparison.
  • Posts: 11,189
    Indy 4 easily. IMO CS gets far too much flack from fans. True it's got it's weaknesses but at least it has the spirit of a saturday matanee flick.
  • Posts: 7,653
    I like both, dislike QoS still a lot more.
  • Posts: 1,548
    I dont understand all this hate for Indy IV. I admit it wasn't as good as the original trilogy but far from the disaster that is claimed. Ford looked in great shape and there were touching references to Henry Jones Senior. Shame big Sean couldn't come out of retirement. Maybe the ending was a little OTT but I really enjoyed. Personally preferred it to DAD. And Spielberg really should have directed a Bond film which is highly unlikely now I know. Bring on Indy V! Would love to see Mr Ford appear in a Bond film, however unlikely that is. Ford and Craig worked well together in Cowboys and Aliens.
  • I loved DAD up until iceland. Then I hated it. But really most of DAD is a pretty good film, if iceland and the finale scenes were re-written it would've been great.

    But I don't see whats so bad about indy 4. Yes they should've left the trology alone, yes they shouldn't have given him a son, but its really not all that bad. I think people just wanted an excuse to hate the film, some people even moaned about indy fighting russians when he always fought the nazis, ignoring the fact that the nazis weren't in temple of doom. This probably shouldn't have been made but it turned out pretty good.

    I pick indy IV, but its not really fair to compare them anyway.
  • Agent007391Agent007391 Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start
    Posts: 7,854
    I guess if I'm to pick a film I think is better, Indy IV. DAD is just full of stupid crap.
  • Posts: 11,189
    I know I'm one of the few but I believe Indy Iv is better than ToD. At least CS doesn't have a heroine that screams ala Stacey Sutton every 5 minutes.
  • Agent007391Agent007391 Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start
    Posts: 7,854
    The other three films are better than Temple of Doom. It doesn't matter how low you rank them, they're all higher up than Temple of Doom (especially The Last Crusade).
  • Posts: 4,762
    Indiana Jones IV for me. I saw it in theaters with a friend of mine when it came out, and I've always thought it was a good movie. The entire movie was awesome and epic until the point where the aliens appear in that circular council room, which is probably a reference to the Jedi council room in Star Wars 1-3. After that, the movie sufferes from terrible fantasy and science fiction which has no business being in an Indiana Jones movie. As for Ford's age, I think that is irrelevant. The fight with the colonel surrounded by those killer ants proves that he was still fit for the role.
  • edited January 2012 Posts: 1,310
    Indy IV takes the cake...actually by quite a bit!

    For some reason, I do not think that Crystal Skull was that bad. Yes, yes, it was not nearly as good as the original trilogy, but it wasn't painful to watch. Indy IV has its moments.

    Die Another Day has its moments too, but that film's second half is just horrible.

    Indy IV: 7/10
    Die Another Day: 5/10
  • ShardlakeShardlake Leeds, West Yorkshire, England
    edited January 2012 Posts: 4,043
    They both are dire but I think KOTCS must take the award for the direst. I think I might be able to watch DAD again and thankfully it was the end of the road for sometime for this kind of thing.

    Indy 4 I've seen once and once is enough, Spielberg should be ashamed putting his name to this, I've heard his excuses in interviews recently but frankly their is no justification for this dreck. I don't care that he was following GL vision he really should no better.

    I know some have argued that Last Crusade is as bad but I'm sorry it's like watching 2 different film series in comparison, Temple is good fun but Raiders is a solid gold masterpiece, I'm happy to except that it all ended when they all rode off into the sunset at the end of Crusade.

  • Samuel001Samuel001 Moderator
    edited January 2012 Posts: 13,355
    Die Another Day is the weaker of the two in my opinion by quite a way too, I must add!
  • Posts: 2,341
    I never saw the point of a 60+ Harrison Ford playing Indy again and wearing the same get up he had worn in the earlier films. That hat, the leather jacket, whip worked well in the first films when he (and Jones) were in their late thirties/early forties. Assuming that Indy was born around 1895 then he was well into his fifties by the 1950's.
    Messers Spielberg and Lucas would have been better served to reboot the series with a younger action hero.
    Who knows maybe they will...
  • Agent007391Agent007391 Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start
    Posts: 7,854
    I hope not. The franchise will lose a great deal of it's charm without Ford. Plus, if the franchise is rebooted, it'll probably take place in modern day (as almost all reboots seem to do), and will lose everything that made Raiders and Crusade funny (the stupid Nazis).
  • DAD = worst film in the history of cinema.

    I'm dreading the day they decide to remake Back to the Future. You know it's gonna happen at some point, it's inevitable with the way things are these days.
  • 0BradyM0Bondfanatic70BradyM0Bondfanatic7 Quantum Floral Arrangements: "We Have Petals Everywhere"
    Posts: 28,694
    I don't know what's saddest. The fact that I can't choose which is worse, or the fact that I am actually thinking about it. :|
  • In terms of actual quality DAD is way worse IMO, but in terms of talent associated with the film and the build up to the film I feel like KotCS disappointed more. Each film had its HUGE flaws, but I can't really call out people for the acting. When you're forced to deliver the lines that were written for them, coupled with the ridiculousness of the plot in each film and lack of any kind of danger or seriousness made it nearly impossible in my mind for someone to pull off a good performance in these movies.
  • DarthDimiDarthDimi Behind you!Moderator
    Posts: 24,187
    DAD = worst film in the history of cinema.

    No, now you're just exaggerating. This DAD thing is getting out of hand. If you think it's the worst Bond film, fine. But the worst film in cinema history? That's just ridiculous. In many ways, DAD is still competently made, partially well acted and so on.
  • edited January 2012 Posts: 11,189
    DarthDimi wrote:
    DAD = worst film in the history of cinema.

    No, now you're just exaggerating. This DAD thing is getting out of hand. If you think it's the worst Bond film, fine. But the worst film in cinema history? That's just ridiculous. In many ways, DAD is still competently made, partially well acted and so on.

    I actually enjoyed DAD (at the time).

    Is it REALLY as hilariously bad as this:



    (Has flashes of the Bond/Jinx exchange)

    Perhaps it is
  • Agent007391Agent007391 Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start
    Posts: 7,854
    I'm not cruel enough to call any Bond movie as bad as Batman & Robin. DAD is supremely better than B&R.
  • edited January 2012 Posts: 503
    I much prefer Die Another Day... as bad as it is, it's still a Bond film, and I enjoy it as part of the franchise. IJ4 on the other hand, came about 20 years after the last film in the series and can be seen as more of a pathetic attempt at a remake or cashing in or something. It really, really sucked, which even LaBeouf admitted to. Lucas and Spielberg should be entirely ashamed of themselves, and I think they are.
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