Indiana Jones and the Last Lost Crystal Thread of Doom

The White Tuxedo wrote:

I'd say OCTOPUSSY may be the closest.

Though LALD has a "quick and dirty" feel.

Raiders' influence on OP is pretty clear - especially during the 'tiger hunt'.

Maybe another would push John Williams to make an interesting, fresh score.


...

Spielberg now appears to be blaming Lucas for the horror that was INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL. He's also threatening a fifth film in the series:

http://www.nme.com/filmandtv/news/steven-spielberg-i-had-furious-rows-with-george-lucas/250797

Apparently it was also Lucas who got ILM to replace "truck over cliff" matte shot in RAIDERS with a CGI one in 2003, without Spielberg's knowledge.

Didn't know that. So, Steven, exactly why would you be interested in "directing" yet another of these shitty movies, especially as you seem to be freely admitting that you're only Lucas' bitch on these projects?

You can't possibly need the money, and you surely must have your pick of projects to choose from - you can direct anything you please. Like, anything at all. If Lucas and Ford are so much fun to hang around with, why not just go on holiday with them or something and spare moviegoers more agony?

Loomis wrote:

Spielberg now appears to be blaming Lucas for the horror that was INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL. He's also threatening a fifth film in the series:

http://www.nme.com/filmandtv/news/steven-spielberg-i-had-furious-rows-with-george-lucas/250797

The quote is out of context. The full interview has Spielberg taking a lot of credit for the film, saying he likes it, and that he's to blame for the "nuke the fridge" moment. Here's more of the interview:


I'm very happy with the movie. I always have been... I sympathise with people who didn't like the MacGuffin because I never liked the MacGuffin. George and I had big arguments about the MacGuffin. I didn't want these things to be either aliens or inter-dimensional beings. But I am loyal to my best friend. When he writes a story he believes in - even if I don't believe in it - I'm going to shoot the movie the way George envisaged it. I'll add my own touches, I'll bring my own cast in, I'll shoot the way I want to shoot it, but I will always defer to George as the storyteller of the Indy series. I will never fight him on that.

[ . . . ]

The gopher was good. I have the stand-in one at home. What people really jumped at was Indy climbing into a refrigerator and getting blown into the sky by an atom-bomb blast. Blame me. Don't blame George. That was my silly idea. People stopped saying "jump the shark". They now say, "nuked the fridge". I'm proud of that. I'm glad I was able to bring that into popular culture.

Honestly, I don't get the whole hoopla over the use of aliens.

Weirdly I didn't mind the fridge moment. I even liked the image of Indy against the mushroom cloud. A man of the past confronted with the instrument of armageddon.

ALiens...well, that's for another time.

Raiders is still the best

Temple of Doom sucks and it single handendly created the PG13 rating

Last Crusade was okay until I felt it lost steam after the desert tank chase sequence; the ending felt rushed

Crystal Skull was crap! We waited 19 years for that?

Damn you Lucas and Spielberg!

You couldn't come up with a better script (minus Aliens and minus the Mutt) in 19 years?

Furthermore, the idea of letting Mutt carrying on the Franchise after Indy retires is pure crap!

We seen it before and it was called The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles on TV !!

We don't want to pay money to see in it on the big screen!!

TEMPLE OF DOOM is a solid follow up (or follow up to?). It's different enough from RAIDERS but still captures the pulp spirit. CRUSADE was played too straight... combined with turning the supporting players into idiots.

The whole first part of TEMPLE is gangbusters. I don't care for the UNICEF feel, but I can role with it.

RAIDERS is my least favourite of the original three, but I still dig it.

The White Tuxedo wrote:

TEMPLE OF DOOM is a solid follow up (or follow up to?). It's different enough from RAIDERS but still captures the pulp spirit. CRUSADE was played too straight... combined with turning the supporting players into idiots.

The whole first part of TEMPLE is gangbusters. I don't care for the UNICEF feel, but I can role with it.

Sharky wrote:

RAIDERS is my least favourite of the original three, but I still dig it.

*INCEPTION meme*

Makeshift Python wrote:

Honestly, I don't get the whole hoopla over the use of aliens.

Too sci-fi IMO. The other three were more in the fantasy category and centred around religion.

CJB wrote:

Makeshift Python wrote:

Honestly, I don't get the whole hoopla over the use of aliens.

Too sci-fi IMO. The other three were more in the fantasy category and centred around religion.

They could combine them with Tom Cruise.

I regard RAIDERS as the best yet find TEMPLE OF DOOM the most entertaining. Maybe it's nostalgia since it's the only Indy flick I grew up with as a kid, I dunno, I just get a kick watching it. I love the batshit insane feel of it, anything goes. CRUSADE and SKULL definitely suffer from the lack of that pulp serial feel the first two had and can get boring in parts but overall I still enjoy them. Plus I dug Janusz Kaminski's work in it, usually I don't care for anything he did.

Kaminski did some beautiful work on A.I and MINORITY REPORT, I think.

I like how A.I. looks, but I don't care for the look of MINORITY REPORT at all. Or KINGDOM.

Harmsway wrote:

I like how A.I. looks, but I don't care for the look of MINORITY REPORT at all.

I find the over-exposed mall scene incredibly beautiful.

I've read reviews that say The Adventures Of Tintin contains action sequences that are the equal of anything that Spielberg pulled off in the first 3 Indys.

I hope to see it at the weekend, so we'll see.

I like Kaminski (War Horse looks marvelous), but he just didn't pull off Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, unfortunately. With Slocombe, you know precisely what he was going for in the original films within two or three shots. I can understand that KOTCS shouldn't necessarily look like those films, but whatever it's going for... it isn't there.

I think Saving Private Ryan is easily his most iconic work, but some of the stuff in AI is incredible. I think the look of Minority Report works in fits and starts, though.

j7wild wrote:

Temple of Doom sucks and it single handendly created the PG13 rating

Not exactly, Gremlins played it's part too.


The way I look at the inclusion of aliens in Crystal Skull is thus :

Star Wars - Lucas' tribute to Science Fiction serials of the 30's.
Radiers, Templer Of Doom and Last Crusade - Lucas' tribute to adventure serials of the 30's.
Crystal Skull - Lucas' tribute to Science Fiction B-movies of the 50's.

I think that's fair.

http://www.latinoreview.com/news/lucas-needs-indy-s-macguffin-15609

I told him about the story, but I really haven't found the MacGuffin yet. I mean, I know what it's about, but I just have to find a MacGuffin that fits into the arena we're working in.

Can we PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE retire the word "MacGuffin"???? I'm so sick of hearing George Lucas use that outdated, ridiculous, worn-out phrase. It's called a "plot" and even though 'Crystal Skull' had one, the movie was insipid and redundant. No amount of interesting "MacGuffins" can replace poor story-telling, staid performances, and lackluster direction.

It also sounds like "MacMuffins", which I immediately associate with another manufacturer of cheap, disposable goods: McDonalds.

Gravity's Silhouette wrote:

http://www.latinoreview.com/news/lucas-needs-indy-s-macguffin-15609

I told him about the story, but I really haven't found the MacGuffin yet. I mean, I know what it's about, but I just have to find a MacGuffin that fits into the arena we're working in.

No you don't. You really don't. Trust me. All you need to do is walk away and let the Indiana Jones franchise die with what few small shreds of dignity still cling to it.

I like MacGuffins.