FLIGHT

Whilst the previous installments required a pinch of salt here and there; you'll be needing whole buckets of the stuff to overcome some of the things seen in this film. The first 20 minutes was pretty bad, then the film resurrected itself towards the middle and then dropped off a cliff for the finale.

The film's fun if you disengage your brain entirely and accept this is not the Indie of old, but I'm kinda with mike on this one. Go for the visuals, not the story.

o-o? Please tell me you're joking. Oh well, I'll see it anyways. Opening night was actually yesterday for us 'cause the theater got it earlier. Didn't end up going to see any movies last night because I was so beat after work it wasn't even funny, and I can't see it tonight because it's Anime North weekend so...

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I'm my own breed of eccentric.

I went into it just like I went into Rambo... I just wanted to see the old school character do cool stuff!

And with that in mind I had fun... I definitely had to disengage my critical mind, cause its not a great film, BUT... I had alot of fun.. and the next morning, I woke up with the theme song in my head and the urge to see Indy again.

I have tons of crits and thoughts... but whatever... its Indy, and I was pleased enough... could have been waaaaay better, but its what we got, I can deal with it. I dont think I would rewatch this one though.. I will want to see the old ones again.

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http://www.richardpose.com

I had somehow never seen an Indiana Jones film until Tuesday night when I sat down and watched Raiders. The following night I went to see Kingdom of the Crystal Skull at midnight.

I feel like being less invested in the character allowed me to enjoy this film more. There were certainly some moments that felt odd/out of place, and some that were just a little ridiculous, even for Indiana Jones (the tarzan sequence comes to mind).

Overall, though, I really enjoyed it. I think everyone had their expectation of what the next Indy film would be. With nearly 20 years between The Last Crusade and this one I could see how it could come as a disappointment, but overall I felt this was a film that's not only a great fan-service, but also serves as a reminder for how fun the medium can be if you don't take it too seriously.

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http://blog.jasoncaffoe.com

I just got back from watching it and I gotta say, it was honestly my favorite. I can't really say why except for me it really got into a lot topics I thoroughly enjoy pondering ****SPOILERS SOMEWHAT**** with aliens, Mayans, crystal skulls, the city of gold and the whole nine. They really took a lot of themes and ideas that actually do have a lot of real world connections in actual research and made them work in a way that I thought was intriguing. But ultimately I thought it was just a great time. I actually thought to myself, "I haven't stop smiling in like thirty minutes." It had two moments that I felt were just jarringly weird with ants building a pyramid to attack Cate Blanchet and the whole Mut Tarzan thing. Otherwise I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Good times and just what I needed.

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Really? I thought it was rockin'! The CGI was a little over done, but the script was solid and the subject material totally fit in the Indy verse. If I were asked as to where it stands in the series, I'd rate it better then Temple of Doom... and really, probably Last Crusade as well.

It can definitely sit at the dinner table with the others.

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NOMAD TOFU (updates M/W/F... it's about a goofy nomad who causes disaster everywhere he goes.)

I thought it was so much fun! It was all I ask from Indy - ridiculous but fun action with crazy artifacts. The only thing I really had an issue with was near the end where the CG got to be a little much.

I don't want to speak for anyone here, but it seemed like my friends who had issues with it were remembering Indiana a little too fondly - I think this fits right in with the other movies.

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I keep a sketchblog here

I saw this last night and it was very disappointing.

The story and characters were incredibly weak. Several CG scenes were comically bad and the action scenes were even frustratingly dull at times.

There were some nice scenic shots and camera movement but it was hollow craft, cream cheese frosting on a dog biscuit.

I wanted it to be fun but it wasn't, maybe it would be different if I hadn't seen the first three films but this just seemed like a bad sequel and only served to weaken the originals by association.

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Basically, this film features some very talented, likable, and familiar people working off of a bad and lazily written script. I had my expectations really low, and yet the film managed to sneak in under them with its poorly thought-out plot devices and shallow dialogue. I like the CG, I like all the actors, I like the style of the film, but the film just felt lazy and awkward, mostly due to the poorly written script and story (and sadly because of some of the actors' old age). I imagine that for a lot of moviegoers, it was like watching your friends go up on stage and perform a bad play. Do you just cheer them on and say to yourself that the play was good, or do you stay objective and tell it like it is? Hard film to review.

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So in other words, it seems, you tend to either love it or hate it. I went with four other people. One of us absolutely hated it, and the rest of us thought it was killer.

I think it depends a lot on what you went in for. To me it perfectly illustrated the pop pulp scene of the 50's, which is what Indy has always been about. There was some cheesy and useless CGI, some bad script choices and some other blemishes, but like I said, (to me) this can totally sit at the same table with the others.

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NOMAD TOFU (updates M/W/F... it's about a goofy nomad who causes disaster everywhere he goes.)

No, not really. My group seemed to just be lukewarm about it. We all enjoyed (some of) the spectacle, but we knew it was not a good film (as far as story goes, and story structure and technique is all we talk about here). It kind of just left us all feeling awkward. By the way, none of us are hardcore Indiana Jones fans, so I don't think any of us felt really disappointed.

Oh, and it certainly was neat to see Spielberg create Rockwell-inspired portraits of the 50's again (a la Catch Me If You Can). It's just that none of that helped the story or characters.

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Heh, it was a little Aliens vs Predator, yeah. I dunno, to me it overall worked. It had everything the other Indys had with a science fiction twist circa 50's serials. You shouldn't go into that scene expecting some blazingly awesome work of fiction, because really, 'that scene' is cheesy as heck, but in today's world that's what makes it work... if you're into that sort of thing, I guess.

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NOMAD TOFU (updates M/W/F... it's about a goofy nomad who causes disaster everywhere he goes.)

It was... enjoyable. For the most part. I got a little sleepy through the action, and it all began to blur together. Story wise I thought it was pretty lazy (how do we get away from this danger?! I know! Use the skull!), with a lot of convenient get-aways. I thought the villain was a little non-threatening, and the story as a whole didn't have much meaning to me, so it didn't stick. Overall a commendable effort, but it felt like the filmmakers were kind of going through the motions on this one, relying solely on the name brand to carry it. Definitely don't think I could sit through this one again.

Kazu - You described the film perfectly. I wish I could be so eloquent when describing the movie. all I can come up with is THIS MOVIE IS BALLS!!!

There was so much wrong with this film I felt insulted. Like Lucas and Speilberg were laughing at us. In fact, looking over it a few days after, the film works alot better when you see it as one very expensive joke.

SPOILER!

The whole thing is lost when Indy survives the Atomic blast. We no longer have to worry about him because he can survive anything. Plus he looked so old.

The script. The characters. The CG. The friggining MONKEYS! Gah, it was just not right at all. Nothing made sense and none of the characters acted in the way they would - even for a comic book style adventure movie. I refuse to believe that this is the best they could up with after 10 years.

The idea of setting it like a 50's alien invasion movie is good - but its not right for an Indiana Jones Film.

Man.....such a waste of time.

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I too was disapointed depite already low expectations. It seemed to oscillate between really cool, fun action (sword fighting on cars, the blowdart scene) and retarted garbage that just made me angry (what was with those freaking animated gophers and monkeys!?).

Interestingly, two things that I thought would not work well at all -- Shia LaBoeuf and aliens -- ended up being two of my favorite aspects of the film.

Overall, I give it a "C".

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-Michael
http://www.planet-michael.com/