Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

[Pan]

Not seen any opinions on this yet, so thought I'd roll the film....

and if you don't wish a spoiler, LOOK AWAY NOW!!

'fraid I have to pan it, very sadly. So poor coming from Spielberg/Lucas. Ultimately I thought it was charmless, which is some feat with such a rich history of charm to build upon!
V. little humour outside of the cringeworthy, no sexual frisson, dialogue rubbish, special effects too obvious, Ford came across as a very curmudgeonly and weary man who just didn't want ot be there, plot was unecessarily complicated, supporting parts were unattractive ( WTF was the point of the constant turncoat buddy?? - he changed every 30 mins!), and the baddies just weren't baddy enough!! Utter waste of John Hurt stubbling round like he was stoned, and Blanchette just looked like Blanchette with an odd accent...

Pacing was rubbish - nothing happens of any entertainment value until about an hour in, and the chase through the jungle was jolly, though we did notice a massive continuity error re Marion going missing and then turns up unscathed driving a truck which wasn't previously in the scene at all - v. sloppy editing from Spielburg .

Other than all of that..it was great!!

anyone else??

I took ds(10) to see it, we both enjoyed it. I think they've left it open for him to make another one before handing the hat over to Mutt. (possibly)

My DCs loved it predictably. I thought it was quite sweet that 60-something Harrison got it on with his squodgy-middled 50-something old flame rather than some new young popsy but then I thought that Steven Spielburg knew exactly how to win over the middle class aging mummy crowd and felt a trifle manipulated...

I actually quite liked it! was good escapism rainy bank holiday fun

i can take a 6 year old to see this can't i?

it's 12A so yes

There's a few scary bits...well I found them scary.

my 5 y/o was fine.

It was OK, escapist sillyness but agree with you Pan on lots of your points.

Blanchette's accent was a weird combo of Somerset lass pretending to be Russian.

Poor old Harrison did look rather weary (in a "I'm really only doing this for the money, tbh I'd rather be sitting on a sun lounger doing a sudoku with Callista" way).

And the ending, oh my life, was anyone else wondering when Scully and Mulder were going to appear?

Rubbish skull as well.

That horrendous wig did odd things to Blanchette's bone structure as well. I didn't mind Harrison being so tired; it seemed realistic if a little sad.

ah yes but ufos were really big at that time in america - 50's

We saw a "real" crystal skull in British Museum afterwards (to great DC educational excitement, oh yes) and it looked completely rubbish too, Slubber...

hana, I don't care if the flying saucer was historically apt. It was bollocks and naff.

VS, but was your British Museum skull authenitcally crap (ie muddy and mishapen)? I hope it didn't look "I made this in 3rd year CDT using resin that made my head go a bit squiffy" (like what Mr Speilberg's did).

Oh gosh, I'm so up-my-own-arse. I saw 'VS' in last 15 minutes and wondered why I was being addressed on a thread I wasn't on

Message withdrawn

Slubber, the one in the British Museum looked like they made it last year with a laser, no mud, nothing! Apparently, ahem, microscopic analysis has suggested it was made by European craftspeople in the late 19th century rather than by authentic Mayans in the 1400s. It would not have looked out of place in a Dugeons and Dragons type shop retailing at £99.99...

to each his own and all of that then victoriansqualor

Gosh VerdseS (better VSqualor?). That sounds amazing. I love a bit of artefact admiring (not hunting though, far far too many spiders webs). And there's me thinking that ancient European craft peoples only made crappy leather plaited rope things, and maybe arrow heads and pots with a celtic design on the side.

One thing to save it was the background of McCarthyism. The US is pretty good at doing films about less seemly parts of their history, both home and foreign. So we have lots of films of substance re Vietnam, we have the Watergate film "All the president's men", we have Spike Lee's catalogue re inner city race issues and of course Missisippi Burning. Even There Will Be Blood was in this vein.
Brits are far less inclined to point the finger at themselves in film. No decent imperialist past film, no Falklands War film, an occassional foray into N. Ireland.

oh we loved it, what a romp and a nice romantic ending.

that shia bloke is one to watch too.

I thought the film was great till the last 20 mins it was like Lucus got hold of the film and shouted cgi and spaceships and then it went tits up

Pan - I don't know, imperial film can't beat Zulu with Caine.

Falklands - The Beeb did a great film an ungentlemanly act.

I've never seen an IJ film before, so had no expectations at all. I really enjoyed it actually and was v surprised that I did. The UFO bit was stupid and if you think of it in terms of plot then yes, of course it was rubbish but I really liked the action scenes and it made me laugh a lot too. I liked the 1950s touches, eg: the coffee bar and I really liked the son and his comb.

An Ungentlemanly Act - not see nthis but reading reviews it appears to be concerning itself wit hthe defence of the Govenor's house in the early hours of the Argentinian landings.
This isn't the stuff I'd meant, rather 'what the hell were we thinknig of in the first place?' - not island 'heroism'.

DSs (12 and 10) were very disappointed.
They are BIG IJ fans, and thought the storyline in this one was poor.
They said it was slow.

i thoght same re ending love shia le bouef and the comb i thoght harrison was fab loved the fact harriosn refuse to dye his hair and loved the romantic chemistry with the woman

but agree the ending was shite and blanchett's accent was shite

loved ray winstone

loved the fencing

hated the aliens