Saturday Morning 10 am showing.

Isn't Harrison Ford like 80 or something? (I'm sure the stunts are gonna be a bit "off")

CCotD'

He's 65... At 80, a good stunt is a decent bowl movement.

Saw the movie yesterday, and I actually really enjoyed it. The start of the film looked funky with the lighting etc. but I thought it was intentional to give the film the vintage look. Didn't really bother me.

They intentionally made Indy seem a lot older, and realistically speaking, I'm sure they stunts would be beyond him... but who cares about realism in an adventure movie like this? Not me. If I did, I'm have a lot more issues with the film.

Not a huge fan of Shia, but he's popular so we'll be seeing a lot more of him. For me, the worst cast roll was Cate Blanchett as Irina Spalko. She didn't fit from the start, and it got worse as the movie went on.

I really enjoyed the dueling across the cars... so much better than the POTC waterwheel fight scene.

Arabin

I guess some of my issue with it is that Indy is usually solving ancient mysteries buried for ages and avoiding ancient traps by the skin of his teeth with fight scenes and chases in between. We usually start with him recovering some artifact showing that he's going on other minor adventures that we don't get to see.
In this one it starts with him in his gear, so we know that he was doing something, but we don't get a small hint at what it was. (minor let down) We get him following a mad man's trail of breadcrumbs instead of him forging ahead on his own intelligence. (let down) Ancient traps have been modernized and we have him avoiding an atomic bomb instead of some pressure plate trap. (bad move, IMO) The movie took a Sci-Fi slant. (big mistake, IMO) So I fully embrace that we're in the 50s with the Reds, but it seemed like it was trying to modernize too many things or break things that worked. Oh, sure the fight and chase scenes were there and provided action, but I think that's one of the easier things to do in a film.

I caught this on Monday and sort of left the theater unimpressed; I liked it, but it was lacking something. Now that I have had time to give it some thought, it just did not seem epic enough. The sets and settings were nice and all, but were not as vast as 1 & 3, and it even seemed to fall short of 2.

Just got back from a late showing (after putting the boy to bed ). I didn't know what to expect given the wide range of views. I am a HUGE Indy fan and I really wanted this to be good.

I came away with some kind of vague emptiness after watching the film. I couldn't quite put my finger on what was wrong. I liked it in a general kind of way but then I was hit by the absurdity of some of the stunt gags. The previous films succeeded because the stunts, although pulp fun, were almost believable. I mean a perfect example of that is the Myth Busters show dedicated to testing the plausibility of the inflatable boat scene from Temple of Doom. The stunt scenarios in Crystal Skull did not do a good job of suspending my disbelief (I wont post spoilers for those that haven't seen it). Some did work though and you got little rushes of previous movies but some just made you cringe.

One of my biggest criticisms beyond the stunts was something a little less apparent on screen. I think some of the emptiness I felt was a direct result of the "Lucasville greenscreen zone". There was a texture missing, a reality that is stripped away when too much is poured into artificially generated environments or compositing. It creeps up on you in a silent kind of way throughout the movie. Previous Jones movies had that visceral edge and sense of scale that only gigantic, tangible sets can give you. I also believe this is why some have criticized the movie for not being grand or epic enough.

That said, I still enjoyed the overall tone of the movie. The pulp was fine, the jokes and sense of play all fit. Shia wasn't bad and did not detract from the other performances. I liked the interactions between Jones and Marion (they needed more focused screen time together). It's definitely worth seeing in the theater and it will still sit proudly with my other movies

I think part of the feeling may just be 'I waited almost twenty years for this?' If there had been more movies in the franchise between then and now it would not be as big a disappointment, sort of like odd numbered Star Trek movies. (I actually liked ST: tMP but....)

Definitely better than Star Wars Episode 1 (and 2... and 3...). But not Earth shaking.

The Auld Grump, who, after that spiel, is waiting for Lost Boys 2... after a 21 year gap.