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Author Topic: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008) Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 05-22-2008 06:28 PM                     I find 2383 generally has better contrast, which I personally find preferable. That's why I've always like the look of Fuji and I hate red ISCO lenses and curved screens.  |  IP: Logged Mike Schindler Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1039 From: Oak Park, IL, USA Registered: Jun 2002 posted 05-22-2008 06:59 PM                     Interesting. Whenever you hear someone talk about 2393, they usually mention how much more contrasty it is than 2383. That's not to say it has better contrast, just more. I've always preferred 2393 because the blacks are so much darker, and there seems to be a lot more detail in dark areas. Fuji seems problematic to me for a couple reasons. First, the blacks are very dark, but there's not much detail at all in them. But more annoyingly, everything seems to have a slightly greenish tint to it. However it does seem that Fuji is much more durable and stable than Kodak. I guess it's like digital vs. film. Each has pros and cons, and it's more a matter of personal preference than anything else.  |  IP: Logged Geoff Jones Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 579 From: Broomfield, CO, USA Registered: Feb 2006 posted 05-23-2008 01:52 AM                        I saw a film presentation at the SF Centre at 7:30. I noticed no sound drop-outs, nor any other significant problems with the presentation. (I could hear neighboring auditoriums prior to the show start, and their auditorium layout & constant width screens suck.) SPOILERS Highlights: - When the groundhog came out of Paramount logo. - When the groundhogs stood around and looked inquisitively at Indy after he escaped the Russians. - When Indy was blown across the desert inside a refrigerator by an atomic bomb. - When the monkeys taught Mutt to swing through the trees like Tarzan (faster than the motor vehicles that were speeding away from him). - When the monkeys attacked the Russians. - When Indy and Marion were re-united and the Russians stood around patiently for ten minutes to let them banter and bicker. - When the rock walls gave birth to the native warriors. - When the Russians needed a jungle-chopping machine designed by Dr. Seuss to get through the jungle. - When the Dr. Seuss machine was destroyed and they found their way through the jungle without it anyway. - When Mutt was standing on two moving trucks and the trees thwomped him in the balls. - When Marion drove her truck onto the tree over the river and then used it to smack the Russians off the side of the cliff. - When the ants formed an ant ladder to climb after the Russian psychic. - When Mutt found a handy snake to pull Indy out of the "dry-sand" instead of taking off his jacket and throwing him a sleeve. - All of the dialog. - When the aliens from the space within the spaces made the Russian psychic's eyes bleed fire even though she didn't really do anything to them. - When Mutt and Indy drove through the library on a motorcycle and crashed under all of the tables and a student asked Dr. Jones a serious question. END SPOILERS I went into this with very low expectations and still hated it. Most of the folks around me seemed disappointed, and the four twenty-somethings I was with all hated it. (I'm 37.)  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 05-23-2008 04:34 AM                        -You just KNOW the monkeys were George's idea. And you KNOW he loves it and is super proud of that scene. I can feel George's smile when I watch that scene. Oh well, at least I approve of monkeys. Every movie should have them. -What brand of refrigerator was that? I want one. It can survive a nuclear explosion. Perfect for my chilled beverages! -How did what's-her-face know there would be a branch to land on when she drove off of the cliff? She kept saying "trust me" so she must have done that many times before.  |  IP: Logged Michael Moore Expert Film Handler Posts: 188 From: Dover, DE / USA Registered: Jun 2006 posted 05-23-2008 07:52 AM                        quote: Geoff Jones - When the ants formed an ant ladder to climb after the Russian psychic. Army ants actually do this in the jungle, they make bridges and ladders out of each other to forge gaps and to climb over obstacles, however they do not move faster then humans can run and they do not over come humans on contact at break-neck speeds and fill their mouths up! -Worthless seen that needed to be removed. quote: Geoff Jones When the monkeys taught Mutt to swing through the trees like Tarzan (faster than the motor vehicles that were speeding away from him). Again crap seen that just needed to never be there!!! George Lucas crap again!! quote: Geoff Jones When the aliens from the space within the spaces made the Russian psychic's eyes bleed fire even though she didn't really do anything to them. You know one of the ideas of the crystal skulls is they were gifts, or made by Aliens! However they could have kept this idea without ever doing the whole Alien bit. This ending just crapped all over the other Indian Jones movies. I mean every movie has had a fantastical ending, (Ark opens = Spirts, power of god) I can get into this , It was done well, and not over the top. Temple of Dome, had hearts being ripped out of chests, and dark magic, mine car chase... All in all nothing too fantastic, again done very well... Last Crusade had an old man some 900 years old waiting for someone to pick the grail, Again little far fetched but it was done in the sprit of the series of movies, and also in the context of the movie, it too had boundaries, and done well. The Alien stuff at the end was just over the top and past the boundaries of what the first three Indian Jones movies set. I think the movie was a flop. Mike  |  IP: Logged Mike Schindler Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1039 From: Oak Park, IL, USA Registered: Jun 2002 posted 05-23-2008 09:37 AM                     SPOILER I've heard a lot of people talk about how the aliens are too over the top. Can someone explain this to me? I find the concept of interdimensional aliens to be way more believable than a box of dust melting people's faces, or Mola Ram ripping dudes' hearts out, or a cup that makes people immortal when they drink from it. quote: Michael Moore The Alien stuff at the end was just over the top and past the boundaries of what the first three Indian Jones movies set. What boundaries? Once you bring magic into the series, all bets are off. At least the aliens had some sort of basis in science. And that leads to the other reason why it works so well. It's science fiction. Just like the first three were an homage to the Saturday matinee serials, this movie is an homage to the sci-fi movies of the 50's. I absolutely love the fact that there's an actual flying saucer at the end of this movie.  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 05-23-2008 09:45 AM                        Mike, it's not about believability, it's about stories and established scenarios and the like. In other words, it just seems "out of place" in an Indy movie. It is easier to believe that three naked people are having sex in a hot threesome than it is to believe that a stuffed animal can talk, but somehow a hardcore orgy just doesn't seem an appropriate subject for the Muppets.  |  IP: Logged Mike Schindler Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1039 From: Oak Park, IL, USA Registered: Jun 2002 posted 05-23-2008 09:57 AM                     Spoiler Joe, I see what you're saying, but my question is how are the aliens out of place? I don't have any problem accepting aliens as part of the Indiana Jones universe.  |  IP: Logged Bill Enos Film God Posts: 2081 From: Richmond, Virginia, USA Registered: Apr 2000 posted 05-23-2008 10:32 AM                     I gage 'em by how many times I look at my watch. It started at 12.10am Thurs. morning and I never checked the time until it was over. Regal Virginia Center Commons auditorium #6. Lots of bass coming from next screen. Sound was distorted occasionally, focus soft thru out, at credits focus was nearly acceptable at bottom left and words were unreadable at the top right.  |  IP: Logged Louis Belloisy Expert Film Handler Posts: 120 From: morris, ct usa Registered: Jun 2006 posted 05-23-2008 11:00 AM                        Shucks, I was looking forward to this movie or any other movie to bring us up out of the doldrums. I was totally disappointed, its a total flop, IMHO and of the few patrons that came to see it in our three theaters. we have it on 5 screens and we hardly sold for it. the word is out. We show it in DTS and I noticed that it dropped out of DTS several times in all theaters, all in the same spots. I think Harrison is getting a little too old for this type of movie. again, IMHO louis  |  IP: Logged Geoff Jones Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 579 From: Broomfield, CO, USA Registered: Feb 2006 posted 05-23-2008 11:22 AM                        SPOILERS I was aware that there would be aliens and a flying saucer at the end. I was actually looking forward to that - CE3K is one of my favorite films, and I was excited to see Spielberg return to that territory. But they gave me nothing. No fear, no awe, no joy, no satisfaction. They were just "there." When their space (within-the-spaces) ship tornadoed away, I sat there thinking how convenient it was that all the big fancy dangerous effects that stopped just short of the heroes. In Raiders, when the arc is opened, the scene took me through an emotional journey. First I felt wonder. Then awe. Then fear. Then satisfaction. END SPOILERS My biggest beef with "blockbusters" these days is that they don't take themselves seriously. They are always tounge-in-cheek, goofy, and self-referential. Go back and watch Raiders. (Please! On a giant screen with a crowd!) Nothing in that movie is ever goofy. It's a popcorn movie with a bunch of preposterous things happening, but it never acknowledges that fact. It always takes itself completely seriously. Yet it still has a lot of humor. And you KNOW that the hero of a movie like that isn't going to die, but things feel so real, you're afraid at times anyway.  |  IP: Logged Scott Jentsch Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1061 From: New Berlin, WI, USA Registered: Apr 2003 posted 05-23-2008 04:04 PM                        Mutt doing his Tarzan thing was the low-point of the movie. I can handle the refrigerator getting blasted out of town, I can handle them driving off the cliff and tumbling down three waterfalls, but the monkey scene was just dumb. I noticed the "glow" that was happening in many of the scenes, and I chalked it up to the fact that they were trying to accentuate the whole 1940's - early 50's setting. Overall, the movie was the weakest of the four. It was much more on par with the second Star Wars trilogy; likable to a point but not even approaching the originals. The music was not very memorable, and the parts I remember were just the derivatives of the themes used in the previous movies. I guess it's difficult to be original when there is so much preceding it.  |  IP: Logged John Wilson Film God Posts: 5438 From: Sydney, Australia. Registered: Dec 1999 posted 05-23-2008 09:09 PM                     I was willing to give it a second chance and sat in again on a bit yesterday...it was the scene where Indy meets Marion again. I couldn't even make it through the scene. It's just a big mess with everybody yelling at each other but nothing coherent or even halfway believable. It's a big fat Lucas turd.  |  IP: Logged Kurt Zupin Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 989 From: Maricopa, Arizona Registered: Oct 2004 posted 05-24-2008 07:55 AM                     It was a decent ride, but nothing that comes close to orginal's. I really like "Last Crusade" probably my fav of the three, then "Raiders" and so on. I thought Harrison did a decent job and at times looked and sounded like the INdy of old. Its busy as hell for us, thinly vailed brag here but we were the 26th busiest theatre in the Nation for it on Thursday. Brag over. Overall I give it a 3/5  |  IP: Logged David Stambaugh Film God Posts: 4021 From: Eugene, Oregon Registered: Jan 2002 posted 05-25-2008 07:44 PM                        Today at Regal 15 in Eugene, #1 in 35mm. When First Look ended and the film rolled, the near-sellout crowd was treated to a good 90 seconds of black leader projected before the first trailer, including various buzzes in the audio. Nice. That gaffe should probably earn this showing an "F" but waddaya gonna do. Aside from that the presentation was good, no complaints. Reel 5 had at least 4 instances of regular video CAP code, but there were no audible "issues" anywhere in the movie itself. I'm 98% sure it was SR•D but don't quote me on that. The whole movie had a greenish tint. What's up with that. And if Spielberg approved the DP's choice of "look" for this movie, it's evidence that Spielberg is going senile. Too much of it just looked oddly wrong, like there was some weird veil over the image. They seemed to be selling a LOT of the $5 concession stand pizzas today. The Manager was hand-delivering them to people in their seats in the theater due to how long the pizzas take to prepare I guess. This one soccer mom had about 6 little kids with her and they each got pizza, popcorn, and soda. Recession? What recession? I bet she drove them to the movie in a Tahoe. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Ok, the movie. I liked it, in fact I liked it quite a bit. Harrison Ford does a great job as Indy. He pwns the character Indiana Jones. Is that a correct application of the term? Anyway I liked the story, most of the action, the minimal use of Spielbergisms (the groundhogs are an example of that). The crowd seemed to enjoy it. The running time is just right, long enough but not too long. If the "look" of the movie had not detracted so much, I'd give this 3.75 stars. As it is I'll give it 3.25 stars. That's how much the occasionally-odd "artistic" cinematography and what I hope is the accidental greenish tint to everything interfered with my enjoyment of the movie. It's a pretty solid 4th installment in the franchise and not the big disappointment I had feared.  |  IP: Logged

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