Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull: possibly late

Meh, I still think it beats Temple of Doom. 

Although that could be cause the aspect of him having a kid with the chick from the first movie has a soft spot in my heart, as I can still remember being about 7 or 8 and play-pretending I was that kid.

No matter what, I Indy, and seeing him with Shea LeBuff (sp) and the chick again made me happy in the least.  I seriously hated the chick in the Temple of Doom so much, and I can remember being a lil kid and being disappointed in Indy for getting with her.  The only good part of the Temple of Doom was the beginning in the club, IMO.

I thought the plot of this latest one was vapid to the point of inducing a headache. What the crap was going on? All of the previous movies had plots in which the basic goals of the good guys and bad guys were laid out pretty clearly. The mystery was in how they got to the goal. In this one, no one has a clear idea what they're attempting.

Cate Blanchett's character has a vague notion of getting super mind powers by going to the temple, but really she's grasping at straws with that because apart from the skull dominating people to take it home, there's no reason given for why her goal would ever be realized. Indy has no idea what's going on at all, but just goes through the motions for no apparent reason and seems to discover almost nothing other than which is the correct path off of the screen and onto the next segment of the movie.

I just thought there was a serious lack of motivation that you could relate to, and it hobbled the story badly because it disconnected you from the sense of adventure. Add to that some of the scenes Sean described, which seemed to render the action lifeless (as opposed to the earlier movies in which real stunts were performed and left you agog that someone could actually DO THAT). And then mix in the complete WTF ending, in which the good guys would have been annihilated by the very aliens who said 'we'll reward you' if they hadn't managed to run fast enough to get out of there. And who the crap were those people guarding the temple? And what the crap happened to Cate Blanchett in the end?

The earlier movies all seemed much more sensible to me, and also much, much more human. What was missing from this movie was that essential beating heart of adventure. It was just a pack of action sequences combined with effects sequences and comic relief sequences. Like putting amino acids and lipids in a jar and proclaiming it life. Uh, not quite.

/rant

Like putting amino acids and lipids in a jar and proclaiming it life. Uh, not quite.

/rant

First of all, dont make fun of my mommy and daddy Matt White.

Temple of Doom was much better than this garbage. All of the points against Crystal Skull have already been raised so I wont bother bringing them up again.
I had been saying to myself since well before the release. 'Alright Craig, treat it like the LotR movies, dont get your hopes up and just enjoy it'.  Well I didnt have my hopes up, this movie just wasnt any fun to watch.

My favorite Temple of Doom scene was the dinner scene.  Mostly because as a child I got to complain about the South American Python being on the dinner table in India. Also it giving birth to live young, some snakes do, that snake doesnt. (They were eels anyway) All the Herpetology aside, Indiana Jones ended at Last Crusade, as the title would have you believe.

not enough fancy whip maneuvers. 

I rate it below Temple of Doom, mostly because Temple was the first Indiana Jones movie I had ever seen.  I do agree with you Kristen about the beginning in the club being one of my favorite scenes.  I remember as a kid being scared that Indy wouldn't get a hold of the antidote in time.  Also Mola Ram (the Kali priest) was my favorite villian in the IJ trilogy.

I know what you mean, when we got back the original Jones trilogy was on tv and we spent the evening comparing them to Crystal Skull.  The humor was more subtle, the action/stunt scenes were just long enough without having 20 minutes of one car chase.  And as Matt said, the storylines were much clearer as were the villians.  That and Indy didn't get captured every 5 seconds like he did in Skull.
I do got to say, my favorite line though was: "No defiant last words Dr. Jones?" "I like Ike."


At least there are no other trilogies that George Lucas can go back and destroy.

Oh just you wait - we can always look forward to a digitally remastered Raiders of the Lost Ark with dancing girls and giant lizards escaping from the Ark and killing the Nazis....