Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (June 30th, 2023)

[Evil_Deadite]

Just saw the movie, and I don't understand why it isn't more of a financial success. I absolutely loved it!! Script was a million times better than Crystal Skull. Indy's final outing deserved a better reception.

 

[ObiGlennKenobi]

Seen it last night.
Thought it pretty great for an Indy movie.
Up there with Temple of Doom and Last Crusade.
Raiders will always be #1.

Some great casting in the film.
Was shocked in awesome to see Karen Allen at the end...surprised that spoiler didn't leak earlier to me but I thankfully dodged it.

Definitely some correlations with TFA,except DOD did the Indy/Marion better than the Han/Leia.

Not sure why the hating on this film from early reviews...I guess the young kids need fix faster these days.

 

[Johnny Utah]

Love this.

 

[Felinx]

Just finished TLC (just Disney +, on my big new OLED) and enjoyed it more than I did back in the day. The silly parts still grate - Brody is still awful for example - but it's a fun movie (a surprising number of lol lines) and the ending worked better than I remembered.

I'd say I like TLC more than DOD at this point, but it's not quite fair given that TLC is Ford in his prime, or close to it, and DOD has to deal with an 80 year old.

Watching TOD next, then off to second viewing of DOD.

 

[a-dev]

ROTLA 10/10
TLC 9/10 (I never understand the hate this gets here.

 

[xipotec]

Yeah I honestly never had a problem with Mutt or Shia's performance either, and always thought he got unfairly blamed for everything else that was wrong with that movie.

I definitely agree about DOD needing to be more tightly edited. I suppose it was a choice on Mangold's part because the opening sequence was just as tightly edited as any of the original movies, but then once we get to 1969 the style changes completely for some reason. And it's almost like they realized they didn't have enough action beats in the movie, and so let the existing ones drag on for way too long.

I think this is spot on. The thing is, they should have realized they didn't NEED flashy chase/action parts.....

What do it mean?

Many of the best scenes to me were when Indy was in full treasure hunter mode;

The ROTLA opening
TOD: The bug scene
TLC: The underground in Venice and the final tomb.

Even KOTCS : had one really good scene with the skull people in the graveyard.

That to me is the heart of Indiana Jones:

We go some of that in the echo chamber scene in DOD, just not enought for my tastes, I would have preferred a long temple/chamber trap scene, with Indy using his old man knowledge to defeat danger and the bad guys , over a golf cart chase.

 

[jye4ever]

TLC holds up quite well actually i’ll give it that meaning the worst parts don’t get even worst as time passes.

Although the lighter starting the fire in that castle room went up in full flames rather quickly as if the furnishings were from the Walmart furniture department lol

Cheap furniture burns instantly but not real high quality furniture and furnishings.

That castle would not have cheap materials.

Just being nitpicking sorry lol

 

[xipotec]

So you liked it too (for the most part). Surprise, isn't it?

And I agree, Ford's best scene was talking about his son.

I would say second best was the end scene where he want to be left.....

I really liked the way Helena punched him at the end....it was the perfect tribute to "what Indy would have done."

I would be open to seeing a film with her as the main character, as long as its not an Indy film. We need more swashbuckling / Treasure hunting films .

 

[The Buffinator]

ROTLA 10/10
TLC 9/10 (I never understand the hate this gets here.

 

[The Buffinator]

Full disclosure: I still like TLC, I just don't think it should be that close to Raiders on a scale of 1 to 10. Also, I'd been waiting for an opportunity to use that gif.

 

[Mandible]

I really liked the way Helena punched him at the end....it was the perfect tribute to "what Indy would have done."

The best punch in history! Knocked him out for days!

Dragged him onto the plane. Back through the time rift (that conveniently is 2-way and stayed open for the perfect amount of time for them to do whatever was needed), reappear on the other side of the planet to NYC, (fair to assume the kidnapped pilot who owned the plane didn't want to fly them back to NYC), got on another plane or some for of transport with an unconscious elderly man that took however long to get back to NYC, drag old man Indy off that and into a cab, and out of the cab and into his apartment!

Oh, yeah! That's quality storytelling/writing!

And I'm the one that has life problems for not buying into this incompressible, juvenile, drivel...

The movie that is impossible to fail!

 

[Mandible]

Actually, writing that last post made me realize what doesn't sit right with me with DUD.

The ark. The cup of christ. Shankara stones.

They are all based on religious beliefs, and although fantastical, felt like you could buy into their "powers" because of the world's understanding at that time. The original 3 movies were written in a time when we didn't have google and all the answers at our fingertips, so there was fear around the unknown. Did the ark hold some mysterious power? Could the cup of Jesus Christ also hold some power? etc..

It was a stretch, but one's that felt "plausible" when we live on a planet where 65% of people believe in God and religion - Jesus Christ rising from the dead as an example, and other such biblical type events that people truly believed have happened. So then the ark, etc, still feel in line with what we can accept and well and truly under the banner of archeology.

With DUD, time travel pushes things to a whole other realm.

Don't know why, it just felt off.

 

[Prime Clone]

With DUD, time travel pushes things to a whole other realm.

Don't know why, it just felt off.

Yeah, CS's aliens get a lot of hate but DOD's time travel gets waved off.

Glad people are digging DOD but I still prefer CS.

 

[Mr.E]

Agreed. They went much too far, too comic book-y for my tastes. They really didn't need to either. In my opinion, the whole time travel thing could have been handled much subtler, and less full on cgi battle with the Romans sacking Syracuse. It was just too much.

They should have grounded it as much as possible, and truly make it a character study of someone at the end of their life, so to speak. They didn't need spectacle.

I knew going in, it wasn't going to be as good as the original trilogy. Those movies were (and remain) magical, lightning in a bottle, and the like. Any who. I didn't hate this one, but it didn't do much for me other than remind me of how truly great the originals will always be.

 

[jye4ever]

The best punch in history! Knocked him out for days!

Dragged him onto the plane. Back through the time rift (that conveniently is 2-way and stayed open for the perfect amount of time for them to do whatever was needed), reappear on the other side of the planet to NYC, (fair to assume the kidnapped pilot who owned the plane didn't want to fly them back to NYC), got on another plane or some for of transport with an unconscious elderly man that took however long to get back to NYC, drag old man Indy off that and into a cab, and out of the cab and into his apartment!

Oh, yeah! That's quality storytelling/writing!

And I'm the one that has life problems for not buying into this incompressible, juvenile, drivel...

The movie that is impossible to fail!

He had been shot. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

He was lucky all he did was get knocked out.

 

[a-dev]

My older brother saw it yesterday. When I asked him what he thought his wince/smile said it all.

 

[Entropy]

This story would have been more realistic, grounded and believable if it had included the power of god manifesting through an object rather than pseudo science!

I do wonder if the earlier films are so beloved by some because the narrative confirms a sanctimonious religious view of the universe and not science. Personally, I think 4 & 5 feature gods and guns aplenty but maybe not.

 

[Mondragon]

The silly parts still grate - Brody is still awful for example -

LOL the by design; gratingly overzealous, incompetent "got lost in his own museum" Marcus Brody, was one of my favorite parts of Last Crusade.

Don't know why (maybe a rumor) I thought the new Helena character was going to be Marcus Brody's daughter?

 

[loki2371]

You guys are being too hard on the ending.

Obviously Helena is a master of all things. Clearly after the punch, Indy was placed in a medical induced coma and placed on a medical bed they had on the plane. He was then transported for days as a medical patient being moved until he was placed in his chair in his apartment. Then Helena gave him a shot of epinephrine and ran out of the apartment super quick before he woke. All part of her master plan. Genius...

 

[Khev]

Everything was so amazingly perfect after the punch what if...it wasn't real and was simply the dream he had as he bled out on the plane...