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

[Wor-Gar]

If Helena didn't punch Indy and left him there as he wished, then Disney could have made "The Adventures of Helena Shaw" spin-off with her searching for the final resting place of Indiana Jones. It could end with her stealing Indy's father's watch.

 

[Otomofan]

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.

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...

Maybe the whole ****ing movie was just an alcohol-induced fever dream. He never got shot; he hurt himself falling out of bed while blind drunk and imagined the whole thing. There. It's canon now. I saved this dumpster fire.

 

[Wor-Gar]

Maybe the whole ****ing movie was just an alcohol-induced fever dream. He never got shot; he hurt himself falling out of bed while blind drunk and imagined the whole thing. There. It's canon now. I saved this dumpster fire.

At the very end, after the credits, they should have repeated that shot where Indy wakes up startled in his BarkaLounger in his underwear.

 

[punisher1974]

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

But the furniture was fake. You could tell by the cross sections.

 

[davejames]

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.

Yeah even if you're not religious yourself, it's somehow a lot easier to buy into the magical power of those artifacts because the belief is so ingrained in the culture. And it appeals to some deep, primal thing that you just don't feel with the crystal skulls (which is based on some "ancient aliens" fad that only started in the 1960s with the space race) and this Archimedes Dial that no one's even heard of before, and doesn't even have magical powers in the movie. It's basically just a mechanical device for locating these "fissures" in time. Woohoo.

That said though, I still preferred the time travel to aliens, since it at least fed into Indy's love of history and made some kind of thematic sense for the story.

 

[Wor-Gar]

The last two films definitely veered into the Sci-Fi territory of ancient aliens and time travel.

Blame Lucas. He started it.

 

[jye4ever]

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...

Dude you just instantly made this movie surpass TLC for the 3rd spot!

That’s my official ending full stop!

 

[Wor-Gar]

Apparently the first Indy SPIN-OFF will be entitled: Helena Rides Again!

This time, with Teddy (now an irritating teenager) at her side, Helena sets off on the trail of the magical potion that put Sleeping Beauty to sleep for 1,000 years (hey, it's Disney). Pursuing her though the 60's are evil Russian agents, tripped out Hippies, and... The Beatles?

 

[davejames]

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.

I didn't mind at all that they swung for the fences with the fanciful ending and huge CG spectacle, but I think the problem is it feels like one of those whimsical Spielberg endings that doesn't fit the style of the rest of the movie at all, which was a pretty dull and unimaginative slog up to that point. And I just don't think the movie really earned it.

 

[jye4ever]

Apparently the first Indy SPIN-OFF will be entitled: Helena Rides Again!

This time, with Teddy (now an irritating teenager) at her side, Helena sets off on the trail of the magical potion that put Sleeping Beauty to sleep for 1,000 years (hey, it's Disney). Pursuing her though the 60's are evil Russian agents, tripped out Hippies, and... The Beatles?

I think Helena was showing Teddy a good Morocco time!

 

[Mr.E]

I'll have to revisit Dial of Destiny at some point. I couldn't get into it after a single viewing. And I still can't believe the full blown time travel scene got past the writer's room.

 

[The Buffinator]

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!

Why would you conclude that this is the first time Indy has woken up since he was punched? For all we know several weeks could have passed. Helena could have gotten him back to Sicily and arranged for life saving medical care first, then once he was well enough to travel flown back to NYC with him, gone to the police and cleared his name, etc., etc.. He could be waking up from a 2nd, more extensive surgery to repair damage from that bullet wound, and it wasn't until then that Helena reached out to Marion.

Now I grant you that it requires connecting quite a few dots, but as the movie was already over 2.5 hours long I can understand why all that would be left for us to deduce.

 

[Khev]

More stunt mask nightmare fool. The white haired one is actually pretty mind blowing.

 

[Otomofan]

 

[xipotec]

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.

See thats just it, just about every Mcguffin was fine! I never hated KOTCS because of rhe alien ending, it was kinda obvious that would have happened.

Now swinging from vines along side a truck going 50mph then dropping over 4 huge waterfalls, was just beyond any plausible possibility.

Its not about high fantasy or adventure at that point, its about stupid things we are expected to overlook. Are inter dimensional aliens far fetched? Of course, but not as far fetched as humans defying physics...

LOL the by design; gratingly overzealous incompetent "got lost in his own museum" 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 Brody's daughter?

Marcus is a huge part of the reason I LOVE TLC. He was a great side kick addition to Indy and Henry....
He also gives one of the most chilling preambles to any of the films when talking about the Grail. Its second only to ROTLA CIA meeting about the Ark.

Marcus gets quoted around our house quite a bit....

"Does anyone understand a word I am saying?"

 

[xipotec]

At the very end, after the credits, they should have repeated that shot where Indy wakes up startled in his BarkaLounger in his underwear.

Its crazy Wor, but I thought they were going to go for this for a split second....

If I was writing I would have made the time travel back to a place where Indy was given a chance to meet his younger self, incognito, and pass on some sage advice that would somehow help him in the previous adventures....thats a tough write but I think it could be done.

 

[Johnny Utah]

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

I had a mate in school who called Fight Club 'S***e Club' so he didn't go see it.

Lesson here is: make up your own mind up.

Two weeks later, this board aside, the general consensus is this film is good. I LOVED it.

 

[Wor-Gar]

It is pretty amazing. I mean, #4 in the series of 5 is not that great, but all things relative...

 

[Johnny Utah]

Franchises can still surprise you.

Mission Impossible quality for me starts at 6, then 4,1,3,5 and 2.

 

[davejames]

Its crazy Wor, but I thought they were going to go for this for a split second....

If I was writing I would have made the time travel back to a place where Indy was given a chance to meet his younger self, incognito, and pass on some sage advice that would somehow help him in the previous adventures....thats a tough write but I think it could be done.

That's exactly the kind of thing I was always worried might happen once the time travel idea was leaked, that we'd get a cheesy scene straight out of BTTF with Old Indy meeting his younger self. And I can't imagine something like that not being cringey as hell.

So just the fact they managed to avoid that (along with sending Indy back to WWII) makes it a positive in my book.