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Official Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull Rottenwatch/Reviews

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The Elite

The Elite

BOSS
Green Shinobi said:
:lol :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol
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Laugh all you want, but it is.

I never bothered to watch the original King Kong until a few months before I saw PJ's version. I loved the original and thought that it told a great simple story and was a monumental film for its time. Then I went to see the remake, which I was pretty excited about, and saw a film that didn't capture the magic of the original film and felt flat emotionally.
 
G

Green Shinobi

Banned
DoctorWho said:
Laugh all you want, but it is.

I never bothered to watch the original King Kong until a few months before I saw PJ's version. I loved the original and thought that it told a great simple story and was a monumental film for its time. Then I went to see the remake, which I was pretty excited about, and saw a film that didn't capture the magic of the original film and felt flat emotionally.
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The film with King Kong vs. three T-Rexes, a brontosaurus stampede and the most amazing looking sunset ever put on film doesn't capture the magic of an animatronic ape fighting an animatronic t-rex at like 8 frames per second?

I respect everyone right to have opinions, but this one is pretty far out there. PJ's King Kong is so far beyond the original, it's like comparing a new Ford GT to the Model T.
 
S

Spectral Glider

Member
Here's what I'd cut from PJ's King Kong:

First, throw out all of the slow motion, save for some shots at the end. Second, the dinosaur stampede, get rid of it. Perhaps the most ridiculous scene in a movie in the last 10 years. It makes the original King Kong seem like a historically accurate documentary. The bug scene....ugh. And the gymnastic Tyrannosaurs, was that really necessary? That scene started out awesome and turned shit real quick. I could go on, but I really hate what he did with King Kong. Just completely hate it. The original stomps all over it and I was never a huge fan of the original.
 
The Elite

The Elite

BOSS
Green Shinobi said:
The film with King Kong vs. three T-Rexes, a brontosaurus stampede and the most amazing looking sunset ever put on film doesn't capture the magic of an animatronic ape fighting an animatronic t-rex at like 8 frames per second?

I respect everyone right to have opinions, but this one is pretty far out there. PJ's King Kong is so far beyond the original, it's like comparing a new Ford GT to the Model T.
Click to expand...

The best sunset ever put on film? I barely remember it.

Throwing in more T-Rex's and a brontosaurus stampede doesn't make the film superior one bit. I would go as far as to argue that the stampede was downright horrible on a technical level. I'm not going to argue on the level of special effects though because PJ's obviously wins but in terms of editing, pacing the original is leagues better. It is a much more compact film that manages to tell the exact same story. Also, there is a certain magic to the original that was missing in the remake.
 
S

Sanjuro

Member
I enjoyed PJ's King Kong alot. I know its not the popular choice but I did have a great time watching it. I do love the original as well.

I didn't go too far back but I saw Seven Samurai brought in!? In my opinion you will never find a more perfect of a film.
 
J

JdFoX187

Banned
BlueTsunami said:
So RT is listing it at 67%? OUCH
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This is one time where Rotten Tomatoes really doesn't give a good view of the movie. All of the reviews praise it, but some say it doesn't live up to the hype.

And I can't believe people are honestly saying that borefest of the PJ King Kong was better than the original. Kong showed that Jackson had become full of himself. The original is leagues ahead.
 
G

Green Shinobi

Banned
Spectral Glider said:
Here's what I'd cut from PJ's King Kong:

First, throw out all of the slow motion, save for some shots at the end.
Click to expand...
Here's a suggestion I could get behind. But not the shots of the skulls in the village.

Spectral Glider said:
Second, the dinosaur stampede, get rid of it.
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It looked ridiculous from certain angles, but in the close-up shots, you could see how the men were running between the brontosaurs' legs. And a few of the people did get crushed.

Spectral Glider said:
The bug scene....ugh.
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Fuck no, that's the second-best scene in the whole film.

Spectral Glider said:
And the gymnastic Tyrannosaurs, was that really necessary? That scene started out awesome and turned shit real quick.
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WTF? I need that gif of the falcon looking horrified as the camera zooms towards its face.

Spectral Glider said:
I could go on, but I really hate what he did with King Kong. Just completely hate it. The original stomps all over it and I was never a huge fan of the original.
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The original is a novelty act that doesn't have 1/10th the filmmaking power of PJ's version.
 
T

The Bookerman

Member
So all right, can somebody spoil me: Is the crystal Skull related to aliens and the hole premise relies on aliens? Cause if so, it's official: it sucks.
 
D

Dan

No longer boycotting the Wolfenstein franchise
Green Shinobi said:
The film with King Kong vs. three T-Rexes, a brontosaurus stampede and the most amazing looking sunset ever put on film doesn't capture the magic of an animatronic ape fighting an animatronic t-rex at like 8 frames per second?

I respect everyone right to have opinions, but this one is pretty far out there. PJ's King Kong is so far beyond the original, it's like comparing a new Ford GT to the Model T.
Click to expand...
Using this kind of logic, I assume the Star Wars prequels shit all over the originals, yeah?

Stop-motion/puppet Rancor fight? Fuck that. Attack of the Clones had a battle with three giant beasts in glorious CG!
 
G

Green Shinobi

Banned
JdFoX187 said:
And I can't believe people are honestly saying that borefest of the PJ King Kong was better than the original. Kong showed that Jackson had become full of himself. The original is leagues ahead.
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Aside from your view of "pacing," which is extremely subjective, what is one thing that the original did better?

Dan said:
Using this kind of logic, I assume the Star Wars prequels shit all over the originals, yeah?

Stop-motion/puppet Rancor fight? Fuck that. Attack of the Clones had a battle with three giant beasts in glorious CG!
Click to expand...
No, because the original trilogy action scenes were choreographed far better and had far more emotional weight and context behind them. And they had far better characters.

Empire Strikes Back's asteroid chase scene > any space scene in the prequel trilogy.
 
D

Dan

No longer boycotting the Wolfenstein franchise
The Bookerman said:
So all right, can somebody spoil me: Is the crystal Skull related to aliens and the hole premise relies on aliens? Cause if so, it's official: it sucks.
Click to expand...
I saw a commercial the other day that had Cate Blanchett's character saying the skull wasn't made by humans...

Who the hell is in charge of this slapdash advertising campaign?
 
The Elite

The Elite

BOSS
The Bookerman said:
So all right, can somebody spoil me: Is the crystal Skull related to aliens and the hole premise relies on aliens? Cause if so, it's official: it sucks.
Click to expand...

It does and you fail.
 
S

Sanjuro

Member
The Bookerman said:
So all right, can somebody spoil me: Is the crystal Skull related to aliens and the hole premise relies on aliens? Cause if so, it's official: it sucks.
Click to expand...
Why would it suck? Wikipedia crystal skulls or watch a documentary on them on SciFi channel tonight. I'm assuming you haven't seen the older films.....
vet9vc.gif
.
 
The Elite

The Elite

BOSS
SanjuroTsubaki said:
Why would it suck? Wikipedia crystal skulls or watch a documentary on them on SciFi channel tonight. I'm assuming you haven't seen the older films.....
vet9vc.gif
.
Click to expand...

I wish I could find that old "In Search of..." documentary that featured Crystal Skulls. Shit, I loved In Search Of...
 
D

Dan

No longer boycotting the Wolfenstein franchise
DoctorWho said:
I wish I could find that old "In Search of..." documentary that featured Crystal Skulls. Shit, I loved In Search Of...
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I think I saw advertisements for this on Sci-Fi this weekend...
 
J

JdFoX187

Banned
Green Shinobi said:
Aside from your view of "pacing," which is extremely subjective, what is one thing that the original did better?
Click to expand...
The only thing the new one did better was the effects. And comparing the effects of the new one compared the original, for their time periods, I would say the effects in the original were more revolutionary. Not to mention that god awful romance between Kong and the chick was so god awful that I thought George Lucas wrote it.
 
The Elite

The Elite

BOSS
Tyrone Slothrop said:
i bet youtube has In Search Of clips/episodes... (too lazy to check now, though)
Click to expand...

Gave it a shot and not finding anything... :( If you search Crystal Skull you end up with a bunch of Indy stuff. Fuck you Indy, I want to learn about Skulls!

This looks promising!

Shit, I totally forgot that it was really referred to as the Skull of Doom!

As a kid I was fascinated with these things.
 
C

Cheebs

Member
I have read the comic adaption. To those who worry about aliens. Don't.

(this is not a big spoiler at all but to be safe):

No spaceships at all. No living aliens at all. You see skeletons but there is not a single interaction with a living alien nor any alien spacecrafts or anything like that.
 
F

Father_Brain

Banned
Cheebs said:
I have read the comic adaption. To those who worry about aliens. Don't.

(this is not a big spoiler at all but to be safe):

No spaceships at all. No living aliens at all. You see skeletons but there is not a single interaction with a living alien nor any alien spacecrafts or anything like that.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's pretty much what I had expected. Glad to hear it; thank god that Lucas didn't get his way on that aspect of the plot.
 
G

Green Shinobi

Banned
JdFoX187 said:
The only thing the new one did better was the effects. And comparing the effects of the new one compared the original, for their time periods, I would say the effects in the original were more revolutionary. Not to mention that god awful romance between Kong and the chick was so god awful that I thought George Lucas wrote it.
Click to expand...
WTF? There was no romance. It was a companionship. Kong was completely alone on the island (as demonstrated by the skeleton of another giant ape that you see at one point). Naomi Watts' character was the only companion he had ever had, and he was determined to protect her. On her end, she was the only one of the humans who could look at Kong and see something other than a huge dollar sign. It seems like you really didn't understand what PJ was going for with the film.

The new one had better characters, better writing, better choreographed action sequences, more emotional weight behind the action sequences, better foreshadowing, better atmosphere, better cinematography, better use of music, better everything.
 
T

temp

posting on contract only
Cheebs said:
I have read the comic adaption. To those who worry about aliens. Don't.

(this is not a big spoiler at all but to be safe):

No spaceships at all. No living aliens at all. You see skeletons but there is not a single interaction with a living alien nor any alien spacecrafts or anything like that.
Click to expand...
Man I'm such an idiot, why do I keep reading spoilers?
 
J

JdFoX187

Banned
Green Shinobi said:
WTF? There was no romance. It was a companionship. Kong was completely alone on the island (as demonstrated by the skeleton of another giant ape that you see at one point). Naomi Watts' character was the only companion he had ever had, and he was determined to protect her. On her end, she was the only one of the humans who could look at Kong and see something other than a huge dollar sign. It seems like you really didn't understand what PJ was going for with the film.

The new one had better characters, better writing, better choreographed action sequences, more emotional weight behind the action sequences, better foreshadowing, better atmosphere, better cinematography, better use of music, better everything.
Click to expand...
There was one thing that was bigger in the new one, and that was the running time. It was so drawn out and wasted on the damn boat ride and Jimmy that I felt bored off my ass worse than the last 30 minutes of Return of the King. Jackson's version only showed that his ego has inflated so big that he thought he could sell anything based on his name and great special effects.

There was a ROMANCE plot between Kong and the chick. It was specifically lifted from the 1977 movie. Don't try to say that Jackson came up with that all by himself. It was something he saw as interesting and expanded on it for the new movie. The original movie's characters were better, it had better effects for its time, it had a much better atmosphere and has a much bigger and better legacy than Jackson's bastardization will ever have.

Anyway, back onto topic here. Good to hear about the
alien
being kept to a minimum.
 
B

beelzebozo

Jealous Bastard
Green Shinobi said:
The new one had better characters, better writing, better choreographed action sequences, more emotional weight behind the action sequences, better foreshadowing, better atmosphere, better cinematography, better use of music, better everything.
Click to expand...

probably not the best thread for this discussion, but i agree with all this.
 
J

JzeroT1437

Member
Green Shinobi said:
The film with King Kong vs. three T-Rexes, a brontosaurus stampede and the most amazing looking sunset ever put on film doesn't capture the magic of an animatronic ape fighting an animatronic t-rex at like 8 frames per second?

I respect everyone right to have opinions, but this one is pretty far out there. PJ's King Kong is so far beyond the original, it's like comparing a new Ford GT to the Model T.
Click to expand...

But the original King Kong was more impressive to its audience. To be honest, most people would be far more impressed with Jackson's Kong if he hadn't relied on CG as much as he did. The original Kong gave people a lot of new, impressive technology and angles in cinema--Jackson's Kong gave us lots of CG. Which is getting kind of nauseating.

It also took a fucking hour to get to the island. The first time I saw it, I came in 20 minutes late, sat down, and the first thing I thought was "They're not even halfway to the island yet? What?"

Not every movie was meant to be a fantasy epic that runs 3 hours+. Peter Jackson needs to lay off the inkhorn.
 
Sapiens

Sapiens

Member
JzeroT1437 said:
But King Kong was more impressive to its audience. To be honest, most people would probably be far more impressed with Jackson's Kong if he hadn't relied on CG as much as he did. The original Kong gave people a lot of new, impressive technology and angles in cinema--Jackson's Kong gave us lots of CG. Which is getting kind of nauseating.
Click to expand...


Lot's of cool CG. Much of it was deeply flawed CG, with nowhere near the same polish as ILM, but they tried a bunch of awesome things and I liked it.

The CG was what made it worthwhile, for me. The film wanted to be too many things at the same time. What really killed KK was the length.
 
G

Green Shinobi

Banned
Sapiens said:
Lot's of cool CG. Much of it was deeply flawed CG, with nowhere near the same polish as ILM, but they tried a bunch of awesome things and I liked it.

What really killed KK was the length.
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84% on rottentomatoes. It wasn't killed by anything.

Anyway, that's the last post I'm making about King Kong.

And Crystal Skull is up to 73% over at RT. Reading over the reviews, the good reviews sound like they were written by positive, fun-loving people, while the people who panned the film sound like a bunch of douchebags. I can't take douchebags seriously, so the reviews might as well be 100% positive at this point.
 
C

Cheebs

Member
From the "real" premiere today not just the press screening. And yes that black girl is George Lucas's girlfriend:
610x.jpg

340x.jpg

610x.jpg

340x.jpg

610x.jpg

610x.jpg

340x.jpg
 
S

SpacLock

Member
73% out of 22 reviews so far. Not bad at all. Looks like it's on track to at least 80-90%.

P.S. Make a thread about King Kong guys. You seem to have a lot to talk about and this isn't really the thread for it.
 
C

Cheebs

Member
SpacLock said:
73% out of 22 reviews so far. Not bad at all. Looks like it's on track to at least 80-90%.

P.S. Make a thread about King Kong guys. You seem to have a lot to talk about and this isn't really the thread for it.
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Most of those are Cannes critics which are far more harsh than the run of the mill USA Today and the like. It will easily go up from here on out.
 
A

Amir0x

Banned
Ebert understands the nature of Indiana Jones movies preeeetty well, so I'm slightly more optimistic than I was before that review.
 
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