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[Captain Zyrain]

So.. through a confluence of events this weekend, I managed to watch both Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, two movies that I saw once before (in theaters) and did not particularly care for, even though I am a huge fan of the earlier works in the series.

Spoiler

Uh, spoilers I guess.

I'll start with the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

I remember being SUPER excited that a new Indiana Jones movie was coming out, since I basically grew up with the original trilogy of movies. I think I saw The Last Crusade around 6 or 7 times in the theater (I was 9). I even liked the TV show for what it was. I didn't really do a deep dive on info prior to the movie coming out, so I could go in fresh. I remember seeing The Crystal Skull on launch night with a bunch of friends.. and we all kinda walked out with "Eh" on our faces. It was a weird feeling of liking seeing Indiana Jones again.. but then.. very ehhh with everything else. I eventually bought (and never opened) the Blu-ray for IJKOTCS, but never had the desire to watch it again. The swinging with the monkey scene was seared into my brain as one of the worst things ever.

So I start watching it again this weekend, with my 10 and 14 year old kids, and.. it wasn't that bad? I don't think its great, and clearly not on equal footing with IJ 1-3, but.. I kind of enjoyed it. The monkey swinging scene is still one of the worst things I've ever seen, and served no purpose, but maybe because I'm older and wiser now, I just try to ignore it. Also, I didn't catch it the first time that the "aliens" are "inter-dimensional beings" or whatever, instead of just straight space aliens. I'm not sure why, but this made it feel a little more mythological than just straight E.T.-type aliens coming down here. The pacing was decent, and my kids enjoyed the movie a lot more than I thought they would, so much so that the 14 year old PUT HIS PHONE DOWN TO WATCH THE MOVIE, and TALKED ABOUT IT AFTERWARDS. In my house that's a pretty big thing. I think I would have originally gave the movie a D and now it's moved up into C, maybe C+ territory.

I still would have rather they went in a 1000 different directions for Indy 4, but at the end of the day, I think I'm OK adding it to the movie rotation now as a fun adventure film, something I don't think I would have ever considered a few years ago. I'm curious, and a little excited to see what happens if Indy 5 actually comes out.

Next... Pirates of the Caribbean: ON STRANGER TIDES!

I'm a YUUUUUUUUUUGE Pirates fan. I like the entire trilogy, with the first one being obviously the best, but I appreciate the story told over all three movies, and love how they intertwine (I appreciate Norrington's sword working its way from the beginning to the end!). I was especially excited for On Stranger Tides, because.. Hey! More Pirates! My friends and I smuggled in copious amounts of rum to drink before/during/after the movie.. and, fuck, it didn't help. The movie was all over the place right from the beginning. There were small snippets where it felt like a POTC movie, but most of the time everything was just falling flat. The "in your face" 3D effects didn't impress in 3D. The new characters, especially Blackbeard, felt wasted, and yet, somehow, the returning characters felt like they were getting the short end of the stick as well. Just a bad combination of.. everything.

So I ignored this movie too, for a long while. I've watched 1-3 a number of times (a great number) since then, but just stop it before I get to 4. ... Until this weekend! Oy. Some movies are bad before, and are still bad now. This is one of those movies. Maybe there hasn't been enough time passed (6 years? Jesus), or something, but it is just still really really bad. The bad 3D effects look even worse on a 2D tv (Ooo look at me pointing at you with my sword!). The whole "I control my ship with my sword!" thing is just dumb. This movie feels like it sucks all the joy out of the first trilogy single handedly. There are still a few parts that "feel" like classic Pirates, especially the ending.. but they are so few and far between that I assume they were on accident. I don't know, there is just not a lot to like here for me personally. A D film is still a D, which still kind of makes me sad.

Now all that being said, I'm excited for the new Pirates movie.. the trailers make it seem like more of a return to form (hopefully), and it should be nice to see some old faces again.

Anyone else change their minds about these movies? I imagine they're both still pretty much universally reviled.

 

[Neff]

I loved Crystal Skull when it released and I love it now.

 

[WillyFive]

Both Indy 4 and Pirates 4 felt very different from the past movies (Indy due to an aging director and its creative team now having different tastes than they had in the 80s, and Pirates 4 being simply other people), which gave it an off-feel to them that turned off many fans of the series; but removing that expectation from the equation they are both fine movies, Indy 4 particularly.

Also, bad nostalgia from viewers had their share, at least for Indiana Jones. So many people saying Indiana Jones was too silly and unrealistic; when in Raiders the female lead defeated an enemy with a frying pan, Temple had them surviving a jump from a plane in an inflatable boat, and the entirety of The Last Crusade existing.

 

[Waddle Dee]

KotCS completely missed the point of Indiana Jones to me. Indiana Jones is supposed to be a male fantasy (you want to be Indy) or a female fantasy (you want to be with Indy). Having Harrison come back looking like a confused, tired old geezer is the opposite of that. Indiana Jones also, despite being based on those old shows from the 30's, was almost always consistent and made some sort of logical sense. The super natural stuff was always made up, but the action packed moments, and the riddles behind the super natural stuff always made consistent logic within the films. KotCS felt like a cartoon at times, with all sorts of illogical moments like the fridge scene or the monkey swinging. It just took things too far. Some moments in the previous movies were also too cartoony for their own good but they were the exception, not the rule.

 

[brandonh83]

KotCS completely missed the point of Indiana Jones to me. Indiana Jones is supposed to be a male fantasy (you want to be Indy) or a female fantasy (you want to be with Indy). Having Harrison come back looking like a confused, tired old geezer is the opposite of that.

......I still wanted to be Indy, KOTCS was 9 years ago and Ford is still a badass. He still kicked plenty of ass in that movie. I mean he downright beats the shit out of people.

 

[Kayhan]

I loved Crystal Skull when it released and I love it now.

whywhywhy.gif

 

[brandonh83]

whywhywhy.gif

I think it could be because he has an opinion!

 

[- J - D -]

I thought Pirates 4 was just boring while Indy 4 managed to offend me. But Imy not much of a Pirates fan. There was only one good movie in that series whereas Indy had 3 good ones.

 

[Divius]

Spoiler

Uh, spoilers I guess.

This is not how spoiler tags work. 2meta4me

 

[Brandon F]

Had the opposite opinion on Pirates 4 actually. Watched it last year for the first time in 3D and was actually very impressed by the visuals and 'depth' effects. Moreso than most other 3D films actually.

However, yes the story is terrible, the writing had flaws, and a big portion of it was corny/cringey, but perhaps my expectations were so low that it sort of exceeded them and I had a decent time watching it. I mean compared to the third film, it was an improvement in my eyes, just a dumb treasure hunt on the high seas with insane visual effects. At worst it was just boring.

Crystal Skull though, I found nearly unwatchable.

 

[wesleyshark]

I actually still quite enjoy On Stranger Tides, though it is weaker than the others I admit.

Crystal though.... Yikes.

 

[Splatt]

Both movies were forgettable. I don't dislike them, I'm just annoyed when I waste my time on boring movies.

I want Indy 5 to happen just to see Harrison kill all his famous characters.

 

[Rodney McKay]

PART-time.

And all I remember about the 4th POTC movie was that it was just boring as hell. The weird missionary+mermaid kinda-sorta love story that felt like it was trying to start a new love story like the original trilogy had, but it never went anywhere.

 

[brandonh83]

I find KOTCS pretty enjoyable with obvious flaws, but OST was just bland and boring to me, two things I can't personally say about the former.

 

[Poppy]

crystal skull was just too much random nonsense going on all the time, but idk i dont think its worse than temple of doom or anything. if raiders is tier one and last crusade is tier two then the others can share tier 3

 

[Sotha_Sil]

I maintain KotCS was a decent Indy movie outside of a mind-bogglingly horrible 20 minutes (sword fights, monkeys, tarzan Mutt, ants, and driving the car off the cliff onto a tree into the river) and a close-but-not-quite-as-horrible nuke test scene (which would have been interesting if Indy simply witnessed it from a distance as he made his way towards the model town).

Oddly enough, I can't remember a single detail from the Pirates movie. No comment I suppose?

 

[Brandon F]

PART-time.

And all I remember about the 4th POTC movie was that it was just boring as hell. The weird missionary+mermaid kinda-sorta love story that felt like it was trying to start a new love story like the original trilogy had, but it never went anywhere.

The Keira/Orlando surrogates in PotC 4 were boring for sure, but the real problem with the film was how cringey and terrible the Depp/Cruz bickering was throughout.

 

[brandonh83]

I maintain KotCS was a decent Indy movie outside of a mind-bogglingly horrible 20 minutes (sword fights, monkeys, tarzan Mutt, ants, and driving the car off the cliff onto a tree into the river) and a close-but-not-quite-as-horrible nuke test scene (which would have been interesting if Indy simply witnessed it from a distance as he made his way towards the model town).

I found that stuff to be a good sequence but with some bad parts here and there. I mostly liked the chase through the jungle and the fight scene around the ants. It just had a few lame beats like the vine swinging.

 

[Captain Zyrain]

Had the opposite opinion on Pirates 4 actually. Watched it last year for the first time in 3D and was actually very impressed by the visuals and 'depth' effects. Moreso than most other 3D films actually. .

Hmm. Maybe I'll root out a 3D bluray and give it another shot for the visuals. Thinking about it now, being intoxicated may have impacted how much I enjoyed the 3D the first time.

PART-time..

God! Haha I was thinking about that review often during the movie.. but even that scene didn't really sound all that bad when watching the whole scene.

 

[BumRush]

Crystal Skull was so outrageously bad, especially given the series' previous installments.

On stranger tides was decent, not great by any stretch, just decent.

 

[TAJ]

Man, I was hyped for On Stranger Tides and I saw it under the best possible conditions. I went up to Hollywood and saw it at the El Capitan. They had a cool mini-museum set up and a preshow. It was sold out and no one in the crowd wanted to be anywhere but there.
Then the movie came on and it was a big fucking nothingburger.
I recently mentioned to someone who went with me that a fifth movie was coming out. They said "So what?" and we both had a good laugh.