oierem

And they need to crack a lot more!
I'd much rather hear actual cues from the films than the concert suites (a lot of which have been played to death, and are much more boring -and less "story-driven"- than the actual cues). 
At the very least they should play the end credit suites! That way, you'd get most of the themes in one continuous musical piece, which flows much better than 3-minute concert suites!

And they need to crack a lot more!
I'd much rather hear actual cues from the films than the concert suites (a lot of which have been played to death, and are much more boring -and less "story-driven"- than the actual cues). 
At the very least they should play the end credit suites! That way, you'd get most of the themes in one continuous musical piece, which flows much better than 3-minute concert suites!

Honestly, the Quidditch music from HP2 is not even the biggest mystery about that score.
 
Look at this cue for example:
 
 
Much of this cue are adaptations of HP1 cues and HP2 themes. But then, starting on 1:35, there is a completely original and un-thematic part. So, who wrote it?
 
And it's not exclusive to this cue either: there is a lot of other cues who include substantial original (as in, not being adapted from HP1 or 2 concert suites) material.
 
Did John Williams managed to write these small bridges between thematic arrangements before being forced to begin working on CMIYC? Or are these William Ross compositions? If they are Ross', then this is enough to warrant him an "Additional Music Composed by" credit, right? If Ross actually wrote 1:35-end of Petrified Justin, why did he says Chamber is a John Williams score through and through? To preserve Williams' image?
 
I fear this mystery won't be resolved until the actual sheets leak. Sigh...

There is no on-screen chyron that says its Germany.  It's only the original soundtrack album that says its Germany.
 
The film having no on-screen chyron indicating the place and time of the opening scene breaks tradition with the previous 4 films.

Yeah, at this point, there'd been one Indiana Jones film in the last 34 years, and it had been the target of a lot of derision. Beyond that, DoD had other factors stacked against it:
 
No Spielberg/Lucas involvement People who took issue with Harrison's age in KOTCS had 15 years' more fuel The 8-year lag after the film's development was made publicly official The baggage of the SW ST's decidedly mixed reception Movie theaters aren't exactly bustling post-covid Marketing was so-so And of course, ultimately, the film just never really justifies its own existence. KOTCS, for all its flaws, gave us a relatively lighthearted glimpse at Indy's life as an older man and closed out with a happy ending. DoD plays like a weirdly sad epilogue that wipes out that happy ending, only giving back a bit of it in the last few minutes.

KOTCS starts with a lot of promise but loses steam as it progresses. DOD takes a while to get going but its last 30 minutes are so bonkers that it becomes quite memorable.

Really cool!
My top 5 for each decade:
 
1970s
Star Wars
Superman - The Movie
Jane Eyre
Jaws
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
 
1980s
The Empire Strikes Back
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
E.T. the Extra Terrestrial
Return of the Jedi
Raiders of the Lost Ark
 
1990s
Hook
Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace
Jurassic Park
Schindler's List
Far and Away
 
2000s
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith
Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
A.I. Artificial Intelligence
 
2010s
War Horse
The Adventures of Tintin
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
 
Out of the top 25:
-11 Spielberg films
-8 Star Wars films
-2 Harry Potter films
-3 Indy films
 
 
 

Really cool!
My top 5 for each decade:
 
1970s
Star Wars
Superman - The Movie
Jane Eyre
Jaws
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
 
1980s
The Empire Strikes Back
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
E.T. the Extra Terrestrial
Return of the Jedi
Raiders of the Lost Ark
 
1990s
Hook
Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace
Jurassic Park
Schindler's List
Far and Away
 
2000s
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith
Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
A.I. Artificial Intelligence
 
2010s
War Horse
The Adventures of Tintin
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
 
Out of the top 25:
-11 Spielberg films
-8 Star Wars films
-2 Harry Potter films
-3 Indy films
 
 
 

Well, I did it. Put them all in a Sorta quiz, per decade. Knock yourselves out. I think these rankings are way more accurate than any manual systems I use. Open to suggestions for future ones.
 
60s
https://sorta.app/uq/toad.social/110623352712399789
70s
https://sorta.app/uq/toad.social/110623367086153629
80s:
https://sorta.app/uq/toad.social/110623376291767985
90s:
https://sorta.app/uq/toad.social/110623385663941150
2000s:
https://sorta.app/uq/toad.social/110623396438698778
2010-20s
https://sorta.app/uq/toad.social/110623403418273565
 
Matessino expansions:
Best Matessino/JW expansion - Quiz (sorta.app)
 
Concertos:
John Williams' Best Concerto - Quiz (sorta.app)
 
Star Wars themes:
Williams' Star Wars themes - Quiz (sorta.app)
 
Harry Potter Themes:
Williams’ Harry Potter Themes - Quiz (sorta.app)
 
Spielberg collaborations:
Williams-Spielberg Collaborations - Quiz (sorta.app)

There's some real swings and pseudo-academic conclusions in that article. And, as always, someone gets so caught up on the leitmotif angle they fail to recognize how little of Wagner's style is present in Williams, even his overtly romantic stuff. The footnote regarding Episodes I and II is pure nonsense, and doesn't seem to have anything to do with the music.

I can’t believe nobody wrote Indiana Jones conventions on a white board in preproduction . 
 
Paramount Mountain Dissolve
Credits over the first scenes
Place and Year subtitle after “Directed By..”
End credits roll over final shot slowly fades out
 
 

I guess Perils of the Deep sounds better than Perils of Enlisting in Nam. 

After listening to the OST a few more times, I really appreciate the Antiquity and Archimedes' themes now. 
 
I love how authentic the Antiquity theme sounds. If I didn't know the score and someone played to me Centuries Join Hands from 0:23 to 1:00 saying that it was a rejected cue from Alex North's Spartacus or one of Miklos Rosza Roman epics, I'll surely believe it. It's the closest Williams got to scoring something involving the Ancient Greeks/Romans, and he used it as an opportunity to bring back the sound of the old epics.
 
The Archimedes' theme is filled with wisdom, but still imponent, stern and even a little distant. It's kinda like JW's lost Dumbledore theme had he scored the latter Potter movies. 
 
Both themes are great, and proof that our Johnny remains filled with creativity even at such an advanced age.

Can someone break down what is on film during the pieces on the OST, please?  
For example I assume Marion's theme during The Perils of the Deep is when Indy tells Helena about his separation from Marion. 

Considering the Indy series as a whole, I find that both Crystal Skull and Dial of Destiny have the same function: an epilogue of sorts, in which "old tired Indy" goes from being depressed at how the world is changing to finding a new family and a reason to life. And in that regard, I think Crystal Skull is a much more satisfactory epilogue than Dial of Destiny, because it's actually a happy ending for Indy. Heck, even the final shot of Indy grabbing the hat works much better in Skull!
 
That being said, the Indy films are essentially independent films, so I like that each film has its own sidekicks. And Dial is a fun and enjoyable film! Just not the best ending to the series.  

You know what, I just let enjoy people whatever they like. But yes, it is a shame so many people don't connect with it, especially knowing it "might" be the last thing they'll hear from him in terms of big blockbuster scores like this. But then, I do remind myself that having been around this forum for about 21 years now, every new work he's done since then tends to grow on people over time. I can remember people complaining about the first Harry Potter being Williams on autopilot and Across the Stars being the least inspired thing he's ever written. Not to mention his highly inventive action music from the prequels was branded bland and boring. The expectations are so high every time that nothing short of second coming of Christ will do. But I am fairly confident people will look more fondly at this music in the future. So all is good.
 
I am not surprised at any aspect of the score because Williams has being going through this creative "retrospective" (for lack of a better work) for the past 18 years. You can tell he feels content with how the things are and doesn't feel pressure anymore to reinvent himself (that ended with Geisha and Munich, more or less). I am sure he does the film if he feels like it and does it out of pure joy of collaborating with younger filmmakers. Which, at his age, must be a source of great joy for him. To see his "Swiss watch-like" artistry applied to anything new these brings me a lot of pleasure on its own terms. He absolutely doesn't  need to feel any pressure to bring that smirk to my face, and yet he does waste his precious time and energy to do just that. I feel quite blessed.
 
Karol

I have to say I've enjoyed the film a lot more the second time. Once you know where it's going, the journey towards it makes bit more more sense, at least thematically. It's not a great climax but still better than Crystal Skull in a sense that there is some emotional weight to it as far as Indy is involved (not so much in terms of plot). Didn't feel as long as well, oddly. It's not a terrific movie but certainly doesn't deserve all the battering.
 
Karol

Didn't it feel odd to have Indy exploring a major tourist attraction? In previous films, Indy always explores hidden, forgotten places. Even Petra is presented as a lost temple somewhere in the desert. Here, for the first time, Indy visits a tourist attraction. It felt "too modern". But maybe that's the point!

This will be a fairly long and scattered post with my thoughts on the movie, so please bear with me.
 
I ended up enjoying this more than I expected, but I reckon it’s much more due to the ideas and concepts it presents than the execution itself, which I actually found to be considerably lacking.
 
First of all, I used to think you cannot possibly make an Indy movie without Harrison Ford. And while that remains to me as true as ever, I feel even more strongly now that you cannot make an Indiana Jones movie without Steven Spielberg. And even accounting for the shortcomings of KOTCS, the fact is that his directorial flair, his camera setups, his cinematic language are so integral to what made those first three films what they are, that when you remove him from the equation, you might have something that occasionally looks like the real thing, but it definitely does not move like the real thing.
 
And that’s one of the main problems I have with this movie. It is bloated. It has quite a bit of fat that absolutely needed to be trimmed off. Scenes drag a bit longer than they should. Things are shown and never implied. Some subplots either go nowhere or serve no narrative purpose whatsoever. And say what you will about those first three movies, they don’t have an ounce of fat in them. They are 2 hour movie trailers, and I mean that in the best possible way. 
 
And one of the main reasons why those movies move so fast and feel so breezy without ever feeling rushed or that crucial scenes were left on the cutting room floor comes down to Spielberg’s visual storytelling, by which with just a few seconds of footage, important information is given to the audience. Or how he can accomplish in a single shot what lesser directors need 4 or 5 separate shots to accomplish, with the necessary accompanying cuts  A few examples:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
We had none of these camera setups in this movie. And it robs the movie of the energy, thrust and propulsive narrative that is so integral to the original trilogy. 
 
And it’s a bit of a shame, really. I’m among the ones that thought that making another Indiana Jones movie was an awful idea. And yet, on a purely conceptual level, I do think Mangold’s approach, story ideas and concepts are actually pretty solid. They would’ve sold me on the project:
 
The Macguffin is fascinating and interesting, while still being different enough from previous Macguffins and is tied thematically to the inevitability of incorporating Indy’s aging into the story.  They found a really ingenious way to have a Nazi villain in the 60’s, by making him a cryptonazi that was recruited through Operation Overcast and was instrumental in USA’s Space Program. The plan of the main villain and the way to achieve it was somewhat surprising and interesting. The opening sequence was really enticing on a conceptual level.
 
And yet, I feel like all these great ideas came up invariably short. 
 
The quest for the Dial felt like a series of fetch quests, getting from point A to B through almost instantaneous puzzle solving, with the villains chasing the heroes and catching up with them at each destination. And although I do give the movie credit for trying something really bold and different for the movie’s climax, I do wonder if it wouldn't have been cooler if they actually went back to the days of WW2. And one thing that really bothered me is that the last lesson Indiana Jones ever gave was about the Battle of Syracuse and Archimedes’ involvement in it. I mean, how convenient can you get? In all previous movies, the subject of his classes was always unrelated to the story’s main quest.
 
Voller’s role in the Space Program and his recruitment through Operation Overcast was barely alluded to. It would’ve been more interesting if he was spearheading a whole secret Nazi revival within Nasa itself or something. As it stands, he just seemed like a really prestigious scientist that had two goons at his service and that was the full extent of his influence. The rest of the devotees that joined him in that doomed final flight felt they came out of nowhere.
 
His plan to try to assure Nazi victory by killing Hitler was a cool concept that really could’ve been further explored. And the revelation of this intent is done in such a matter-of-factly way that it really loses a lot of its potential impact. I wonder if they did indeed went back to 1939 and could have had some interesting moral dilemmas in whether to allow Voller to go through with his plan or not. Would murdering Hitler save more lives down the road or would it indeed bring the victory of Nazi Germany with the long term terrible consequences attached to it?
 
As for the opening sequence, it really won’t go in the de-aging process. It works mostly fine and it really was the only way to tackle this sort of sequence. The setting was great, the concept really cool, but it was simply overlong, overdone and a bit repetitive. And the whole thing with the Spear of Longinus being a fake and Voller suggesting his superiors to take the Antikythera instead felt a bit nonsensical. The sequence with the anti-air guns hitting the carriages as the train traveled through a large bend were admittedly exciting, but there’s no helping the feeling that Spielberg would’ve had a field day with this sort of material.
 
Another shortcoming I think the movie has is the humor. The verbal jokes rarely land, while the visual jokes, so integral to the Indiana Jones series, are few and far between. 
 
But again, the main problem is the bloat, the fat. And not only it is found in the sequences themselves, but also on totally irrelevant plot threads and characters. The CIA tailing Indiana Jones, the subway chase, Indiana Jones crashing the Apollo Astronauts ticker tape parade, Helena’s Short Round-like sidekick…all of those could’ve been totally excised without the movie really being any worse for it. In fact, I think 90% of the New York scenes could’ve been cut altogether. Plus, stuff like Helena’s ex boyfriend chasing them in Algiers. It just unnecessarily pads the movie and drags the whole thing down.
 
I must give the movie some credit for indulging far less in fan service that I was expecting, although I disliked every single moment they went for it: Salah’s scenes, the totally pointless bug tunnel scene in Syracuse, Indy casually mentioning drinking the blood of Kali, Indy and Marion replaying their kissing scene on the boat from Raiders. All of those could’ve been cut without any harm done to the movie.
 
The musical quotes, although I understand their purpose and dramatic effectiveness, bother me to no end and I find them particularly deflating as I considered that on a conceptual level, JW absolutely knocked it out of the park in giving musical identity to the various characters, objects, factions and concepts in the movie. The new themes are all fantastic and really provide an enormous extra layer of character, weight and significance to the movie. The frantic and never ending editing process of the action sequences probably didn’t give him all the opportunities for greater musical coherence. I absolutely love the music for the Siege of Syracuse scenes.
 
I’m probably coming across much harsher on the movie than I intended, but it irks me that the movie had a really good premise (something I thought beforehand was really hard to achieve given the circumstances), only to squander all the potential of the story with a somewhat lackluster and uninspired execution. There’s something off about the tone, about the pace, about the blocking, about the humor. It doesn’t really feel like an Indiana Jones movie. 
 
It mostly looks like one. John Williams ensures it sounds like one, for the most part. But it’s a sort of doppelganger. On the whole, it is a superior movie than Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. But as I read on the Mixnmojo forums, KOTCS was awful, but at least it was an awful Indiana Jones movie, whereas this one, while being, on the whole, a better movie, it is an above average movie wearing an Indy mask.

The theme barely has any big, schmaltzy renditions in the film, as I recall. Its presence is usually pretty subdued. I interpret the bigger, more romantic settings as reflecting JW's own musical tastes more than anything. He did the same for Marion and Willie, not to mention Leia. There's a "the theme is about how the dude sees her" argument to be made, but ultimately, I think it's just JW writing in an idiom he enjoys and that pays homage to the film's inspirations.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny - Andy's Head Canon Revised Ending:
 
Interior: Indy's Apartment
 
Helena:  You're meant to be here, Indy.  Here.
Indy: For Who?
 
The door to Indy's apartment opens.  To Indy's surprise, MARION enters along with TEDDY, and SALLAH.
 
Indy: Marion, what are you doing?
Marion: Putting groceries away. There wasn't a scrap of food in this place.
Indy: No, really.
Marion:  Someone told me you were back.
 
Before Indy can ask who, the door opens again.  The crew is joined by MUTT WILLIAMS wearing an officer's uniform, walking through the door with a wiggling ALASKAN MALAMUTE PUPPY in his arms.  Indy is in shock.  He rises in tears, and embraces his son by the shoulders, the puppy licking both of their faces.  
 
Indy: Junior!  I...
Mutt: Here, old man.  You're gonna need some help getting your strength back.
 
Mutt hands the puppy to Indy, who looks to Helena, puzzled.
 
Indy: How?
Helena: I brought you back to avoid changing the course of history.  Seems somehow, we were there long enough to do just that.
Indy:  But -
Helena:  That's the thing about Destiny.  It can't be predicted or explained.
 
Marion looks at Mutt and then to Helena.
 
Marion:  Someone told me you were back.  Are you back, Indy?
The puppy begins to squirm in Indy's arms.
 
Helena:  Looks like he doesn't know what he's got there.
Marion: Well I know what I've got here.
 
Indy and Marion embrace with a gentle kiss.  Mutt wraps his arms around them both.  The others are beaming, almost breaking into applause.  The puppy barks, breaking the awkward silence. 
 
Mutt:  He's gonna need a name, pops.
 
Indy lifts the dog, staring into its eyes.  His own welling with tears.
 
Indy:  George.  He seems like a George to me.
 
The others laugh.
 
Helena:  Why don't we go get some ice cream, kid?
Teddy: Marion just bought some.
Helena: I know a better place.
Sallah:  You can never have too much ice cream.  Are you well enough to walk, Indy?
 
Exterior: The streets of New York.  A flute and snare version of the Raiders March is heard.   POV is ground level, following the puppy walking.  We draw back to see a makeshift collar to which Indy's bullwhip is attached as a leash.  Indy is dressed in his hat and jacket, but still bandaged and in some pain as he walks George.  Marion, Mutt, Sallah, Helena, and Teddy are all walking together chattering and enjoying the day.  Indy regards the dog, who is yanking on the whip impatiently wanting to walk faster.
 
Helena:  Don't yank the collar so hard!  You'll strangle him, Indy!
 
Voice (Offscreen): You call him Doctor Jones, Doll!
 
The crew stops to see they are in front of a 1969 kung fu dojo.  In the doorway we see SHORT ROUND.
 
Short Round:  Indy!  You're back!
 
Short Round's arms are wide as he runs to join the group.  They all laugh and embrace.  The camera POV is above and rising slowly higher.  We see the whole crew exchanging stories and laughing.  Teddy attempts to pick Short Round's pocket, who stops him with lightning speed.  George is barking as the RAIDERS MARCH rises to its full glory.  Credits begin to roll over the happy gathering in the streets of New York.
 
END
 
 
 
 
 

Saw the film yesterday.
 
I'm one of those weirdos who avoided anything score-related prior to seeing the film. I knew Helena had a theme but I hadn't listened to it. I steered clear of all discussions about the film and score. So I was going in with very few preconceived notions.
 
Maybe it would have been better if I hadn't done that. Because it didn't take long for me to realize this was another COS, and it hurt my enjoyment of the film. One direct quote after another, strung together (very competently) by Williams and/or Ross.
 
If I hadn't heard any of the previous scores, I probably would be hailing this one as a triumph. It's all great stuff! But as things are, I was distracted and disappointed by each lifted passage. I hoped that they'd stop after the prologue, but they merely became a little less frequent.
 
I know how this is gonna go. As the years pass, I'll get used to these new configurations of the old writing, and I'll come to enjoy this score well enough as its own thing. That's what happened with COS. But in the meantime … damn, what a letdown.
 
(Disclaimer: I fully realize that JW is in his 90s. I don't know how he continues to do as much as he does. Not holding anything against him, or anyone else.)

The prologue as scored in the film is a mess. It introduces 6 new themes among a mish mash of tracked and re-recorded temp. The listeners would be lost. It might have played poorly as an opener.
 
So maybe he approximated the prologue music with his credits concert piece first to give the listeners a taste of the same themes but in a cleaner presentation. 

Whip Count
  Raiders  Disarm Barranca Swing across pit Return swing / bargain with Satipo Disarming Toht’s poker Cairo cracking Climbing the statue Truck chase drag   Temple of Doom Pankot assassin/ ceiling fan Swinging down to the stones Being whipped by the Thuggee Swing across the catwalks Disarming Thugee swordsman Wrapping Willie to draw her in for a smooch   Last Crusade  Young Indy scar crack Castle Swing to get to Dad Saving Dad on the Tank   Crystal Skull Disarming Russian and taking machine gun Swing in warehouse Trying to save Mac   Dial of Destiny  prologue on the train At the auction     Raiders is the winner with Temple a close second.    The whip is also a co-Star with lots of closeups as in Indy using it to Break through spiderwebs and remove tarantulas, yanking it with sound effects before the temple door closes on it, Indy packing it in his suitcase , Imam’s house , and Marion mistaking it for a snake and burning it.  There was also the scene where he lashes himself to the periscope. But the outtakes look like it wasn’t filmed as written, plus Jones doesn’t have it when he swims to the sub .    

This has been a gripe I’ve had since Temple of Doom where Jones would use his whip every 5 minutes and then floss his teeth with it.  
 
It’s part of the character! If you were describing the character to someone unfamiliar, whip would be in your first sentence. 
 
So here we have Ford with limited capacity for the stunts and action. The bullwhip is the perfect solution! The pistol too for that matter. At least we had the small gunfight in DOD. 
 
But there should’ve been a lot more whip cracking.  
 
I need to do a whip count for each movie. Like a body count for slashers. 

My take on the film:
 
In general:
+++ Ford's acting!
++ Phoebe Waller-Bridge's acting
++  I think the film excellently balances between Indy's grit/toughness and vulnerability. I liked the exchange about the watch being a memento for Indy's father. You could feel for Indy just being an old human being not having the energy to suffer everybody and everything being unkind to him. In many such small moments an excellent movie that could have been tried to raise its head. Ditto the 'my friend just got murdered'. Or fixing the engine problem and smiling. Or managing to climb the cliff but having Helena show some care (which also sets up her later care for him in Syracuse).
+ Helena was not overpowered; she tried to take charge of action scenes with varying success, did not overshine Indy, I liked very much how balanced it was between them and I think the filmmakers did a good job in telling "that episode where Indy goes on an adventure with his goddaughter" kind of story. For example: the scene where Helena and Teddy discuss who is really in charge, and Indy is a bit more.
++ It's a personal take that can be wrong, but it seemed to me Williams wrote and used Helena's theme in a way that vaguely reminded me of a kind of quaint woman-centered adventure from the 1950s/1960s, or a later throwback film like Passage To India. For whatever reason I generally felt that Williams generally wrote a bit in the spirit of Maurice Jarre for this film.
+ starting from Morocco the film found its footing.
+ I enjoyed Sallah's cameos. I realized it would be too contrived to have him be present during the adventures, and I low-key liked how they presented him simply as a family man and a friend adding a bit of positive energy to the film.
 
Details:
- I didn't like the 1944 prologue (confound soft reboots, including music reuse) or the New York very much (perhaps I saw too many set photos and had unrealistic expectations).
- The horse chase was kind of pathetic. I don't know how to express it better. I don't think it was necessary for the film to point out the datedness of escaping on horseback.
+ The audience in my theater did chuckle though when Indy said the subway was faster, so I guess that landed.
- ambiguous FBI / CIA ties of the bad guys that make it confusing early on just who was giving orders or in general what to expect from them
+ the bad guy gang was just good enough as far as the mooks went, even if the characters were not as easy to tell apart as the bad guys from Raiders, Temple, or Crusade
+ The hotel brawl scenes were fun. Reminded me of the bar fight in POTC: Dead Man's Chest.
+  The Tuk-Tuk escape from that comedy genre gangster in love with Helena. LOL
+ Teddy was well-written and well-acted. He didn't feel annoying, forced, or too in/competent. That one scene of a set up of him probably being able to fly a plane later sufficed for the pulp genre.
- Did Helena try to get Indy killed underwater by leaving him to the eels and then changed her mind? I didn't quite get that scene.
- Banderras character was kinda a waste, dragged into the story only to get killed (the disposable pilot / thanks for the ride / selfless friend trope)
+ singing Beethoven's 5th in the cave. Random stuff like this helps keep a series fresh. Reminded me of such moments in TLJ.
+ giant goon (Oliver Richters) died a bit like the spider alien from Treasure Planet, outsmarted by the kid. Not what I expected, but fair enough xD
- the real pilot waking up in the back of the kid's Cessna felt like seeing a clear fix to a plothole that was not introduced yet (how would a kid regain control of an airplane in freefall)
+ Voller seemed intelligent, with my favourite moment being when he realized the validity of Indy's warning and tried to turn the plane back. In general I loved the tension right before they entered that portal, and the tension immediately after. The film had several top notch scenes, but sadly also many just decent and quite a few weaker ones.
+ the Syracuse battle was a fun idea, reminded me of the battle from the third Mummy movie.
-- but the plane just circling around and getting flak from ballistas felt a bit aimless. Missed opportunities in that final act.
- Archimedes interacted with the McGuffin plot but didn't feel impactful (unlike the Grail Knight), and the supporting characters in the ancient era (the guy with a bow, the random Roman officer) seemed pointless.
+ Indy talking in Greek. I like to think about it as a little pay-off to Henry Jones Sir's forcing his son to practice Greek in Crusade.
+ Helena being shown as vulnerable by knowing some Greek but not as well as Indy. Part of that balancing.
+ Ford's acting out the character's motivation to stay in the past just to watch was good, for a second you could imagine him staying being an ending that would make sense to the character, but I also liked how the nonverbal sentiment Helena tried to express was acted out. Unpopular opinion, but I kinda bought the punch to the face Indy got. I thought it was cartoony kind of funny, like hot shoes after stopping the mine cart or rolling out of a fridge. Indy is not just the kind of character who can be flawed and get hit, but also inherently the kind of character that can be the butt of slapstick. I preferred the film to end more like ROTJ than like TLJ, with him surviving.
-/+ I didn't like the reunion with Marion in KOTCS and I wasn't excited about another one here, but Ford's acting throughout the film made it seem fitting. I smiled at the idea of a simple, down-to-earth romance scene between two old characters. I also like how Helena smiled and disappeared from the picture at a right moment. This, plus Sallah-coming-and-going felt like a well-cooked mood soup.
+ I liked the final close-up on the hat being pulled back through the window and the screen turning into a contracting circle (like Star Wars OT, only slower, cartoon style). Precisely for that kind of light final note I wanted Indy to live another day.
 
Overall very different from but probably better than KOTCs (a film I like for what it's worth); it's about on par with an archeology-themed flick like National Treasure to me. Would watch again sometime.