The Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull Outlook Thread

[Richard Penna 3,694]

The only thing I'm nervous about is the album presentation, given his dismal selections from the last few years.

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

Expect the most bizarro cuts and splices for your listening pleasure.

[Luke Skywalker 1,795]

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

It is the score's destiny.

[Ollie 1,059]

We've been hearing for months that Williams has been writing this score in the exact same style as the old films. Why are people so worried? He's only been mulling on ideas for Indy 4 for about...oh, two decades?

I for one will be extremely shocked if Indy4 is remotely written in the same style as Raiders, TOD and LC.

It will be Williams current style.

[Red 75]

With "homages" to his old style.

[Richard Penna 3,694]

And the March constrained to a 2 minute cameo during the end credits

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

I for one will be extremely shocked if Indy4 is remotely written in the same style as Raiders, TOD and LC.

Raiders, TOD and TLC are already 3 differently styled scores.

[BLUMENKOHL 1,068]

What Steefypoo said.

[Ollie 1,059]

Steefypoo?

Yes but they were written by a Williams during his peak years. Well at least two of them were.

His style is completely different now.

[Marcus 390]

Which doesn't mean he can't emulate older stylistics, should he elect to.

I mean, if I wanted to, I could at least somewhat capture the musical idiom that was mine when I was 18.

[Ollie 1,059]

But then it comes across much like TPM, similar but a faint echo of what once was.

[Marcus 390]

Or it might just be absolutely great!

[Red 75]

Like TPM was.

[Marcus 390]

Indeed!

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Hardly.

[Marcus 390]

Indeed!!

Or should I say, "Hardly", as in your hardly is hardly right?

[Morlock 11]

TPM is an excellent score, and is marvelous outside of the film, no matter how egregious the releases are. Due to the editing and the limited scope of the film, it is not as cohesivly great as the original scores....but it has a tremendous amount of highlights, many of them quite worthy to stand beside the original scores.

I'd be thrilled if KoTCS is "only" as good as TPM.

[King Mark 3,631]

Williams style changed a bit,but his music is still great. Not like Goldsmith and Horner in the 90's that changed so much I stopped buying their c.d.'s

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Hardly!

[Henry B 50]

TPM is an excellent score, and is marvelous outside of the film, no matter how egregious the releases are. Due to the editing and the limited scope of the film, it is not as cohesivly great as the original scores....but it has a tremendous amount of highlights, many of them quite worthy to stand beside the original scores.

I'd be thrilled if KoTCS is "only" as good as TPM.

Yes!

[John Crichton 4]

Williams style changed a bit,but his music is still great. Not like Goldsmith and Horner in the 90's that changed so much I stopped buying their c.d.'s

Well Horner just plain stopped trying. But late Goldsmith is still good Goldsmith.

[odnurega1 0]

Not to mention I do expect the film itself will be better than The Phantom Menace, so that should also give John Williams some additional inspiration. So I completely expect this to be the best score to have been written in years.

It won't be as good as Goldsmith's last works on the LOTR scores.

Did I miss something? Goldsmith? LOTR? Are we speaking about the Peter Jackson-directed films? Forgive me for my ignorance, but can someone fill me in?

[Jacob 0]

Did I miss something?

Yes, you did.

[JoeinAR 1,949]

I'll leave this thread for now.

The JOE is coming.

I'll get more excited as it gets closer but right now I'm not worrying about it.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Same here.

[Luke Skywalker 1,795]

I'll leave this thread for now.

The JOE is coming.

I'll get more excited as it gets closer but right now I'm not worrying about it.

Did you miss the post that was previous to mine?

[Ollie 1,059]

I'll leave this thread for now.

The JOE is coming.

I'll get more excited as it gets closer but right now I'm not worrying about it.

I'm more excited for the score than I am the film.

[tpigeon 3]

I'm excited for both. Spielberg in adventure mode is something to look forward to, I think. I'm certainly not expecting a masterpiece like "Raiders," but I'm hoping for a solid adventure with great action set pieces and dripping atmosphere.

Ted

[RuBen_Kenobi 19]

Munich is not a masterpiece. It is one messy film. Last movie he made that has the elements of a masterpiece is A.I.

Munich is a masterpiece, it is almost perfect, including Williams score and the use of it (comon´Joe say sometinh bad about it!).

Well, I´m not objective, as I adore Spielberg (no homo!). But seriusly, I think all of his movies since Private Ryan are really good except "The Terminal".

[Quintus 5,399]

Munich is an excellent thriller and another worthy addition to the Spielberg catalogue, but it pales in comparison to his mid 70s' early 80s' stuff.

[Morlock 11]

Munich is not a masterpiece. It is one messy film. Last movie he made that has the elements of a masterpiece is A.I.

Munich is a masterpiece, it is almost perfect, including Williams score and the use of it (comon´Joe say sometinh bad about it!).

Well, I´m not objective, as I adore Spielberg (no homo!). But seriusly, I think all of his movies since Private Ryan are really good except "The Terminal".

I am infinately less objective, and I adore Spielberg, and I detailed some of my problems with the film above.

[tpigeon 3]

Below is my list of Spielberg masterpieces; and by masterpieces, I mean great pieces of cinema, not a quantitatively or qualitatively measured "perfect" movies. For me, great cinema is about moments. Anyway, here are Spielberg's masterpieces:

Jaws

Close Encounters of the Third Kind

Raiders of the Lost Ark

Schindler's List

A.I. Artificial Intelligence

Munich

Ted

[Red 75]

What, no Empire of the Sun (or E.T.)?

[Morlock 11]

For me, it's Jaws, Schindler's List, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Saving Private Ryan, and AI. These are not necessarily my five favorite (I love several more of them), but five films that I feel fit the term masterpiece.

I don't know if I agree with the statement that great cinema is about moments.....certainly that's part of it (all of the above films are made up of extraordinary moments of film), but that seems both too vague and too specific a term for me.

EDIT:

What, no Empire of the Sun (or E.T.)?

Personally, I never had the deep connection to E.T. that a lot of people have. I love just about everything in it, but, for some reason, I don't unequivocally love the film. And I'm still not totally on the EoTS bandwagon, but I do feel myself liking the film more and more every time I see it. Certainly a special film, but the episodic nature (essential as I'm sure it is) still doesn't click with me.

[tpigeon 3]

I agree that it's a slippery term, but that's ok with me. By great moments, I don't mean great scenes or even great moments in a tangible sense, e.g. this shot or that composition. The moments I'm speaking of can't be measured temporally or even spatially. You said it best, Morlock: it's both very vague and very specific. It's... Deleuzian.

Ted

[Quintus 5,399]

AI is far from a masterpiece. It's not even a flawed one. It is a good film though. That said, ET utterly destroys it.

Not that I'm comparing the two you understand.

[Red 75]

Personally, I never had the deep connection to E.T. that a lot of people have. I love just about everything in it, but, for some reason, I don't unequivocally love the film.

I actually agree, but I still consider it one of Spielberg's best, and one of his master works.

[John Crichton 4]

Only the last 20 minutes or so of AI are perfect, the rest is good but overlong.

[Morlock 11]

I don't feel that it's at all overlong. It's certainly not perfect.

[King Mark 3,631]

I think A.I. is a great film too ,but not Munich

[Morlock 11]

Yes, that sounds like a KM thing to say.

[indy4 155]

My favorites by Spielberg (in no order):

Jurassic Park

Jaws

Raiders of the Lost Ark

The Last Crusade

Catch Me If You Can

E.T. The Extra Terrestrial

[Henry B 50]

Only the last 20 minutes or so of AI are perfect, the rest is good but overlong.

Gah, what?!? The slushy, tacked on ending is perfect? It should have ended with the search for the Blue Fairy. That would have made it a pretty darn good film.

[John Crichton 4]

Only the last 20 minutes or so of AI are perfect, the rest is good but overlong.

Gah, what?!? The slushy, tacked on ending is perfect? It should have ended with the search for the Blue Fairy. That would have made it a pretty darn good film.

Yup, call me a sentimental fool but that was the only part of the movie I really enjoyed. Other than the score, which is great throughout. Easily Williams' best non-franchise effort to date this century.

[Henry B 50]

You're a sentimental fool.

You are.

(But yeah, the ending is pretty moving, even if it's wrong for the film. In fact I was floored; I just felt cheaply manipulated.)

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

Somehow it's become cool to bash the entire third act of A.I. like it never had any business being there in the first place because they were so eager to end the film on a complete downer. I guess cynics will be cynics.

[Mr. Breathmask 555]

A.I. just shifts gears too blatantly when it enters the third act. It's like the tone of the movie changes in a major way (much as it did going from the first to the second act).

I've seen the movie twice - once in the cinema and once on the Beeb - and I was bored by the final half hour both times.

[Luke Skywalker 1,795]

I saw a Spielberg Interview in the TCM channel i think. (pretty actual since he spoke all of his movies including Munich)

He said that the ending was one of the few things that Kubrick had written with detail. He was amused (and annoyed i suppose) that people blamed him, and that re ruined kubricks vision.

He also said that he liked the ending and that he would have done it like that too.

So AI's ending should be considered as one of those praised Kubrick's extravaganzas and not as Spielberg's sentimental tinkering.

[King Mark 3,631]

His only major mistake in A.I. is the resemblance between the Supermechas and CE3K like aliens