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


Joe Brausam

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The film would've worked better had they toned down the aliens (just get rid of them and their fucking temple ship thing) - focused instead on the mystery of the skulls tied with the Spalko Russian plot. Whilst the first three have supernatural elements, they're ultimately left ambiguous and to the imaginations of the audience.

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It's pretty amazing a director as talented as Spielberg could be so oblivious to so many fundamental issues. He was willfully complicit in the alien rubbish just to shut George up, but how did he not pull rank on the excess of bad CGI, overly stylised cinematography, flat performances, lack of real/exotic locations (not even leaving the USA, seriously?) and complete lack of narrative momentum for almost an hour of the runtime?

 

But perhaps the biggest issue, and it falls squarely at his feet, is the film lacks teeth. Everything is watered down and bloodless. Villains without villainous motivations to avoid offending anyone. All deaths shielded from viewers and off-screen to protect the kiddies. Indy doesn't shoot a single person in the film because focus groups don't like our heroes using guns. In fact, I don't think a single person is shot on-camera in the entire film.

 

It's like the prototype Disney watered-down acquisition, before they even acquired the franchise. 

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For me it fell apart right at the core concept. The first three tap into millenium- (or more)-old, very much existing and known mythology, that you can do a half-sentence explanation on and (well, at least for 1 and 3) pretty much all of Western audiences will just get it. It adds a lot of familiarity and weight to it all and you can spend more time on the adventure itself. Now, crystal whats? Oh, a 150-year old US-only obvoius hoax? Lame. Will he be after fucking Bigfoot next? Oh, they actually just found Eldorado, but that's relegated to a throwaway mention! Knowledge was their treasure, gimme more of that shit, that's the kind of cheese I expected and wanted from an Indiana Jones movie!

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1 hour ago, Quintus said:

The nuketown scene is one of the only parts that strangely feels quite Indiana Jonesy. Or maybe what I really mean is that it feels quite Harrison Fordy.

 

Agreed, as a standalone mini-adventure, the opening act works. It's the only part of the film that captures that classic Indy feel, probably helped by the lack of CGI, actual locations and real vistas. 

 

Everything falls apart once they reach Peru. Real locations are replaced with obvious backlots and obvious extras, wide shots are saturated with CGI, jungle "exteriors" are poorly dressed soundstages, and Kaminski's colour grading looks like an acid trip compared to Slocombe's shades of tan.

 

And why the heck do they establish Mutt bringing his bike to Peru then hiding it behind some bushes, only to play no further part in the film? Baffling writing. 

 

Here's an idea: maybe the Russians find the bike, hide it in their convoy, then it plays a big role in the jungle chase, complete with a trademark hero shot of Mutt bursting from the truck into the jungle. Does that not make a little more sense than CGI-riddled antics like fencing atop a car while plants whack him in the groin, or swinging on vines alongside hundreds of monkeys? It's this screenwriting concept called "setup and pay-off," something Koepp clearly doesn't grasp.

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Aliens weren't the problem at all. I think it's actually a cool story (As GL's stories are always solid), but like Mr. Arbogast would have so eloquently put it, if it doesn't gel, it isn't aspic and that movie just didn't gel. Everyone on the production was rusty including the clearly uninspired Williams. It's just a boring flick and ultimately seemed like a waste of everyone's time.

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Has there ever been a major action film in the history of Hollywood, where the directors, producers, composer, main actor, possibly his love interest etc. had an average age higher than mid-seventies?

 

Ok, maybe Koepp is a bit younger. He is roughly the age of Mac.

 

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8 hours ago, Tom said:

it should not be difficult to make a good one.

 

It would.

 

There should never have been an Indiana Jones movie set after The Last Crusade. That film was - and should have remained - the last say on Indiana Jones. Were it not for that fact, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull would have been mildly embrassing rather than bad, outright.

 

The very concept of Indy 4 was doomed to fail, as is that of Indy 5.

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They should make a proper Mummy movie instead. The actors are 30 years younger and yet more mature approach can still be pursued, Spielberg directing would be a sufficient incentive to bring Rachel Weisz back, Fraser, if directed well, could resurface from the bottom of the ocean, where he currently resides, and Williams would get a unique task of following up a great Goldsmith score, which could inspire him.

 

And then cast Harrison Ford as the villain.

 

I'm sure George Lucas would be happy to research and write a proper Mummy-themed draft. And as for directing a semi-horroresque adventure, I believe it is something that Spielberg could actually do better than a light comedy nowadays.

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7 hours ago, Chen G. said:

It would.

 

There should never have been an Indiana Jones movie set after The Last Crusade. That film was - and should have remained - the last say on Indiana Jones. Were it not for that fact, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull would have been mildly embrassing rather than bad, outright.

 

The very concept of Indy 4 was doomed to fail, as is that of Indy 5.

There are plenty of solid adventure stories that could be told with the Indiana Jones concept.

Of course Last Crusade was a brilliant finale, but I cannot think of any good reason why more movies have no chance to work.

 

I've read plenty of the additional books too.

Some are crap stories. Some I'd definitely consider worth watching as a movie.

"The Labyrinth of Horus" in particular.

Even just the opening two paragraphs just really suck me in that world of fun adventure. :D

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28 minutes ago, Pieter_Boelen said:

Even just the opening two paragraphs just really suck me in that world of fun adventure. :D

 

What are they?

 

29 minutes ago, Pieter_Boelen said:

There are plenty of solid adventure stories that could be told with the Indiana Jones concept.

Of course Last Crusade was a brilliant finale, but I cannot think of any good reason why more movies have no chance to work.

 

Chen just has a very strong need of closure. :)

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Its not quite closure, because its not a concluding piece. The Indiana Jones films are all perfectly standalone. But I do think The Last Crusade is a wonderful goodbye to the character.

 

Just because you can tell more stories about a character, doesn't necessarily mean you should. Better to end on a high note, then to continue so far afield that the series becomes diluted and trivial.

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2 hours ago, Jurassic Shark said:

What are they?

Unfortunately it's by a German writer and while his work was translated to Dutch, it never made it to English.

Which is quite bizarre really and I wonder how that ever came to happen.

Not all his books are equally excellent, but he wrote quite a few and most do feel quite right and different from each other.

 

This particular book I mentioned starts with a James Bond opening of Indy driving a truck from into a small town while being chased by a horde of angry desert people on horseback.

It's written with a great deal of humour and wit; as fitting for a fun adventure story.

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I've posted before, and I'll post again...once you get past the fact that IJ+TKOTCS is not an Indiana Jones film, then it's not bad. The central tenet of the film (Williams' relationship with Oxley) is very touching (witness Le Beouf crying at the loss of his friend's mind). Unfortunately, almost everything that surrounds this, is pure shite, which is a shame.

That being said, I like the idea that, in every single IJ film, Jones goes looking for one thing, only to find something much more precious.

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  • 4 months later...

Can you really "soft reboot" Indiana Jones anyway? They're just adventure films, they all follow the same general structure. You just change the villains, locations and McGuffin and you're good to go.

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1 hour ago, Fargo said:

Maybe this version of Shia LeBeouf will turn out better. 

 

That doesn’t sound too hard.

 

You know who they’re going to use, right? For Indy and Marion’s granddaughter? She’s already had her audition!

 

isabela-moner.jpg

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42 minutes ago, Pellaeon said:

 

That doesn’t sound too hard.

 

You know who they’re going to use, right? For Indy and Marion’s granddaughter? She’s already had her audition!

 

I would be very ok with this.

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On 5/7/2019 at 3:43 PM, Jay said:

Disney is still committed to this movie, slotting it for July 9th 2021

 

https://deadline.com/2019/05/star-wars-movies-new-mutants-disney-fox-release-schedule-1202608933/

If the studio is still holding firm on that target release date, then it would make sense for DisneyConcerts to start issuing L2P concerts of, at least one, of the remaining 'Indy' films, for the sake of promoting the 'Indy' brand.  How many orchestras in the world have yet to play the 'Raiders' L2P concert since it debuted in 2016?

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