Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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33 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Gorgeous Film - Plot Suffers Terribly, 22 Sep 2008
Let me be very fair by stating that this film is beautifully recreated in Blu-Ray with all the special effects and sound seemingly amplified! It's a beauty!
However, the fourth installment of "Indiana Jones" is a disappointment. The entrance scene with Indiana and his fedora in a silhouette is a nice start, but the film's plot quickly disintegrates into implausibility. Now, I do understand the Saturday `Flash Gordon' type stories where credibility is stretched for entertainment, but this film stretches and breaks. Marion is back (Karen Allen) and her entrance is so very welcome, but she soon disappears into a one-dimensional character. Indiana's new side-kick (Shia LaBeouf) misses his mark and only annoys when constantly slicking back his hair (thanks to George Lucas). John Hurt is such a great actor, it hurts to see him delegated to barely speaking, but his face tells a lot more than the dialogue around him. Cate Blanchett is thoroughly believable as the commie villain, but her character is also `dumbed-down'.
The action scenes are not as inventive as previous Indiana Jones films (remember the first 15 minutes of "Temple of Doom" from the dance number, "Anything Goes" to jumping out a three-story building to a car chase to jumping out of a plane in a raft to sliding down a snow peaked glacier to dropping off a cliff into a wild raging river and on and on...?) There is nothing like that here. There is a floating car with our heroes that goes over numerous gigantic waterfalls and no one gets hurt (only a little wet). The car chase scene on the cliff never gets too exciting and to see LaBeouf swinging on vines ala Tarzan is just TOO much to have the audience believe. Do I need to add the scene where Indy survives a nuclear blast by hiding in a refrigerator that is blown a mile away? And finally, I apologize, but the "Close Encounters" ending is fairly dramatic, but with all that torrential water gushing, mountains collapsing and the winds hurling around the characters, why don't their clothes or hair move at all? It is the most egregious CGI overlook since George Lucas ("Return Of The Jedi") had Mark Hamill fly through the redwood forest on the air-scooters and the ferns didn't move at all.
Like I said, I tried to be fair. It is still a great film compared to most that is out there. But when Lucas and Spielberg set the bar SO high with previous works, they can't top themselves and that hurts - kind of like growing up and realizing your heroes are really ordinary people. But it's still worth watching (or owning), if only for its historical significance and the beautifully filmed scenery (in Blu-Ray!!!) Get the first three in Blu-Ray as well. The difference will make the films seem like new!
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Specifications, 20 Jul 2009
the 4th part is not as good as part 1 or 3 - but worth watching.
Audio: English TrueHD, Franch, German, Italian, Spanish
Sub: English, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portugese, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish
126 min
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34 of 53 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Tame, tepid, twee, tiresome and tedious, 24 Sep 2008
What an immense disappointment this film was. After 19 years of waiting we deserved something better. I can't imagine what Spielberg was thinking when he threw this film together. It's a long, long way from the previous installments in the franchise.
Harrison Ford looks bored out of his mind and who wouldn't be. It's not that he's too old or anything it's just that there is nothing much for him to do apart from spew loads of exposition (the previous films kept this to a minimum). Up until this installment every Indy film had several key, iconic scenes. Be it a tumbling rock or a mine car chase there was something standout and memorable about all of them. There's nothing like that here, nothing.
The pre-release hype reminded me a lot Bruce Willis talking-up Die Hard 4.0 [Blu-ray] [2007]] the previous summer. He assured that the film would be 'old school' and was 'the best one yet'. And then when it did finally come out it was a PG-13 family movie filled with CGI effects. So much for old school. Spielberg tried to hype Indy IV with the same logic. He'd be shooting in Panavision (sadly not as common as it used to be), editing the old-fashioned way and using as many non-computer-generated effects as possible.
Well, that turned out to be a lie. Crystal Skull looks far too slick to be in the same category as Douglas Slocombe's fantastically dark photography of the first three. Not only is CGI prevalent throughout there is also extensive use of digital mattes which look totally out of place in an Indy film. In no way does this look or feel like either of the three movies that preceded it.
I have read that Frank Darabont wrote the original script which both Spielberg and Ford loved but George Lucas (who has been flogging his one long-dead horse since 1977 for all it's worth) hated it. I have no idea what that script was about but I have no doubt that it was miles better than what we finally got. Aliens simply do NOT belong in an Indy film. Lucas can force that nonsense on us in his endless Star Wars series as much as he wants but not here, Sir. And on top of that the plot doesn't even make sense and is very poorly delivered to the viewer, excessive exposition or not. Indy IV feels more like a rejected Mummy 3 script than anything else.
Karen Allen returns as Marion but has next to nothing to do apart from drive a car-boat and tag along with the already bloated cast. Indy, Mutt, Mac, Ox and Marion all searching for an ancient treasure while being pursued by (a gorgeous) Cate Blanchett. My God is this friggin' ain't The Goonies [Blu-ray] [1985], man. And despite the PG-13 rating it is probably the tamest Indy film yet. Look at the final scene in Indiana Jones - Raiders Of The Lost Ark - Special Edition [1981] with the exploding heads and melting faces. How brilliant and timeless is that? It's pure imagination mixed with great make-up effects and it's a finale that everyone remembers. Irina Spalko (who does not one evil thing in the whole movie) meets an altogether much lazier fate. I won't ruin it for you despite already having given most of the ending away but I will say that it's quick and unaffecting and looks like it came out of a video game.
When all else fails you could usually turn to John Williams for comfort. Sorry folks, but Williams (along with everyone else, it seems) is strictly phoning it in for this one. His themes are lazy, boring and instantly forgettable. Don't expect anything as awesome as 'Parade of the Slave Children' or 'Desert Chase' here. The Ark of the Covenant theme can be heard near the start but all the new material is as bland as it can get.
Indy IV should never have happened. If the series MUST have been continued then a big-screen Young Indiana Jones adventure would have held so much more potential. The Young Indy series is exactly what you need to watch if you feel let down by this time-wasting potboiler. Though I did appreciate the Young Indiana Jones reference about half an hour into it. I wonder how many people picked up on that.
Spielberg has lost it. Plain and simple.
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