I find it very odd that you rate Last Crusade so low due to the humor. I thought that Crystal Skull was worse than LC in that regard, and Temple of Doom should be absolute rock bottom by that metric.
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Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
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I find it very odd that you rate Last Crusade so low due to the humor. I thought that Crystal Skull was worse than LC in that regard, and Temple of Doom should be absolute rock bottom by that metric.
Jasperak
Adventurer
You know if they left that to be the humor of the movie I would have loved it. They were great together!
But making Marcus an imbecile, an airplane skidding through a tunnel past a car with the pilot looking at them as he skids past, the Jones boys running on a beach with no cover just so Connery could puff the umbrella he'd been carrying with him throughout the movie to get the birds to crash the airplane, Indy throwing the Nazi Colonel out of the zeppelin and saying no papers. Way too many tonally dissonant scenes and sequences that detracted from the overall pacing and mood of the story.
In Raiders, the humor is much more witty and subtle like Marion hitting Indy with the mirror and then saying, 'did you say something?', Marion pulling a knife on Belloq and then them both laughing, or my favorite line of Sallah's, 'Bad Dates.' Humor used to just barely release the tension that had been building throughout the movie.
On to DoD though, On first viewing, the only major disappointment I have is the sequence with Banderas. What a waste. If they had treated it like when we were introduced to Sallah and working with Indy in Raiders, it would have been so much better. I get that it was supposed to be like a call back to Indy and Sallah searching and digging for the Well of Souls, but it just fell flat for me. I think I need to watch it again to see if maybe I was distracted and missed some stuff.
payn
I don't believe in the no-win scenario
I feel like these blockbusters made a transition overtime from organic comic relief to a certain fan service where the characters almost break the 4th wall. It’s especially bad in Crystal Skull.
To its credit, Dial limits this to few member berry moments, but overall the film rolls on organically. Didn’t have the amusement park ride feel a lot if these movies in general have taken on.
Jasperak
Adventurer
Yep, that's what I couldn't put my finger on. The tension level in DoD just doesn't ratchet up like previous movies. It has a more natural feel like real life, but neglects its pulp roots.
Raiders has a constant increase of narrative tension of, 'How is he gonna get out of this next problem,' only to be broken temporarily by the 'comic relief'. Take for example one of the best scenes in Raiders where Indy and Belloq are talking as rivals/peers in the cafe after Marion is apparently killed. Words are exchanged to the point that all of the cafe patrons draw their weapons on Indy, and he is 'rescued' by Sallah's children. Belloq's final words are threatening, but the scene ends on a humorous note. It's that ratcheting effect that I didn't catch on the first view through DoD.
Raiders succeeded because it took itself seriously and the rising tension was real to the characters. And ratcheting of tension in Last Crusade? Nope, that movie looks like parts of it were constructed by Douglas Adams. Even though the sequence in the library in Venice and afterward is mostly tight, the idiotic choice to have the librarian think his stamper is causing the noise of marble shattering is stupid beyond belief. The only thing Last Crusade took seriously was its absurdism, so to me it was like riding the kiddy coaster. Remember such gems as (and I paraphrase from memory) Marcus says to Connery in the tank, 'Don't you see Henry, the pen is mightier than the sword,' after squirting ink into the Nazi's eyes. This is 2/3 of the way through the movie, not the time to make ridiculous jokes when you are still stuck inside a Nazi tank.
I didn't catch anything like this in DoD that far into the movie.
Wolfram stout
Hero
It is what I called the hyuck-hyuck humor. Young Indy jumps for his horse and it moves just enough for him to fall (cue hyuck hyuck laugh), Indy's face as he sinks down out of view with the love interest, the total character assassination of Marcus for cheap laughs.
It has always just hit me wrong. The humor in 2 and 4 never struck that same nerve.
Jasperak
Adventurer
Hyuck-hyuck humor? Like the Three Stooges. I almost think you also meant that there were parts of Last Crusade where there was almost supposed to be a laugh track? But there was! You can hear it right in John William's soundtrack. Ad Nauseam.
What little humor there was in Temple often came from cultural unawareness and almost specifically from Willie. While that humor was not played for absurdity like in Last Crusade, it was maybe culturally insensitive where we're supposed to laugh at the white girl who can't stomach the thought of eating monkey brains. I think Willie is supposed to be the character from a western point of view that the audience is supposed to more identify with, unlike Indy who has been around the world and experienced for more than the audience was expected to have. So I wonder if we're laughing more at her than commiserating with her by putting ourselves in her slipperz? I believe this confusion in narrative function strikes a much different nerve than Last Crusade, and partially why it ranks so low on most people's listings.
In Last Crusade we're supposed to laugh at Indy falling of the horse (remember John told us it was funny), but how are we supposed to feel during the dinner in the Maharaja's palace. Indy thinks Willie's reactions hilarious (fruit scene afterward), but what about us? The one thing Pulp is supposed to do is completely control our emotional involvement and reactions.
Watched it last night. Felt like an Indy movie. The plot was the same....Indy uses clues to find magic item that Nazis could never find on their own, hands it to the Nazis, who then mess up. And things work out.
I am unsure if I want the franchise re-booted (like Bond), or just want a new character doing similar things.....
I am unsure if I want the franchise re-booted (like Bond), or just want a new character doing similar things.....
The Soloist
Hero
The only gag that irked me in Crusades was the fighter plane fuselage sliding in the tunnel. It was over the top and broke my suspension of disbelief. The rest was funny and competent.
Kaodi
Hero
I watched this yesterday with my Dad and enjoyed it more than I thought I would given some of the commentary I had seen when it came out. But the one literal plot hole that irks me is how the portal to another time is extremely obvious, and the MacGuffin is supposed to be all math, and yet nobody has just run into these things accidentally from time to time?
