Melon Husk
Member
I've seen it. It's better than Crystal Skull, that's all you need to know.
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Indiana Jones & The Dial of Destiny
- Thread starter Darkmakaimura
- Start date
That bar is so low it's a line drawn on the floor....
Darkmakaimura
Can You Imagine What SureAI Is Going To Do With Garfield?
I actually kind of liked Crystal Skull.
So from all the reactions here, it's just very sad to see how this franchise has fallen. This is my favorite adventure franchise and Raiders of the Lost Ark is my dad's favorite movie. If he were still living today, and I told him what the reactions were, would be so disappointed and sad.
Also, to the person in the thread who says that an old Indiana Jones does not work, you are absolutely correct.
Red Crayon Aristocrat
Member
If I liked Dwayne Johnson's Jungle Cruise, despite some annoying Woke moments, will I like this? Is it at least on that level?
That film was fun but the 100% CGI realllllllyy killed it. That script, those actors, and a proper sound stage river would have made a classic. Those CGI baddies at the end...eh. But the incorporation of the ride was soooo good, it's about the only thing giving me hope the new Haunted Mansion flick might be somewhat decent.
ManaByte
Gold Member
Harrison Ford HATES Shia. Thinks he’s a “fucking idiot”.
Harrison Ford calls Shia LaBeouf a 'fucking idiot' for criticising Indiana Jones
LaBeouf had claimed he 'dropped the ball' when making 'Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull'
www.nme.com
It was him.
ManaByte
Gold Member
He’s talking about the bullshit made up by the masked Nazi on YouTube where time travel revisits all of the previous villains in the movies and erases Indy from existence to be replaced by Helena. So, no they were all bullshit.
Red Crayon Aristocrat
Member
Normally I'd agree but I felt Jungle Cruise did the CGI landscapes really well.
StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
How's Harrison Ford? In Crystal Skull he was already old, slow and spoke like a disinterested grandpa. It's got to be way worse now???
They did, but that weird Sphere sheen on everything was noticable. I think a more traditional physical set based approach would have done better. Practical ALWAYS feels better for these stunt based adventure films. Compare it to the new Jumanji shot in Hawaii or wherever. The landscape is a character and CG just doesn't act well.
Instead of being intelligent, wise, and insightful with some minor capacity for adventurousness a la Sean Connery in Last Crusade*, they have him being an all-out action hero supported by a bunch of bad CG. Except they also have Girl Boss beat him up, talk shit about him, and upstage him whenever possible, which is truly miserable.
*Sean Connery was 56 in The Last Crusade, and they scripted him appropriately as a refined elder who uses his wits over brawn. Harrison Ford is 80.
Fake
Gold Member
I just hate this trend. About new writers want their piece of the cake, but without making new IPs, so they create a new character and for this new character to shiny the old popular one need to get die/shit/joke/downplayed.
I not even mention about this those 'unsufferable woman characters' trends.
I was expecting Harrison Ford poor performance based on the trailers and the loads of CGI.
At this point he is just a trademark for someone work.
I not even mention about this those 'unsufferable woman characters' trends.
I was expecting Harrison Ford poor performance based on the trailers and the loads of CGI.
At this point he is just a trademark for someone work.
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What A Shame...
Banned
It was him.
For that specific shot, sure. I don't for a second believe he did even half the stunt work during the train fight. And when I say "stunt work" I'm referring to anything beyond a brisk walk.
Hero of Spielberg
Member
Dad took me to Temple of Doom when I was 3, my first movie at the cinema I think. I don’t think he was expecting a heart to be ripped out of someone’s chest and we had to make a swift exit with me bawlingI saw Raiders and Temple Of Doom as a double bill at the age of 8.
Never did me no harm.
IFireflyl
Gold Member
I just saw the movie tonight. Someone else bought my ticket, but I still feel like I overpaid. It was very not good. The action sequences were sad. The plot was equally bad. Almost nothing was different between the beginning of the movie and the end of the movie. What a waste of my time.
VulcanRaven
Member
Rockondevil
Member
Wife and kid are away for a week. Got a ticket for tomorrow. I don’t expect much, so hopefully I get something.
FunkMiller
Member
Deadline reporting a 6 million dollar Thursday.
ManaByte
Gold Member
*58, and only 12 years older than Harrison Ford at the time yet was playing his father. They had to make sure Connery’s beard was always full and white so he’d appear older.
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Bitmap Frogs
Mr. Community
Dude you know your movies eh!
In my head canon indys mom was Indy Sr.s 10th grade teacher, explaining A. His relative youth compared to Indy and B. Indys predelection for young female students himself.
Overall I liked it, few points:
I'll be watching again so may update
- Dialogue was generally good. Indy had a lot of cringe out of character lines in KOTCS which I wish had been cut, I didn't notice any/many in this one.
- Quite a few times Helena upstages him and takes the mantle/lead. I understand he can't do TOO much physically, but some of the scenes she does this are using brains getting out of a tight spot. He should have done that, he's the main
- The de-aging, while the best I've seen, I could still tell and it uncanny valleyed me. I didn't notice the same on de-aged Mads Mikkelsen though, so I'm wondering if it's because I'm just a super-nerd of the franchise
- Music-wise. I understand Williams is 90, but I didn't hear many standout tracks. Helenas theme was prominent (and is good), but nothing else new stood out. The guy is a legend though he doesn't need to keep doing this
- Quite a few times Helena upstages him and takes the mantle/lead. I understand he can't do TOO much physically, but some of the scenes she does this are using brains getting out of a tight spot. He should have done that, he's the main
- The de-aging, while the best I've seen, I could still tell and it uncanny valleyed me. I didn't notice the same on de-aged Mads Mikkelsen though, so I'm wondering if it's because I'm just a super-nerd of the franchise
- Music-wise. I understand Williams is 90, but I didn't hear many standout tracks. Helenas theme was prominent (and is good), but nothing else new stood out. The guy is a legend though he doesn't need to keep doing this
I'll be watching again so may update
VulcanRaven
Member
Audience score in 88% on Rotten Tomatoes.
ManaByte
Gold Member
As of right now it’s Williams’ final released movie (Fabelmans is his final recorded score, he did Indy first). So unless Spielberg talks him into scoring Bullitt, this is it.
ManaByte
Gold Member
Already saw some idiot on Reddit claiming Disney is forcing their employees at gunpoint to post good reviews on RT (without knowing you have to have a verified ticket to post there).
ManaByte
Gold Member
Yea and Frank Darabont wrote Saucer Men From Mars (Indy 4), which Crystal Skull is basically the same movie of only without Sean Connery since they couldn’t convince him to come out of retirement. In Darabont’s script he sang at Indy and Marion’s wedding.
nkarafo
Member
5.5 would indicate it's still an average movie. I highly doubt it deserves as much.
Ulysses 31
Member
It could be competently made, just boring to sit through.
Dr. Claus
Banned
The final indy was Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Honestly I thought Crystal Skull was a better film than this. Dial of Destiny is too slacktvist-bent in its writing and insulting to long time fans and Indy as a character.
ManaByte
Gold Member
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It cost 300 million dollars to make so there’s a lot of money on screen as a popcorn summer blockbuster, even if the money is not spent well. Harrison Ford is still kind of charismatic, Mads isn’t given much to work with but still uses it well, and James Mangold is not at his best by any means but is still a competent filmmaker. There are some fun moments and they fight Nazis. Yay.
It’s dragged down by the awful, bitter, smug Phoebe Waller Bridge, who for some reason is written to be sexy at times (unconvincingly) but also completely masculine and dominant (unconvincingly). She exists for most of the runtime to browbeat and undermine Indy with her best Brie Larson in Captain Marvel impression. She beats up a bunch of men, including Grandpa Indy, and has perfect knowledge of everything in the entire field of archaeology and history despite being a new PhD student. Her character arc is that she becomes slightly less of a sociopath for no real reason toward the end. Smells like Kathleen Kennedy’s input created her.
It’s also just not that interesting to watch Dial go through its motions. The extremely long chase sequences are so CG laden that you can’t get into what’s happening. The de-aging tech used for a significant chunk of the film is awkward and made me feel like I was watching a cartoon. I was waiting for many of the big set pieces to just end, but they keep going, and going. The plot is serviceable but mediocre and doesn’t take many risks. Characters are largely wasted.
Maybe most important is the air of melancholy surrounding near-death Harrison Ford—who has a shirtless scene early on, to establish ever more firmly that he’s not able to do the things we then see him do—being dressed up and thrust into so many action hero moments via CG and stuntmen walking around with his face, both de-aged and otherwise. It’s a depressing simulacrum of a better time for movies.
Ulysses 31
Member
Spooky Scary Skeleton
Member
I mean, the Temple of Doom is better movie than Crystal Skull, so that doesn't really specify much.
Melon Husk
Member
An uneven Indy adventure. While Crystal skull was all around weak, Dial of Destiny has some weak moments and some strong moments. The intro and the finale are its strengths and save the movie.
When Mangold takes risks, it pays off. When he tries to tie old Indy lore into the movie, he fails. Crystal Skull did the same mistake of trying to connect old movies. These movies work best as individual adventures, as George Lucas said once in a Temple of Doom behind-the-scenes interview.
Harrison Ford's a little creaky when he runs. Same problems as with The Irishman. The de-aging tech is better but still something feels slightly muddy. In one shot the de-aging was done at half-resolution, did they run out of time?!
3/5 Too much CGI.
I disagree with many choices the director made. Nitpick list:
-The movie's too long.
-There's little sense of mystery and thrill.
-The soundtrack is not John William's best work. Needed a better villain theme.
-The movie is too action-ny. Chase scene, pause, chase scene, pause, chase scene... constantly alternate. It's tiring.
-The special effects and stunts rely too much on computer effects. The actions scenes would have been much more exciting if they were done for real. The computer effects look flat and fake. Fake bugs, fake eels... these movies used to use real animals to good effect.
-There's no movie magic. That's hard to quantify, but see 4 reasons above.
-Mangold loves his closeups a little too much. It's hard to understand what's going on in some scenes. Perhaps closeups made special effects cheaper to implement, IDK. Pull back the camera, please.
Scene by scene review, as I remember them:
1. Intro & the train ride
IN MEDIAS RES
You could have started any Indy adventure with this 20-minute flashback. Brilliant way to start the movie. No complaints. Well... almost.
The special effects and stunts would have been more convincing if they were real. Example: Indy is hanging from a wooden bar. The bar breaks! Oh but it's not real wood. It's this flat sfx shot, only 1 second long, but it's clearly fake. They couldn't afford a real wooden bar splintering. That was done in CGI. Why?!
We have a car chase sequence. It would have looked better with less CGI and more real stunts.
4/5 The Indy magic is almost reached here.
2. Indy at home
The flashback is over, we're in 1969. This could have been another way to start the movie, I'm glad it didn't.
The movie starts too strong for it's own good as everything that happens from here on until Indy leaves for Morocco is a prime candidate to be left on the cutting floor. There's a bunch of spy stuff. The only movie with spy stuff was Crystal Skull, why are they bringing it back?
The writers do a poor job of motivating Indy to go on an adventure. Instead we get more action, more chase scenes. I would have preferred a slow buildup of mystery. No time to breathe...
The villain is reintroduced here too - with too much backstory. Just say he used to be a nazi, and still is, say he's got funding from nazi gold or whatever and leave it at that. In fact don't bring him back immediately after the flashback. A surprise reintroduction in later scenes would have been more effective than introducing and reintroducing him in back-to-back scenes.
Don't do Werner von Braun dirty with this lunar programme connection that doesn't go anywhere.
2/5 tl;dr just cut this part out.
3. Algiers/Morocco/Whatever
North Africa, here we go again... remember Raiders?
Indy is following his god-daughter into an illegal auction. What's with the illegal auctions, Disney? The two last Jurassic World movies had them, the latest one in fact filmed a scene like this in the same exact location?!
Indy's motivation to be here at all is a bit iffy. Indy should be in his element here but his god-daughter is leading the way. We have a new kid sidekick. I don't understand what his purpose is in this movie except to be a callback to short round. For the rest of the movie, he's just kinda in tow.
After a brief rest, more chase sequences. Mind that all these chase scenes pale in comparison to the one in the intro, thus reducing their effect. The tuk-tuk chase is the worst one. It's excessive and lacks impact. Naughty Dog does better CGI animations than what I'm witnessing here. I started looking at the watch at this point, my eyes drifting towards the exit sign...
2/5 tl;dr reduce the action in this part
4. Greece
Now we get someplace new. A diving adventure. The fishing boat they're on looks cool. My interest is picking up again. Sadly Indy isn't here to find Atlantis.
Antonio Banderas's presence is wasted in this movie. He comes and goes too quickly. Give more time for the movie to breathe here, please! What should be a mysterious dive devolves into another CGI action sequence. The villain returns! If we hadn't shown his face twice already, this would have been a surprise. The villain and the scenery reminds me of the Fate of Atlantis game.
3/5 very uneven, underwater segments fail to impress
5. Sicily/Whatever
The mystery and thrill of exploration peaks here. We have a cave, ancient artifacts, traps! The lack of build-up and hype up to this moment deflates the excitement a little.
4/5 cave spelunking is over too soon
6. Finale (Greece again)
We have the final battle against our villain. Mangold did something risky and it pays off I think. Beats the eye-rolling Crystal Skull finale, for sure.
4/5 unexpected but at least it's not aliens and flying saucers
7. Epilogue
The movie's just non-stop action. Now we're back home. Indy's marriage stuff is disconnected from the rest of the plot. It's not tied into any theme of family or whatever. Indy's goddaughter has no personal growth arc. The kid's unchanged too.
3/5 ehh... beats Crystal Skull epilogue, that's all I can say.
IN MEDIAS RES
You could have started any Indy adventure with this 20-minute flashback. Brilliant way to start the movie. No complaints. Well... almost.
The special effects and stunts would have been more convincing if they were real. Example: Indy is hanging from a wooden bar. The bar breaks! Oh but it's not real wood. It's this flat sfx shot, only 1 second long, but it's clearly fake. They couldn't afford a real wooden bar splintering. That was done in CGI. Why?!
We have a car chase sequence. It would have looked better with less CGI and more real stunts.
4/5 The Indy magic is almost reached here.
2. Indy at home
The flashback is over, we're in 1969. This could have been another way to start the movie, I'm glad it didn't.
The movie starts too strong for it's own good as everything that happens from here on until Indy leaves for Morocco is a prime candidate to be left on the cutting floor. There's a bunch of spy stuff. The only movie with spy stuff was Crystal Skull, why are they bringing it back?
The writers do a poor job of motivating Indy to go on an adventure. Instead we get more action, more chase scenes. I would have preferred a slow buildup of mystery. No time to breathe...
The villain is reintroduced here too - with too much backstory. Just say he used to be a nazi, and still is, say he's got funding from nazi gold or whatever and leave it at that. In fact don't bring him back immediately after the flashback. A surprise reintroduction in later scenes would have been more effective than introducing and reintroducing him in back-to-back scenes.
Don't do Werner von Braun dirty with this lunar programme connection that doesn't go anywhere.
2/5 tl;dr just cut this part out.
3. Algiers/Morocco/Whatever
North Africa, here we go again... remember Raiders?
Indy is following his god-daughter into an illegal auction. What's with the illegal auctions, Disney? The two last Jurassic World movies had them, the latest one in fact filmed a scene like this in the same exact location?!
Indy's motivation to be here at all is a bit iffy. Indy should be in his element here but his god-daughter is leading the way. We have a new kid sidekick. I don't understand what his purpose is in this movie except to be a callback to short round. For the rest of the movie, he's just kinda in tow.
After a brief rest, more chase sequences. Mind that all these chase scenes pale in comparison to the one in the intro, thus reducing their effect. The tuk-tuk chase is the worst one. It's excessive and lacks impact. Naughty Dog does better CGI animations than what I'm witnessing here. I started looking at the watch at this point, my eyes drifting towards the exit sign...
2/5 tl;dr reduce the action in this part
4. Greece
Now we get someplace new. A diving adventure. The fishing boat they're on looks cool. My interest is picking up again. Sadly Indy isn't here to find Atlantis.
Antonio Banderas's presence is wasted in this movie. He comes and goes too quickly. Give more time for the movie to breathe here, please! What should be a mysterious dive devolves into another CGI action sequence. The villain returns! If we hadn't shown his face twice already, this would have been a surprise. The villain and the scenery reminds me of the Fate of Atlantis game.
3/5 very uneven, underwater segments fail to impress
5. Sicily/Whatever
The mystery and thrill of exploration peaks here. We have a cave, ancient artifacts, traps! The lack of build-up and hype up to this moment deflates the excitement a little.
4/5 cave spelunking is over too soon
6. Finale (Greece again)
We have the final battle against our villain. Mangold did something risky and it pays off I think. Beats the eye-rolling Crystal Skull finale, for sure.
4/5 unexpected but at least it's not aliens and flying saucers
7. Epilogue
The movie's just non-stop action. Now we're back home. Indy's marriage stuff is disconnected from the rest of the plot. It's not tied into any theme of family or whatever. Indy's goddaughter has no personal growth arc. The kid's unchanged too.
3/5 ehh... beats Crystal Skull epilogue, that's all I can say.
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VulcanRaven
Member
Temple of Doom is my favorite. Its the one I watch most the most.
AmuroChan
Member
Just saw it. I liked it better than Kingdom, but overall was disappointed. The plot was meh, and the whole movie just felt formulaic. Are there some nice moments? Yes, but not enough to make this a good movie unfortunately. I love Indy and always will, but I wish they had just made ten of these movies in the 80s and 90s when Ford was still in his prime. It's kind of sad to watch him on screen now, being barely able to run, and I'm also supposed to believe that he can knock a guy out with a single punch.
Badlucktroll
Gold Member
i thought was stupid…..this is how they are ending the series?
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MrTroubleMaker
Member
What a
I'm so happy I saw this for free... still wasted my time.
Pegasus Actual
Gold Member
Will watch whenever the RLM video is available and not a second sooner.
ManaByte
Gold Member
Huh? He said the movie had villains from the original trilogy and Indy was wiped from existence. That didn’t happen.
This is the fake plot leak you’re pretending is real:
Mads is not Thot, Helena isn’t Brody, there’s no time travel to 1933 where Indy kills himself. It was all bullshit.
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The Skull
Member
Didn't enjoy it unfortunately. The opening scene was pretty great but the rest is downhill.
Phoebe Waller-Bridge's insufferable smugness typically ruins most scenes and the wish.com short round doesn't add anything to the film.
Mads Mikkelson is decent but ultimately wasted. Ford is just too damn old to be doing any of this and it really shows.
I enjoyed Crystal Skull more than this and that at least gave Indy the ending he deserved.
Phoebe Waller-Bridge's insufferable smugness typically ruins most scenes and the wish.com short round doesn't add anything to the film.
Mads Mikkelson is decent but ultimately wasted. Ford is just too damn old to be doing any of this and it really shows.
I enjoyed Crystal Skull more than this and that at least gave Indy the ending he deserved.
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BlackTron
Member
A cashgrab from creatively bankrupt sycophants. When they decided to give Star Wars some "space", they had to backfill with a different old IP to ruin
Darkmakaimura
Can You Imagine What SureAI Is Going To Do With Garfield?
Same here along with Raiders of the Lost Ark. I thoroughly enjoyed Temple of Doom even much more so than Last Crusade.
And while Crystal Skull was the worst of the movies up until now I still enjoyed it.
It's really disheartening to hear what happened with this new movie.