Cracking the Crystal Skull: Indiana Jones Reviewed!
Oh right, like you’re not really sure whether you want to go see it.
Admit it, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull had you as soon as you heard that rousing John Williams theme music again.
Fortunately, a smart script and great set pieces make this tale of Soviet spies, weird artifacts and a lost city a worthy capstone to the series.
Want the whole review? Read on…
It’s been about 20 years since The Last Crusade, on-screen and off, and Dr. Henry Jones Jr.he’s pretty much dropped the nicknameis still searching for ancient mysteries, and still fighting bad guys. Only now, he’s traded Nazi spies for Russians, led by Irina Spalko (Cate Blanchett), who want him to crack the secret of a crystal skull that promises vast power.
Rather than pretend he hasn’t aged a day, the script takes into account Indy’s advancing years. He’s not as quick with a whip as he used to be, and the world has changed, too. Dr. Jones finds himself under suspicion by the FBI, despite having saved the world for democracy several times, and his old allies are dead or gone.
Fortunately, he gets a new sidekick, a motorcycle punk named Mutt (Shia LaBeouf), to help pick up the slack. Mutt’s mom used to date Indy, and she’s gone missing while on the trail ofyou guessed itthe same crystal skull.
He might be old, but once he gets out the leather jacket and fedora, Indy proves he’s still the best there is at dodging bullets, death traps, and flesh-devouring ants.
Our Grade: A
Trivia: Indiana Jones and the Saucer Men From Mars
In the mid-90’s, George Lucas proposed an a fourth Indy film called “Indiana Jones and the Saucer Men From Mars.” Jeb Stuart, screenwriter of Die Hard and The Fugitive, was hired to pen the script. An unconfirmed 1995 draft showed up online ten years later, and the story involved an alien artifact which continuously changes possession between Indy, Russian badguys, and aliens from another planet.
IndyFan.com described the story as “convoluted and unbelievable,” and the script ends with an indulgent sappy sequence with Indy marrying the lady linguist who accompanied him throughout the adventure, with a ceremony witnessed by all the living characters from the films including Short Round and Henry Jones, Sr. If that doesn’t sound bad enough, let me say that Indy also encounters crocodiles and pirates on this adventure. You can still find that draft by doing a quick google search.
Ford told EW “No way am I being in a Steve Spielberg movie like that.” Steven Spielberg was also not happy with that idea, and admitted publicly that “There was a point where I thought George and I would never agree on the story.” It took more than a decade to come up with a screenplay that Ford, Spielberg and Lucas were all willing to settle on.
On What has changed from Then to Now:
“It was the three of us, Steven, George and I, coming to agreement on the central notion of it all,” Ford explained. “I think the original idea is still a large piece of it in the movie, but it’s been developed and worked on in ways that made it a lot more palatable to Steven and I.”
Lucas told the AP: “The MacGuffin of it slowed down a little bit from what my original enthusiastic version was. Again, that’s the way it works with Steven and Harrison and I. We’re not going to do anything anyone’s uncomfortable with. We want to do something everybody likes, we in the group, the three of us. They wanted to go off on some other tangent. I said, ‘I’m not going to do that. I’m going to stick with this no matter what, so we either do this or we don’t. That’s it.’ Finally, we got something that we could all compromise on and all be happy with. It wasn’t quite as wacky as I wanted it to be, but it still is subtle and nice and works really well and has the same idea behind it.”
Did John Hurt replace Sean Connery in Indiana Jones 4?
promised that Sean Connery’s character (Dr. Henry Jones Sr.) was included in the script for Indiana Jones 4. So when the film went into production and Connery announced that he would not be back after-all, we cried fowl.
I hope Conner’s part was very small, for their sake. Because a major character rewrite this late in to development could ruin the entire film.
I mean, Lucas and crew couldn’t have completely delete Connery’s part out of the script without causing a major rift, right? Well, our friends at FilmIck are reporting that Abner Ravenwood was not even included in previous drafts. When Connery made his official exit from the project, you may recall they announced that John Hurt had been cast in the film. He will play the father of Karen Allen’s character. Well rumor has it that John Hurt’s character is basically a rewrite of the role that Sean Connery would have played if he had decided to return. Apparently the Indy screenwriters wrote the role for two characters in case Connery decided to stay at home.
Sounds like the typical Hollywood-type decision which usually ends up ruining a film.
Sean Connery Wants To Be In Another Bond Movie…As A Villian!
Some people regard Sean Connery as THE James Bond, which is probably due to the fact that he was the original. However, I am sure that if another actor made a few more Bourne movies, everyone would still regard Matt Damon as THE Jason Bourne, same with Tobey Maguire as Spiderman, Hugh Jackman as Wolverine and any other actor or actress playing a character. Daniel Craig gave 007 a much needed update, which has even impressed Connery himself.
“I think Daniel Craig is a terrific choice,” said Connery. “I think they’re going back to a more realistic type of Bond movie as I don’t think they could have gone much further with the special effects.”
He added: “They don’t pay the money for the other parts, only for the Bond character, although that wasn’t the case when I was doing it.”
Connery earned just £50,000 to play James Bond for the first time. By his last 007 movie in 1983 Connery was paid £3 million, compared to Daniel Craig’s £30 million for four movies.
Connery is semi-retired from acting, which is a shame. He was approached to play the role of Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, but declined as he didn’t understand the complex story. He also declined an offer to reprise his role as Professor Henry Jones in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. All of this declining great projects has meant that his last movie was The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen back in 2003, which is not a movie a great actor should end his career on.
Thankfully, Connery is interested in returning to the big screen, and the Bond franchise.
“I wouldn’t mind coming back as a Bond villain,” he said. “But I don’t think they would pay me enough money.”
This would be amazing! Daniel Craig and anyone working on Quantum of Solace should start talking to Connery now! Give him $30 billion or however much he wants, and get him in Bond 23! It must happen!