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Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023)

 
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Fri Dec 02, 2022 6:48 pm    Post subject: Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023) Reply with quote



Well, here we go again — and to quote Han Solo, "I've got a bad feeling about this." Sad

Maybe it's just me, but the Indian Jones series has wandered further and further from its original premise with each of it's sequels. By the time we got to Kingdom of the Crystal Skull it bore as much resemblance to Raiders of the Lost Art as The Witched Witch of the West did to Marilyn Monroe!

And this fifth Indy movie might be one step further . . . God help us all. Sad

Here's what Wikipedia says about it.
__________________________________________________

In 1969, American archaeologist and adventurer Indiana Jones lives against the backdrop of the Space Race.

Jones is uneasy over the fact that the U.S. Government recruited former enemies to help beat the Soviet Union in the competition to make it to space. His goddaughter, Helena, accompanies him on his journey.

Meanwhile, Voller, a NASA member and ex-Nazi involved with the moon-landing program, wishes to make the world into a better place as he sees fit.

__________________________________________________

Well, damn! Shocked

Instead of paying tribute to the beloved serials of our youth the way Raiders of the Lost Ark did, this movie wants to spoil our fond memories of America's space program in the 1960s!

Obviously, today's filmmakers have no real understanding of what made Raiders of the Lost Ark successful, forty years ago. They were too young to connect with the original film's roots.

So, these people are cobbling together elements of the franchise and pasting them into a story which is set several decades after Raiders of the Lost Ark.

This is what we get when they take a big pot and toss in characters like Indy and his goddaughter, along with Nazis and Russians and NASA and the 1960s space race! Rolling Eyes

All of sudden The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull doesn't seem quite as bad!

On the other hand, the trailer below is a dazzling montage of scenes which promise a movie that couldn't possibly be dull! Shocked


Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny | Official Trailer


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tmlindsey
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PostPosted: Thu Jul 13, 2023 5:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Saw it today in an actual movie theater stuck in one of the smaller screen rooms with maybe 10 other old farts.

We felt that the movie was fairly decent but way too long.

Don't want to spoil anything in case others here are waiting to see it.

A fine enough send off for a series that, frankly, should have ended with The Last Crusade.

I hope this is truly the end for Indy, modern filmmakers don't seem to fully understand the serials these movies were inspired by, including the director of this one.

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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Fri Jul 14, 2023 6:16 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

tmlindsey wrote:
I hope this is truly the end for Indy, modern filmmakers don't seem to fully understand the serials these movies were inspired by, including the director of this one.

That's been the problem with the franchise all along. The first two sequels were fair in that respect, but after that . . . well, no. Sad
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tmlindsey
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PostPosted: Fri Jul 28, 2023 11:06 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

So I guess no one else has seen the film?
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tmlindsey
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PostPosted: Wed Sep 13, 2023 1:54 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Clearly a film that didn't need to exist since hardly any fans could be arsed enough to actually watch it.

I wish Disney would implode so they couldn't crank out so much crap. I think they are mostly responsible for creating the wide-spread audience apathy we obviously have now.

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PostPosted: Fri Sep 15, 2023 11:59 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

______________________________________________

I'm sure I'll eventually watch it just out of morbid curiosity, but I'm in no hurry. It's too bad Disny hasn't hire me to write wackadoodle stories for them, 'cause I've got a great idea for a sixth Indiana Jones move!

What do you think of this?
______________________________________________

Dr. Jones learns that the Russian's have cloned his childhood pet (the dog which he and his father called Indiana), and they've mutated it into a seven-foot Big Foot-like creature who understands English, but speaks in strange growls.

Indy goes to Russia and rescues the clone of his beloved pet, but during the escape Indy is captured. The Russian scientist encase him a newly invented metallic substance called Caronitesky.

Marion Ravenwood-Jones disguises herself as a visiting alien from the space-between-spaces and pretends to be returning the dog-creature (whose name is Whookowski) to the Russians.

One night she releases Indy from the Caronitesky, and the trio escape in a prototype Russian space craft called the Тысячелетний Cокол (which loosely translated means "thousand-year-old bird of prey".)

Upon returning home they learn that their son, Mutt Williams (played again by Shia LaBeouf) has become an evil villain who dresses in black and wears a strange helmet. He's similar to Victor Von Doom, and he's declared himself to be Latverian royalty. He goes by the name Count Kylo Von Renegade.

He's skilled is the black arts which come from The Dark Side of Archeology.

Indy finally faces his rebellious son and tries to convince him to return to the light side of Archeology, but Count Von Renegade pulls out his switchblade, stabs his father, and throws him into a trash compactor— along with his mother and the dog creature called Whookowski, and some kid who carries around a fancy flashlight with a beam that only goes out about four feet.

And thus ends the Indiana Jones movies with a franchise-spanning climax! Very Happy

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Last edited by Bud Brewster on Mon Dec 25, 2023 8:22 pm; edited 1 time in total
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tmlindsey
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PostPosted: Fri Sep 15, 2023 2:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Doesn't sound any worse than most of the recent Disney/Lucasfilm/Marvel stuff. Laughing

Maybe now that the Marvel VFX people have voted to unionize they'll stop farting out so much "content".

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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Fri Oct 27, 2023 12:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

______________________________________________

The Disney Movie Empire now makes so many movies that they do manage to get some of them right! Shocked

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PostPosted: Mon Dec 25, 2023 8:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

______________________________________________

Well, I decided to waste the last few hours of December 25th by watching Indiana Jones and the Franchise that Went Right Down the Drain.

Astonishingly enough, the first twenty-five minutes skillfully shoots the rest of the movie in the foot by giving us a terrific action segment that features Nazis, special effects, great John Williams music, and a miraculously "de-aged" Harrison Ford, doing everything just exactly like Indiana Jones did in the original film! Very Happy

But from then on, this is one long and bitterly disappointing excuse for an action movie. It has absolutely none of the imagination, humor, excitement, and cinematic skill of the previous movies, even allowing for the steady decline of the sequels untl this one hits rock bottom!

Sadly, this proves that Lucas and Spielberg are even less able to make good action movies than poor Harrison Ford is when comes to portraying Indiana Jones. Sad

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tmlindsey
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 25, 2023 9:04 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The problem with all of the new Disney installments of existing franchises is that they lack heart. It's obvious that they are only made as cash grabs that hope to ape the originals enough to somehow reignite the magic and restart a money machine for them.

Sadly, not many filmmakers are able to create magic in their films anymore (IMO). Too many corporate directives to appeal to focus groups and pander to minority demographics to allow for risk-taking and true creativity. The sad attempt to appear progressive and inclusive, and trying to please everyone seems to usually end up pleasing almost no one.

Add to it the whining of the fickle and ageist nature of much of the younger audience who love something one minute then hate it the next and studios will never be able to please them.

I recently read that the director of this film said that the original ending didn't involve time travel, but was just a rehash of the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark. So he changed it. I'll at least give him props for trying something different with the ending.

Now get off my lawn!

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PostPosted: Tue Jan 23, 2024 8:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

______________________________________________

If the studio had given us a complete Indiana Jones movie with a "de-aged" Harrison Ford and several of the beloved characters from that first movie, this film would have raked in more dough than Paramount has made in in the last 20 years! Shocked

This franchise is still adored by the public, and the technology now makes it possible to "turn bacK tim:e. They could have given the fans the movie we all yearned for in the 1980s!

Instead of that, we got a lame movie in which an aging Harrison Ford embarrassed us all with a grim reminder that all our days are numbered! Sad

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tmlindsey
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PostPosted: Thu Jan 25, 2024 11:37 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bud Brewster wrote:
If the studio had given us a complete Indiana Jones movie with a "de-aged" Harrison Ford and several of the beloved characters from that first movie, this film would have raked in more dough than Paramount has made in in the last 20 years!

I don't think it would have made a difference. I read loads of comments from "fans" about how terrible the de-aged Ford looked. So, I'm sure that's all anyone would talk about with a full movie of de-aged anyone; how terrible the CGI is, even if the complaints aren't justified.

Most Millennials and Zoomers don't care about "old stuff" that pre-dates their existence, or is even set in a period before they were born.

In the 90s I had to force a friend of mine, who is several years younger than me, to watch The Rocketeer and it ended up being the first DVD he ever bought. I razzed him about it and he said "well the story and design is so cool" and I said, "Right, it's almost like a good story, characters, and concepts can get past the handicap of being set 'in the old days'". He said the same thing with Sky Captain but eventually saw it and bought the DVD of that as well.

The whole Indiana Jones thing only works in the setting of the 30s-40s as a cliffhanger serial homage. I don't think it works in any other setting. This film only highlights that time has marched on and right over the hero, his morals and his ideals. In a world of clear-cut heroes and villains he works fine — but in a world of greys, not so much.

In an age where TV and movie characters are cheered and admired for being narcissistic shit-heads (like most of the modern audience) or anti-heroes, the "cheesy" ideas of the past have no place. Except with seasoned gastric emissions like us. Wink

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PostPosted: Thu Jan 25, 2024 4:53 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

______________________________________________

Tim, I can't argue with a single thing you said in your posts — even your reason for suggesting that an Indiana Jones with de-aged actors would not please today's audience.

And brother, you were preachin' to the choir when you said this! Very Happy


Tim wrote:
The whole Indiana Jones thing only works in the setting of the 30s-40s as a cliffhanger serial homage. I don't think it works in any other setting. This film only highlights that time has marched on — and right over the hero, his morals, and his ideals. In a world of clear-cut heroes and villains he works fine — but in a world of greys, not so much.

That is the sad fact which doomed every Indy sequel after Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

Spielberg and Lucas knew they were progressively moving further and further from their initial concept. For some reason, they lost faith in the their original idea to recreate the fun of the old serials.

Tim, thanks for showing me that my suggestion concerning a new Indiana Jones movie with de-aged actors simply wouldn't work because, "This film only highlights that time has marched on — and right over the hero, his morals, and his ideals."

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tmlindsey
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PostPosted: Thu Jan 25, 2024 5:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I think this movie could have worked if it was better written, better cast and better directed. I think they tried to highlighting Indy as being a relic, if you will, and a symbol of the outgoing ideals and morality of the past, but the whole thing lacked any real sense of fun or adventure. Maybe because we all knew this was the last one before even seeing it?

I don't know what John Rhys-Davis' level of interest or ability was in being more involved, but it should have been a proper send-off with all of the gang (those who survived) along or along the way. Short Round should have been involved to some degree just to tie it all up with a bow. Shorty could be a professor himself now with a gung-ho young relative who gets involved and leaves the door open for a spin-off for an Asian-led adventure franchise. Like Jackie Chan's early work; action, adventure and comedy.

But, hey! this one had lots of CGI 'splosions and car chases and carefully market researched characters and elements Rolling Eyes

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PostPosted: Thu Jan 25, 2024 6:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

______________________________________________

Tim, your suggestions for ways to improve this movies are wonderful! Your criticism of the poor way John Rhys-Davis' famous character was treated is terrific. I agree completely! Cool

Your suggestion about including a grown-up Short Round are equally good — along with a young relative who idealizes his learned ancestor. Brilliant! Very Happy

I don't understand why All Sci-Fi has more talented "idea men" than those over-paid bozos in Hollywood! Rolling Eyes

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