Synopsis:

Nearly two decades after the last appearance, Indiana Jones is back. The great Steven Spielberg and the great George Lucas, re-teaming with the great Harrison Ford and the great John Williams (cue triumphal brass!), to dig up one of the great adventure series in cinematic history and the result is. . . not bad. . . exactly. It’s not a desecration of the franchise. It’s just feels . . . tired. So the attempt is to bring some life into a tired film.

Intentions:

This one came as a surprise. I wasn’t planning on Indy 4 as my next release. It wasn’t even on my radar. I had been working (and still am) on a fanedit of THE READER and another one called JOHN CARPENTER’S THUNDERBOLT AND LIGHTFOOT. But it was in the midst of fanediting when that dark day happened: Infodroid dropped out of his Indy 4 fanedit. Suddenly what had been a sleepy tread about KOTCS became a tragic adventure. What was going to happen? would Indy 4 ever have a fanedit made? who will take the reins? It was all very tragic and exciting. Especially with the workings of new member Professor Hebrides who would post assemblies of his work in progress and who did much too good a job promoting his edit because suddenly all I had was Jones on my mind.

Change List:

- New color treatment. - The Spell of the Skull. Indiana sitting in front of the skull got a new treatment. - Spalko’s Gift. Never liked Spalko’s demise. felt too much like a forced Raider’s melting face imitation. Changed it to a more mysterious outcome. - Trimmed the Pyramid puzzle. - The Rocket Sled. re-arranged it and added a POV shot I created. hated the sound of the clock ticking so lost that while I was at it. - No Mac “You don’t know him!, You don’t know him!, You don’t know him!”. We know him. - Trimmed the quicksand. - No CG scorpions. In an Indy movie? c’mon! real tarantulas, real snakes, real bugs like fortune cookies. Sadly could not get rid of the ants. - Added flashes to the machine guns at the gate ambush. those guys were shaking those gatts like pepper mills. without flashes it looked silly.. - Doomtown. Got rid of the original PA Voice. Now it’s just a siren until Indy runs back in and we get the countdown. - Remixed the motorcycle chase. I hated the music cue. It felt silly instead of exciting. Used a classic raiders cue. - No living dead at Orillana’s grave. There are no Nazca Ninjas, you big silly. - Indy doesn’t try to figure out the skull when he finds it. It sounded confusing and forced to me. - No monkeys and no Tarzan-Mutt. - Trimmed the truck chase. - Trimmed the sword fight. - Trimmed the fist fight - Trimmed the waterfalls. - Trimmed the refrigerator and maybe there’s more. As far as the new title, I wanted to invoke the original. I also didn’t like the “C” in Crystal so it’s Krystal. Did you have a problem with SE7EN?

Additional Notes:

Nearly two decades after the last appearance, Indiana Jones is back. The great Steven Spielberg and the great George Lucas, re-teaming with the great Harrison Ford and the great John Williams (cue triumphal brass!), to dig up one of the great adventure series in cinematic history and the result is. . . not bad. . . exactly. It’s not a desecration of the franchise. It’s just feels . . . tired. But if Indiana Jones looks tired, its exhaustion stems in part from two forces outside Spielberg’s control. The first is almost 20 years’ worth of rip-offs: The Mummy did Indy no favors. And whose fault is it that Crystal Skull reminded me of National Treasure: Book of Secrets? Second: These same two decades brought huge advances in computerized visual effects, many of them trailblazed by Lucas and Spielberg themselves. It’s natural they would use them on Indy. But there are points in the film where the effects look so airless and digitized – so fake – that they ruin the illusion of down-to-earth, jaw-cracking swagger that made Indiana Jones such darn fun. None of the complex CGI sequences in “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” can hold a candle to the moment in another film when a young Indy, confronted by a black-robed swordsman chuckling ominously, watched and waited while the guy twirled his scimitar, then pulled out his revolver and simply shot him dead. But that was a long time ago, in a film that feels far, far away. So the attempt is to bring some life into a tired film.

Other Sources:

Special Thanks:

Thank you to The Dark Audience. (you know who you are) As always your help was invaluable.