My favorite moment was the Star Wars nod, when Indie says “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.” That totally made my day! I half expected Luke or Leia to come walking out.

I thought all the actors were perfect for their parts and was happy to see they brought back Karen Allen. Not that I love her character but it would have been wrong any other way. I’m even looking forward to the next one!

What can I say? I get younger with age.

Geez…I don’t understand all the angst and crticism against this movie.

We’ve all seen the first three Indiana movies. So by now, anyone paying money to see the fourth movie in theaters should pretty much know what they’re going to get.

So if someone complains that Spielberg let them down, the movie is formulaic, and doesn’t have a Deep Meaningful Message or big Dramatic Ending……well DUH. What did they expect?

Of COURSE the movie is going to be campy and ridiculous. That’s what we all LOVE about the whole Indiana Jones series. And that’s why we keep coming back.

Sometimes, it’s nice to just sit back, turn your brain off, and let yourself get entertained. People need to chill out more,

The degree to which people are expressing distaste for this particular movie — I just don’t get it. IJ4 seems just as campy and ridiculous to me as the first 3 IJ. Other than actors’ ages and new special effects, I am not seeing the big difference.

We saw ALL 4 movies as adults.

The first 3 are on TV all the time.
There is no passage of time, in terms of experience. No time in which to change.

People saw this, and got the heartfelt impression that it was weak, by the standards of the originals. The scenes were either jarringly bad, malfunctioning, or missing oppertunities. Watching this movie felt painful, like watching a limping athlete take an hour to finish.

If Speilburg had been in greatness-mode, there might have been — off the top of my head — a gunfight near the end amongst the temple ruins, instead of this wierd, painful exposition that just made the audience uncomfortable and almost shed a tear for a movie

~

I could give you a really long breakdown as to why KOTCS fails. The movie is terrible.

Also, here, I just wrote this, inspired by your reference to “expectations”:

——-

I’ve had enough of the old adage that “your expectations were so high they could have never been met.” It’s sort of a cheap way to invalidate others’ opinions with smug satisfaction.

Tell you what, after Being John Malkovich, my expectations for Eternal Sunshine were astronomical. I expected to be blown away… and guess what? It surpassed all those expectations, and then some. As far as I’m concerned it’s one of the few best films ever made.

How about The Incredibles? I was expecting a lot from that one, too, and it surpassed them. Then Cars came along, I saw a few trailers, and had very low expectations for that. Guess what? It still disappointed me.

Thing is, if you look at the argument closely, you can turn it around and show how useless it is as an argument in the first place.

Scenario 1.A:
High expectations, the movie was great yet still couldn’t reach those expectations, creating disappointment.

Scenario 1.B:
Low expectations, the movie is great and easily overcomes them.

Scenario 2.A:
High expectations, the movie was crap but the viewer still clung to what he/she liked best and convinced himself/herself that it was good (I know I’ve done this, I can’t watch The Fifth Element anymore because I finally got out of this “convince myself” mindset and realized I don’t like the movie, it’s just pretty — I expected a lot because it was a Luc Besson film, as The Professional is one of my favorites, and convinced myself The Fifth Element was great, for literally YEARS).

Scenario 2.B:
Low expectations, the movie was crap, the viewer’s pre-opinion was validated.

Scenario 3:
Despite expectations, the viewer forms an independent opinion of the film based on its merits.

Why can’t we assume that #3 is just as likely?

Why do I always hear this “expectations” argument from people defending what I basically always find to be positively BAD movies?

-J

My folks were mildly amused, but somewhat less overwhelmed. They said it was a good movie, but no different from the serials they used to watch when THEY were kids.

I think Stephen Spielberg basically borrowed from a tried-and-true formula. He took a bunch of 5-10 minute serial clips, strung them together in one sequence to make one big movie.

That being said, there’s nothing wrong with doing this. Sometimes, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

I liked all four Indiana Jones Movies. You just gotta take them for what they’re worth: good old-fashionned family entertainment.