A lot of the movie, I enjoyed forcibly because I love Indy so much, and I must give credit where it’s due. I thought I was going to have problems liking the movie because Shai Lebeouf was Indy’s son. Turns out with the surrounding plotline Carrot Top could have been Indy’s son and I still would have had the same opinion on what destroyed the film.

George, Steve…Don’t cross the streams!!!
Aliens don’t belong in musty crypts any more than mummies belong roaming the Millennium Falcon.
Why didn’t you throw in super kung fu and and a ghost from the Grudge while you were at it? Maybe some stolen car street racing and a few radioactive super heroes? Freddy and Jason might still be available and they’re all just as important as pertaining to the Indiana Jones story integrity as aliens.

And not just any aliens. Greys! The hokiest, most cliche, mainstream dumbed down aliens of them all! The Nascar of aliens, if you will.

I think we all died a little inside when they even left in a flying saucer.

So in closing I’m glad someone feels the same about this undiluted steaming heap of a 4th installment as me.
Somehow Jet Li as a mummy seems highly probable now.

Regardless, while I was enjoying myself, but finding it hard to totally suspend disbelief (being brought out of the movie trance i love so much by things like the plastic-y set and prop, the tarzan-foolery, and awkward cgi (I’m sorry but cgi will always look bad next to real people)) i was more in critic mode than moviegoer mode.

It didn’t start out well, either- the first few minutes of Ford’s dialog didn’t even sound like him! Not even an older him!

I do believe, however, that I am holding this movie up to a very high standard, regardless of what expectations i brought to the theatre. I grew up on Indy, but not in a “i saw it in theatres and it blew my mind” kind of way, but the “i was too young to see it in theatres but I have intimate knowledge of it’s legend and myth” kind of way.

Like the original 3 Star Wars’ 1 and 3 Indy films were upheld in my house as good, fun, movies but as mindblowing epics. Perhaps unrightly so, but there you have it.

As for the Aliens- as a person who believes anything is possible, and doesn’t subscribe to any “organized” belief system- i was still thrown by it. It seemed like a cheap thrill, an easy way out.

Yes, golden boxes housing the power of a supreme being, or cups that deliver the ultimate gift, are in “that realm” of belief of the non-tangible, but somehow, to me, seemed more possible to exist in myth and real life, than aliens do in the conversations of the world. Perhaps in a few generations, when Scientology has dropped it’s “oh my god, are you kidding” stigma, the possibility of aliens will seem less bad to me.

Another thing that did it for me- while I felt connected to the characters because we have a history together, but i never felt even for a second, any tension that made me think one or all of them might not make it.

I came with the movie, wherever it went, to see where it would go. but i have to tell you- as soon as i saw that standard-issue alien craft, I was done.

I’m not going too far out of my way to defend the film since it is flawed, but all the IJ movies are flawed. They are all about cheesy dialog, improbable plots and even more improbable chase scenes.

So why are interdimensional beings any more or less ridiculous than the religious mumbo-jumbo that permeates the first three? Given when the film is set, I found playing into the area51 mythology quite an interesting choice. IJ4 played off a lot of the alien movies of the 50s that were intimately tied to Cold War films.

I’m also glad that the character changed over the 20 years since the last film. Stuff happens. I was actually concerned that they were going to try and present him exactly the same as he was in the previous films and was quite relieved that they didn’t. Especially in a Cold War climate, one would have to temper (at least for the official record) ones attitudes toward the government.

Believe me, I’m the LAST person to defend Speilberg, but other than some disorienting cgi, the production was top notch. The print I saw had no issues with lighting. Not sure what you were expecting of the cinematography for the 4th film in a franchise.

And yes the Tarzan/monkey scene was one of the stupidest things I’ve seen in a long time.