The Indiana Jones Thread

[thecolorsblend]

My objective in starting this thread was to be pro Indy, celebrate the good times (among which I personally count Crystal Skull but I understand ymmv), maybe shine a light on the IJ expanded universe and all that stuff.

But there are some realities that I guess we should probably talk about.

#1 Dial Of Destiny exists

#2 Dial Of Destiny is in the middle of tanking it at the box office

#3 This is most probably the end of the line for Harrison Ford when it comes to playing Indy

#4 The Indiana Jones franchise as we know it is going out with a pathetic whimper rather than a bang

And honestly, Disney's Lucasfilm did it to itself. And now the movie will be lucky if it "only" loses $100 million. Lucasfilm had three franchises. And with the failure of Dial Of Destiny, we can now safely say that all three of them have been ruined by the new regime.

Meanwhile, here's me hearing the news that Dial Of Destiny is failure:

Disney's Lucasfilm had every possible warning not to go in the direction they went. First, there's no evidence that there was ever any real demand for a new Indy film. But second, even if there was, there are plenty of ways of making a fifth installment that honors the franchise's history and the fans.

I spent some time last week revisiting the entire franchise. I've made no secret of my relatively low investment in the IJ series. But I had an absolute blast watching all four of the films. And it whetted my appetite for a fifth movie that we'll never truly get.

Of all of Disney's Lucasfilm's failures, this is the one that might bother me the most in the years to come. I literally never cared about Willow and I tuned out of Star Wars even before the Disney buyout. But IJ was largely unaffected by all that stuff.

Until now.

And worst of all, it was all so unnecessary.

[The Dark Knight]

I've seen the movie. In terms of box office it's a failure, but apart from being made by Disney, a brand people hate for good reason, I don't see what savage hatred can be levelled against the content or how Indy is handled as a character. If what Doomcock described was real I'd feel strongly against it. But what was released wasn't that. It's possible people believe that reputation and don't know any different. At worst I'd call the movie average. The longer I thought about it, though, a certain appreciation of its tone and approach came. KOTCS used to be the 'old Indy' movie, but no longer. DOD being that by putting him further along his timeline justifies its place and for that I don't really have a problem with it existing. But indeed, from a box office perspective it's a disappointing end. But an end that was always understood to be Harrison's last stand regardless of what money it made.