I put off seeing this in theaters for the same reason that I think a lot of people put off seeing things in theaters. The movies just cost too much to go to these days and since we almost never see a massive period of time between box-office release and home release, there isn't much reason to spend $20 a person in the cinema unless you are a super-fan.
I didn't really enjoy Crystal Skull very much so when they announced that they were making this one I wasn't very enthusiastic about it. When certain aspects of the press started rejoicing that this was doing poorly at the box office, I thought that it must be pretty terrible but as it turns out this is just certain aspects of the media hating on anything that Disney does.
After watching the movie last night I think that the critics that gave this film bad marks probably did so for political reason unrelated to the actual film because I thought it was entertaining and a nice sendoff for Harrison Ford.
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Rather that head towards crazy land with aliens and such nonsense they returned to their "roots" by incorporating Nazis into the story again, which is where this all began anyway with Raiders of the Lost Ark. It is probably difficult to incorporate Nazis into things these days but they are an easy target since it is basically universally understood that they are an acceptable bad guy no matter the genre. They didn't have to pull a "Maverick" and make up an anonymous non-country in order to avoid offending anyone.
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I was particularly impressed with how they made Harrison Ford look 25 years younger than he is and I am sure that this cost them a TON of money to do this. The last time I heard about this being done was when Pee Wee Herman released another movie that I didn't see (I should watch that) where they used it basically the entire film.
Thankfully they didn't spend the entire movie using this technology but except for certain rare moments you couldn't even tell that it was a computer and not actually what Harrison Ford looks like now.
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The modern-day Indiana Jones is also looking good considering that Harrison Ford is over 80 years old. Since there is a lot of action and fighting in this I believe that his stuntmen were probably working overtime and that Harrison himself isn't actually in most of the action sequences at all.
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I particularly enjoyed Mads Mikkelsen as Jürgen Voller or his American patriot counterpart "Dr. Schmidt." He was the perfect villain and before anyone accuses me of spoilers just know that this is made abundantly clear in the trailer as well as the first 5 minutes of the movie. Everyone is pursuing the same artifact just like in all the other Indiana Jones films so the fact that this is what they did didn't really surprise me at all. I was very hopeful that they would be able to actually activate the dial since the entire film was leading up to that. I wont spoil whether they do or not, you will have to watch for yourself to find out.
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While I didn't pay a huge amount of attention to the bad press that this film was receiving I do recall some people complaining about Indiana getting overshadowed by his female co-conspirator Helena Shaw. They were suggesting that Disney was attempting to remove all manliness from the series and making her the real hero and Indiana was just her sidekick. I don't know how anyone got that impression because that isn't what happened at all. I don't recall people complaining a great deal when they did essentially the same thing in Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and no, I don't think this is because the person upstaging him as far as action was concerned was a man... I think it is because we as a people have just become so damn whiney as a species and are going to find issue with almost anything. Harrison Ford is older than your grandpa, do you really expect him to do all the fighting and swinging around on his own.
I also enjoyed how they incorporated "snakes" into this one because they always have to do that at least once in every single Indiana Jones movie. Again, not going to spoil it but you will know it when you see it and it is pretty funny and extremely creepy.
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Another aspect of the film that I really enjoyed was that Indiana has become a grumpy old man at this point in his life and he no longer wants anything to do with society as a whole. He is retiring from his teaching job in this one and well, if you make it to 81 and are still working you better seriously enjoy your job. I wonder how much of this is a reflection of Harrison Ford as a person and maybe he really is "getting too old for this shit."
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I believe that a lot of the negative press that this has gotten has more to do with the problems that many people have with Disney and are basically going to knock anything that they do. Disney has made some terrible mistakes over the past years as far as neglecting the desires of their audience are concerned, particularly with Star Wars content, but in this instance I thought this film was actually quite good and definitely a fun ride.
In particular the de-aging techniques used need to be acknowledged in this as apparently 100 people worked on those portions of the film for around 3 years. It looks really good and believable as a completed product.
The film is considered a box-office bomb as it made a mere $381 million globally at the box office. It's crazy to think about a number that big being a failure but because of the massive overall expense of making the film (estimated at near $300 million) as well as the massive marketing budget, this film needed to make $600 million globally in order to break even. Of course this is all estimated and probably includes some rather crafty accounting going on there as well, but Disney is presumed to be taking at least a $100 million loss on this one film. Disney has deep pockets though and this isn't going to bankrupt them.
To me, I feel as though Disney deserves some accolades for this film because they kind of stayed true to the original material and seemed to be returning to their roots as far as fan-service is concerned. Maybe it is just time for the movie industry to admit that when you make films that cost $200 million plus to make, that you are ALWAYS taking a huge risk in doing so.
Should I watch it?
Absolutely. I don't feel as though I need to really say more than that. This went to streaming remarkably fast so there really isn't any reason not to. Were the previous ones better? Other than Crystal Skull absolutely yes! A lot of this has to do with the fact that Harrison Ford was up to 40 years younger than he is now.
But this is a solid film and I encourage you to ignore the critical reception that is based more on politics than it is on the actual merits of the film. Even though it was late at night and the movie is quite long, I made it all the way through. I believe you will as well.
This film is not on Netflix, obviously. You can stream it on Disney+ or "go sailing" in order to see it