Dr. Jones and the Skull Kingdom Mystery

February 12, 2011
*This rating was given before reviews were required*

February 11, 2011

Just finished and really enjoyed it. Here are some thoughts…

As soon as I heard this one was going to have color correction (color naturalization might be more fitting), I was excited to see the results. I must say that came off well. I hate this modern trend of over-saturating things. What’s wrong with normal color? Not everything has to look like it was run through a bunch of Photoshop filters. There are still some things that bug me about it, like lack of color in some places (not Wraith’s fault) and things being overly bright like light glinting off of metal (again, not Wraith’s fault). Just a little rant there. Sorry. ;)

I appreciate that this one went farther with removing certain things that Jorge’s edit didn’t, such as the ants and the UFO lift-off. It was fun watching the deleted scenes (deleted in the TRUE sense of the word, not just ‘scenes that were left out for the theatrical release’) and how they were all stuck together. Haha. Yes, the CG prairie dogs, the Tarzan/monkey stuff, the mushroom cloud, etc…were bad, but to me, the worst was when she squished that ant and the guts fell on the camera lens. So, so stupid! You’re not supposed to acknowledge that there’s a camera there! This is not a documentary! Again, sorry for the rant. ;)

All in all, this is THE version to watch. I know there will be at least one more, and I look forward to seeing that one as well, but this effort is hugely appreciated! It’s tight, removed unnecessary parts, and feels much less modern, over-the-top Hollywood to me, which is a very good thing.

I’m giving this one a well-deserved 9.

February 8, 2011
*This rating was given before reviews were required*

February 7, 2011

As Omaru1982 states, most of the in-depth technical overview has already been covered above and I have to say I couldn’t agree more that what Wraith has done here is create “the” version of Indy IV which I will now be watching and recommending to friends.

I remember when seeing it at the cinema and being so disappointed with needless silly CGI praire-dogs, Ants, shia le biouf swinging through the trees like tarzan, dodgy lines of dialogue, and the whole horrible CGI heavy ending which has the aliens actually lift off into outer space. I thought I would never see the movie again I was that disappointed.

However, after reading lots of positives about Wraith’s version, once it became available on DVD format I downloaded it and gave it a view. Suddenly the movie not only feels tighter, but more like a bona-fide Indiana Jones movie that almost stands tall with the other 3 films in the serious. Almost, but hey, you can only improve what was a barely average film so much.

The cuts are very smooth and the choices made are basically perfect. Thank you so much Wraith for giving us the “true” Indiana Jones IV that we all wanted.

February 7, 2011

I won’t give an in deph analysis because the guys above have covered most of it.

WOW, that’s all I can say, I have seen the theatrical around 3-4 times so I know it pretty well, but only when I watched the delted scenes did I remember some of what was cut. As a whole I think it flows very well, the only noticeable flaws is Spalko’s right hand man dissapearing without a real explanation but it never crossed my mind until they arrived at the temple.

Excellent handling of Mutt during the fencing, tbe obvious CG plants to the groin and the improbable outstretched legs always made me groan, now they’re gone! unfortunately the getting caught in the vines seems slightly disjointed but eh… what can you do?

This is definitely preferred for me over the original cut as a lot of the cheese is gone, and now feels closer to the original trilogy.