Dr. Jones and the Skull Kingdom Mystery

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.

January 18, 2011

First off, I’m commenting on it after watching the MP4.

I enjoyed the edit. But my first impressions were of the poor quality of the picture in the MP4. It wasn’t great considering it was a 1.5 gig file. But I’m sure the Dvd is much better.

I’ll briefly comment on what I liked and didn’t like.

001 – The opening shots were fine, but they just didn’t feel very Indy, and neither was the music. It all felt a bit too dark and didn’t really fit. Sorry, just my opinion.

006 – I liked the fact that you removed the opening sequence with the hot-rodders. It proves it works without it. I noticed though, that the titles crossed over into the black bars, but you mentioned in the forum’s that that was a rendering mistake.

011 – I’m not sure I like the removal of the Russian Punching Indy.

015 – I liked the shorter version of the Hanger sequence, gets to the point much quicker and the excised footage isn’t missed. Not showing inside the box was a good idea too.

022 – I didn’t like the removal of this line as it was a nice little acting moment from Ray Winstone. The scene worked without it, but I feel the film needs as many good acting moments as possible.

026 – I think everyone would agree removing the prairie dogs is a good thing.

028 – I think shortening the blast sequence makes the cut to the fridge much too sudden. And I felt there was still a bit to much tumbling and crashing. I’ve been doing my own Indy 4 edit (aren’t we all) and I also felt the scene could have used music, so nice addition.

029 – I actually love that shot of the mushroom cloud, so I missed it here.

031 – Less of the Government goons works well. I could never take THE JANITOR (from Scrubs) seriously in the part.

034 – I enjoyed the diner scene more than usual. But that line about bringing a knife to a gunfight is still there. I hate that line, it’s been used so many times in film.

036 – 038 – I thought I would miss the fight in the graveyard, but I was surprised how much better thing feel without it. The film seems to flow a lot better here, so that was a very good choice. Must have been a hard choice though, to remove the entire sequence.

047 – Good job improving the sand pit. That scene has to be one of the dumbest scene in all the Indy films. It would be better removed completely.

049 – I agree with removing a lot of the jungle fight atop the moving vehicles, as they were too over-the-top.

050 – By cutting the monkeys, it makes it very hard to get Mutt back to Spalko’s car. But you did a not-too-bad job of it.

054 – The ants never really bothered me. But seeing the film without them works really well. I thought we would miss the demise of the big Russian, but we can assume he’s been left back with what’s left of the convoy. Overall this cut really moves the film along nicely.

057 – The falling three times scene wasn’t in itself a bad idea, I think it’s just the way they did it that was poor. It was far too jokey, like most of the film. I think you did a good job it.

063 – I really liked this. Well done!

067 – Removing the craft and then the falling rocks worked for me. I didn’t think it would, but it did. There was a flash frame here, but I’m sure you’ve already fixed that.

Overall I really enjoyed it. A few of the major sequences cut, but not missed, and a lot of smaller cuts made that tighten the whole thing up and move the film along at a much better pace.

Congratulations.

January 17, 2011
*This rating was given before reviews were required*

This is the first of the Indy 4 edits that I’ve watched, and I must say I was very impressed. (Possible minor spoilers ahead.)

This version of the film flows much better. The original theatrical cut was two hours, and while 2 hours shouldn’t be too long for an Indy film (that was the length of the first three films, after all), Wraith’s lean 99-minute cut removes a lot of extraneous stuff that weighed down the theatrical release.

The new opening, using 1950s atomic bomb footage, is fantastic and really helps to set the era and the mood better than the “Hound Dog” sequence did in the original film.

Indy’s talk with the FBI is mercifully much shorter.

The chase is reworked so that it has a more natural stopping point than the scene in the library. The library scene was funny, but it was an awkward place to *end* the chase. With a bit of trimming and some rearranged music, the chase flows much better now.

The chase in the forest is also reworked significantly to avoid dumb CGI monkeys and such.

There were a few things that I would have cut that Wraith chose to leave in. Irina Spalko’s attempts to use psychic powers on Indy are silly, as is Indy’s clunky dialogue at the end about “Knowledge was their gift.” But these are relatively minor things. Overall, I was satisfied.

Since this was the first Indy 4 edit I watched, I can’t really compare it with the others, but compared to the theatrical version, this is a vast improvement.

It's been a minute since I requested this edit, and I finally got around to watching it. Thanks to Wraith for sending me a copy!

Overall, this edit is a decent effort to streamline the black sheep of the Indiana Jones franchise, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and Wraith's talents are on a good display here. Aside from from some frame and audio hiccups, where scenes and transitions were cut, this is edited very well. Idiotic scenes, like the big darn ants and Monkey Mutt were cut out quite nicely and seamlessly. There's only one big thing I can think of that felt off is the waterfall sequence. The camera moving from there to here to over here was quite jarring.

The alternate intro, where Mt. Paramount faded into a nuclear test site memorial was clever, and I liked the idea of showing an old nuclear warfare television message, but it certainly didn't feel Indy like, and nuclear warfare is touched on in the film, but it's not brought up a whole lot, so maybe another thing would've been better. I like what Man Behind the Mask did in Riddles of the Lost Gods, in which he has a scene from The Fountain, where he presents Jackman's character as De Orellana. It sets up the main point of the film surprisingly well in terms of subject matter. The narrative overall is better in this edit, but there were still things that should've been cut. "yOu DoN't KnOw HiM!," "for an old man, you ain't bad in a fight," most of Mac's lines and stuff about him being a fake triple agent, and some of the argument in the Russian army truck, and some other things detracted from the film.

Like I said, this is a decent Crystal Skull edit, and I believe it to be one worth watching at least once.