Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of The Crystal Skull: The Race With The Devil Cut

First of all, I'll just state the obvious, I don't like Indiana 4 at all. So, I wasn't expecting that I will find a fanedit that will make this movie truly enjoyable for me, but, I'm always curious to see in difficult situations like this what can an editor do. I'm a big fanedits fan, so I enjoy watching them even when I do not expect a film to be truly salvaged for me, like it was the case with this one.

Although I haven't seen it yet because it hasn't premiered, I think there is no mention of Indy's son in the new sequel which bodes well for this edit because DonkeyKonga has removed the fact that the character of Shia is Indy's son. He did well in removing that and it was also excellent the way he made the edit there.

The work done here is extremely good. All the cuts were seamless, almost all of the ridiculousness is gone and we finally have a half decent movie to watch as a sequel. I only saw Crystal Skull once so I can't say that I remember all the changes made here, but the fact that I didn't miss anything and I kind of enjoyed the film, speaks for itself.

I only have a couple of complaints about the edit. The first one is that the editor kept the laughable scene where Indy saves himself from an atomic bomb by going into a fridge. Though he did improve it by making it seem that it was far far away so technically he could be saved in a lead fridge. The second one is that he kept the flying saucer at the end. I mean, ok, we accept the alien part to an extend but seeing an actual flying saucer just pushes it over the edge. The editor explained to me though that this scene could not be removed without the whole sequence becoming choppy. And the third one, a minor, is that we could trim a liiitle bit of some ridiculous parts even more, like the character played by Cate Blanchett that straight up karate chops Shia multiple times in the jeep.

Other than that, if anyone somewhat enjoyed the original movie then I guarantee you this will elevate your experience to a whole new level and it will be your go-to version for any future Indy marathons!

Thank you DokeyKonga for all your hard work and thanks to anyone who read my review!

I watched the original around 10 years ago, and watching this edit reminded me of playing Lego Indiana Jones 2, so that was a bonus.

Of course, you got to have the nuke fridge scene, the town of mannequins is pretty surreal and the race to the fridge is tense. But I'm glad it was toned down for this edit, no fridge rocket.

In the jungle chase scene, I'm glad that Mutt was kept from turning into Tarzan, that was just weird in the original.
Mutt became Indy's son (or step-son) in the end, AND without the quick sand scene.

The Alien scene in the original took away the tension, what is he going to tell her? Ayy LMAO? The close up looked just like a meme without text. Now with the gray gone, it's very dramatic and a good end. Because from what I see the aliens are dead and those are their skeletons, with the UFO being on autopilot.

I'll rate 10/10 because it all looks good to me.

Hi I really enjoyed the edit and thought it was great you did a great job, the theatrical version was okay but this is even better ,this is what it should have been,I love how you got rid of the silly scenes and made it more in tune with the first three films and I also loved the beginning,I also loved how you made mac a more serious sidekick and not comic relief like in the original film ,I also liked mutt not being their son it makes Indy a more responsible person and removes one of the most silliest scenes with them arguing in the mud ,you did a great job with it and it's one of my favorite fan edits!

The only time I’ve watched Crystal Skull was at the cinema - I thought it was *okay* but fairly disappointing compared to the originals, like they decided to go for Temple of Doom over-the-top silliness instead of emulating the better movies.

Watching this fanedit was a revelation - it’s like a *proper* Indy film now :) All the bits that creased my forehead in the cinema have now been seamlessly excised and the film feels very much more like the originals now. I’ve bought the disk to slide in next to my trilogy set, but it will be there just for show - this is the version I’ll be watching in the future!

In conjunction with lapis molari’s “Willie Scott” edit of Temple of Doom, this will be my preferred way of watching the Indy films.

I watched the fan edit on my Quest 2 VR headset via the Skybox app, which lets me watch films on a (virtual) full-sized cinema screen. The edit looked superb on the big screen and I couldn’t “see the joins” as it where - the film flowed well from start to finish.

Excellent work by DonkeyKonga - many thanks for your edit!

Let me just state that I have seen so many cuts of this film that its hard to differentiate them after a while.

- That said I watched this with the Race with the Devil musical cue. The song wasn't any better or worse than the original Elvis song but I did find that when the American teens get the Soviet driver to race them, the song's solo should have been matched up for this moment. Other than being a little quiet, it wasn't bad.

- For the most part edits were invisible and a lot of it worked well. Hence I really don't have much to really praise or deride. You cut out the Roswell body in the tent and you can't even notice. Which is how it should be. I think its removal helps reduce confusion at all the alien's being superfluous distant cousins and etc. And its removal was invisible.

- The color regrade made every thing look like it was filmed entirely under an overcast sky. Which I liked. Wouldn't really call it the best visual style as it was a little dark at times, but otherwise looked good and was consistent.

- Right before the jungle chase, I like how you used Mutt's "you're not my father" bit and how you repurposed his confused look of hearing news of his actual father, and how you repurposed that shot as a son's concern as he watches his mother get gagged. Although the editing to cover up Indy's "they weren't you honey" ended up not having a lot of room to breathe.

- Spalko's close up reaction as her jeep flies through the air before running over Indy and the gang's vehicle (at the beginning of the big damn ants scene) kept her floating in the air a little too much for my taste. There were a few moments in this scene where the sound fx dropped out as well.

- Something that bothered me as well, was that Indy reiterates how Oxley says "three times it drops" but then they clearly only "drop" twice.

- I like cutting what you did at the bottom of the pyramid stairwell after they run down the receding stone steps, but Mutt states that he dropped and lost the skull. Then they start looking for it. But then you just cut to the next scene.

- I noticed that you kept the temple natives living within the stone walls. A neutral choice in my opinion. But you kind of cut away quickly in some attempt to downplay this narrative choice. Almost in an attempt to please those who hate this idea and those who find it bearable. Which I don't think really works. It's one or the other in my book, as finding a middle ground just makes it weird/unnecessary.

- The ending atop the pyramid also was a little choppy.

Conclusion: was it better than the theatrical cut? Yes. Would I recommend this to others or rewatch it again? Yes. It's not perfect but it's worth watching.