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

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.

This edit wound up being a somewhat odd viewing experience for me, since I couldn't help but mentally compare it to njvc's edit "Raiders of the Lost Skull" more than the theatrical edition of "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull".

My overall impression is that it feels like a sort of halfway point between "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" and "Raiders of the Lost Skull", being better than the former but not as good as the latter. As far as I can recall, "Raiders of the Lost Skull" makes all of the improvements that this edit does (other than removing references to Mutt being Indy's son), as well as quite a few more. However, I did like that this edit kept Mac yelling "You don't know him!", a line that I find funny but which was cut in njvc's edit.

In my opinion, the tweaks to the nuclear bomb scene still don't save it. Indy still appears far too close to the bomb to survive, and even the shortened version of the flying through the air and flipping around looks like something that would seriously injure if not kill him.

The video quality was good overall, with good grain detail and color. The audio also sounded good, and the new song at the beginning was a nice touch.

EDIT: DonkeyKonga has since made an updated version of the edit that removes an editing glitch that I mentioned in an earlier version of this review.