Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull: Recut by 15MaF

Fully expecting this year’s Indy 5 to be typical modern garbage from Team Kennedy at Disney Minus, I wanted to revisit this one and see if any talented editor managed to salvage it. But that would be asking too much. No editing can fix the PS3 cut scenes: primarily the extended chase scene (although the vine-swinging is thankfully cut as much as possible), and the ridiculous green screen ending. Improve, but not fix. Too many bad ideas and sequences are hard baked into the film. Too many bad performances (Ford stops phoning it in so much later on but the villainess chokes on the scenery and not in a good way.) Somehow the flick is too formulaic too.

If you’re struggling to pick a version to watch, I heartily recommend this one. I actually initially chose Race with the Devil but as soon as I saw the CGI gopher at the start of that version of the film I switched over to this edit. My thinking being that any editor who would leave that stupidity in the film would likely make other bad decisions. Maybe I’m wrong, but I’m happy I went with 15MAF. I can’t imagine this movie can be fixed further than it is fixed here without rewrites and reshoots.

Something I noticed that I’m not sure is new to this edit or not but a couple times the score sounded very Star Trek.

Anyway, thank you 15MAF! Stellar job. I watched this on a really good 4k tv and it looked perfect. Soon I’ll watch the 4K disc and see how it compares. Wish me luck.

I really enjoyed this edit! I like how a lot screaming was added while Indy was in the fridge and it was flipping. This edit works better than the original in my opinion

I do not quite like this edit.

I do understand the reasons why this edit exists. The original was just damn lame, and corny. So much old man humor and cheese. It's very much a bad-idea-a-minute type movie. It feels like a movie made by old men tryna be hip, exciting and funny. I get it. And I did like this movie when I was younger. It was the film that got me into Indiana Jones, and movies in general. And while I do have nostalgic ties to it, I understand the badness of it.

However. Say what you will abt the original's badness and lameness, but it was well-structured. There is some excess, which this recut addressed, and rightfully so. But generally the film, even with all its lameness, was well-structured. The scenes were well-edited, the pacing was good, the scenes had flow. The film had a lot of bad ideas, yes, but the basic editing, pacing, and flow were good, outside of the ideas in the narrative.

Which is why I dislike this recut. In trying to remove much of the bad and excessive ideas in the original (at least in how I interpret the intention behind it), the film's flow and pacing suffers drastically as a result. Scenes no longer flow with the smooth music that a Spielberg film always has. I watched this recut first before I rewatched Crystal Skull for the first time in many years. Which means I watched this edit without seeing the original in a long time. And still I could tell when something that's supposed to be there, has been removed, and the flow of the editing is ruined as a result. Which frankly is all the time.

While I do not love the original, seeing what it truly is now as an adult, I am sorry to say this edit is almost as unenjoyable to watch as the original, although for a different reason. While the original is bad because of its many bad ideas, this edit is bad because although the bad ideas are no longer there, the structure, flow, and music that was in it is ruined. Too many times I find abrupt, awkward cuts that stick out way too much like giant scar. This edit is the equivalent of cutting out too much and leaving too many blank spots and holes. Besides, although excessive, a lot of the stuff cut in this edit are scenes with heart. The lighthearted aspect of the film is foregone in favor of thrilling action and straightforward narrative. Which in theory is fine, but the original was very much a lighthearted film. It had that charm. This edit, in cutting out too much, also cuts away the heart of the film, which although makes the film much more exciting, takes away much of identity and spirit.

On a more positive note, the audio editing is good. Never noticed a problem. The visual quality is good as well.

Overall, sad to say, I can only recommend this movie to a viewer, if said viewer had no eye for pacing and flow for film whatsoever. Although I do admit that a movie's flow is a VERY big deal for me, so take my complaints please with a big grain of salt. At least I could potentially enjoy the original in all its lameness, even if I have to turn my brain off when I do, because the original had good flow and heart. On the other hand, I personally cannot sit through this edit in all its way-too-straightforward and cold choppiness.

It feels like listening to a corny love song keeps skipping forward. Although the original song was lame and corny, it had rhythm and heart. The cuts take that away, leaving behind a cold, choppy mess that doesn't quite feel like music. 4.5/10.

I really had no desire to go back and watch the original theatrical cut after seeing it. There was too much in it that, to me, didn't fit with the style and narrative of the other films. Well, with 15MaF's edit, Geriatric Jones has found some new youthful vigor.

15MaF has done some pretty miraculous things with the movie. First of all, the edits are seamless. The attention to detail was obvious. The additional effects really improved some of the scenes where something felt off.

There were some scenes in the beginning half of the film where Harrison Ford's dialog felt like it wasn't quite lip synch'ed, almost like some ADR that didn't quite line up in post. I also had my fingers-crossed that somehow 15MaF had figured out how to magically remove the scenes with the ants towards the end. As I was watching it, I was struggling to figure out how that could be done. That's not on 15MaF. I am sure a lot of thought went into what to include and not include.

While it will never be my favorite of the series, I can now say that I will be watching this, 15MaF version, again in the future. Thank you!

This edit was impressively well done. Cutting the small excess scenes with terrible dialogues thankfully gives the movie a serious tone. More notably, the terrible monkeys and gopher CGI scenes were removed. The additional effects of this edit were pretty good. I found a few noticeable audio cuts but if might be me just recognizing the score but I'm sure a new viewer wouldn't recognize it. The pacing of the film feels perfect almost as close to Temple of Doom or Raiders so I will give it a recommendation to a fan who barely watches the original version.