Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull: The Spence Edit

I remember enjoying the original and not understanding what the negativity was all about, but with that being said, this edit seamlessly improves on what I believe was already a fun movie by improving the pacing and losing some of the humor that just didn't land. I highly recommend, and it will definitely be my go-to version for future viewings!

Spence does it again! Turning a mediocre mess of a film into a solid flick. His edits are always technically well done and his improvements to the plot here make the viewing experience worthwhile. This film is now a little less silly, a little more focused, and a lot more enjoyable. Great work!

I've seen a lot of Indy 4 cuts. Sometimes I have a lot to say, but other times the edit does what it needs to and functions too smoothly to have much to say. Which at the end of the day is the minimum that every edit should reach.

My thoughts:

- The opening Paramount/mountain fade shot is done pretty well. But it does linger a long enough for me to wonder why I'm looking at it. I can see little things floating around in the open air around the mountain which I think is a nicer touch than just still image of the sky or backdrop.

- You kept the rocket sled gofers! Noooo!
- The timing of Indy's line delivery of "knife to a gun fight" is so much better.
- Cutting Oxley dancing around the Soviet jungle campfire. Why? I fail to see how this really achieves anything aside from shaving a few seconds off the run time. Not really condemning this choice, I just don't see what it contributes.
- Lots of little nips and tucks through out the rest of the film were appropriate.

Overall, this was a pretty conservative, light touch, edit. Better than the original cut for sure. For me personally though I would have preferred a heavier hand in the edit room but this does the job quite well and should be watched over the theatrical cut.

Well, what can I say? THIS is the Best Cinematic that he ever did, the audio, visual, the quality, everything, were looking like the Indiana Jones trillogy, really, well done, I really recommend this edit.

This is a fantastic edit of a movie which gave very little enjoy from the offset. Spence has taken out a lot of the flab from this movie and it's incredible to see how what's left is so much tighter. This doesn't change the central problem that Indy as a character is about historical magic, not futuristic sci-fi and that the introduction of Mutt and re-introduction of Ravenwood weighs down the story as well as Indy himself. If you accept that, then you can focus on what Spence has achieved here: The gophers and monkeys aren't excised entirely, but you don't resent them when they do briefly pop up. The edits feels entirely seamless and you mostly feel a sigh of relief when the movie is over instead of groans and agony. TLDR review? Spence has polished a turd. Bravo, sir!