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

It's the 1950s and Indy is back fighting Evil Commie Agents and hunting for Flying Saucers -- what's not to love?

Apparently lots, based on fan reactions at the time and the large number of fan edits this specific entry in the Jones Franchise has spawned. Myself, I have a soft spot for KOTCS. At the time of its release, I thought LaBeouf was completely miscast and I was disappointed with the emphasis on CGI over Practical Effects. But as for the actual story, I liked it. I thought it was far more interesting than Last Crusade.

And over the last 15 years since it's release, I think Crystal Skull has aged very well when compared to many of the other CGI bloated adventure movies that have deluged the screen since 2008. Despite it's short comings, Crystal Skull is still a Steven Spielberg movie, and at it's heart, it still has a very strong emotional core. And I gotta admit now after a passage of time, Shia's performance is solid.

As for Spence's fan edit... from the moment I saw the new Paramount Mountain opening, which made me SMILE broadly, I knew I was in the right hands. Every concern or nitpick I had with the original has been addressed and corrected as far as the source material allows, without sacrificing character or story structure. The pacing is significantly tighter and faster in all the action beats. All the cuts and trims are seamless, as I would expect from a craftsman of Spence's skill and experience. The audio levels are solid, and the new musical additions are joyously welcomed. The new colour grading injects energy and vibrancy into the adventure.

This is an easy 10s across the board for me.
From the Paramount logo to Indy's March as the credits rolled, I was fully immersed and entertained.
Great stuff!!!
:)

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.

First, my opinion of the movie in terms of an Indiana Jones fan:
I had high hopes this edit would salvage the situation, but it didn't - meanwhile, I think my expectations were simply too high.
Now don't get me wrong, I cannot and will not blame "Spence" for that!
But "Kingdom Of The Crystall Skull" just is not what I wanted it to be (namely a new adventure with Indy), it's more like visiting old friends. The movie takes not enough risks (even though there's loads of potential) to expand its universe or characters, but repeats old tricks or blinks eyes to the past. That's all nice, but "nice" is not "great". I think this kind of (supposed) satisfying of target audiences is the only thing George Lucas is able to do these days (or since the mid 90ties)...
Now my opinion on the technical side of things:
That all put aside, I definitely think the Spence edit is still an improvement over the original because it keeps in the movie's strenghts, has a good pace and doesn't bore as much as the original movie. The cuts are flawless, the story and the characters are all intact, and there was no moment I thought "now THERE was something wrong now!" - congrats, Spence!

One thing you can say about Spence's edits is that they all feel genuine. What I mean by that is that rather than radically altering the story of the film Spence sticks to what's already there, and just uses light trims to punch things up. If you've watched their take on Justice League, Falcon & Winter Soldier, even Rise of Skywalker to an extent, you know what I mean.

The same can be said about this edit as well. I didn't want to watch a radically changed version of the movie (yet), I wanted a streamlined version of the movie as is, & Spence delivers. Even the "I like Ike" bit, something a lot of editors would cut out, is kept here, & it makes me appreciate this edit more. Much like superheroes, the adventure serials Indy is based on are cheesy, & I'm all for edits, and movies for that matter, that aren't afraid to embrace the cheese factor.

That said, there's stuff in this edit I wish were cut more. I'm totally fine with an Indiana Jones movie where he goes after aliens (& tying into Roswell was a nice touch), I just hate the part about how the aliens gave the Acatori agriculture & the like. Casual cluelessness like that really hampers by buzz when I'm trying to have a good time (even the first scene of indigenous people attacking Indy & Mutt has Indy reverse-blowdarting a guy).

Still, if you want steamlined, as-is version of Crystal Skull, check out this one.

My go to KOTCS edit had always been 15Maf's but Spence edit has taken the mantle (No offence 15Maf's). All the issues I had with this film has been corrected by Spence in this edit. From the traditional Paramount logo fading to a mountain, to a less goofy klutz-y Indy and better streamlined action sequences (I even like the fridge scene as Spence's version is much less of a "Jump the Shark" moment). Spence has been on a roll with edits lately and you know you will get a quality edit with Spence's name attached. Well done Spence!