Raiders of the Lost Skull

One of the best Indy 4 edits, a convincing improvement on the original. NJVC's cuts are more aggressive than others and many of them work. I was surprised and impressed how many details I ended up not missing!
While the cuts in the beginning are too severe for me (too much banter is cut in favor of action), NJVC get the perfect balance half-way into the movie. This is my favorite jungle chase sequence, and the best waterfall sequence. The technical and storytelling editing skills are impressive.
My one disagreement is on the audio: the best known bits of music used from Raiders of the Lost Ark are applied too often and distract me from enjoying this story. My brain keeps focusing on the music cues in Ark, pulling me out of the Skull narrative. More judicious use of less-rousing and less-famous cues from Indy 1 and Indy 3 might have achieved the musical boost without being recognizable as copy-paste.
In all, this is an enjoyable achievement!

Ah the power of music!

Aside from positive reviews I sought out NJVC's Indy 4 edit mostly out of curiosity to see how well the score was replaced. Audio is always the most challenging aspect of fan editing with music sometimes difficult to isolate. However I was blown away to see how well NJVC integrated the Raiders score, simply marvellous!

With the original score, right from the opening scene you feel like your in an Indy film. Thankfully this continues as cues are carefully selected.

Cuts are seamless and with 32 minutes cut I was surprised that the film didn't feel rushed.

Highlights for me include the opening, Indy's Crystal Skull nightmare sequence (which brilliantly utilises some of the footage cut earlier in the film including the iconic shot of Indy and mushroom cloud), editing of the jungle scene which is reduced to the bare minimum and the ending which now feels more epic with the replaced score.

Nit-picks would be not seeing the new title (Return of the Crystal Skull) in the opening credits and the one shot of the flying saucer in the nightmare sequence.

This edit is more than watchable, NJVC has created an enjoyable Indy adventure!

Hi there!

I am not an expert as far as fanedits go, but I have watched some fanedits.

About IJKS, I did not dare to watch one until I read the description of your project.

Changing the music was a superb idea, and it works. From start to finish.

The cutlist was great and despite some messy stuff during the car chase, I could enjoy (enjoy!) this edit of the movie during all of it.

The ending was superb and the hard work must pay off.

Thank you! All thumbs up.

Some small criticism would be that the use of Raiders "Mystery" theme was excessive, but that is a small shadow in an overall pristine work.

Thanks again, never thought I would enjoy any of this material.

The looks of audio and video are also excellent.

Shame on Kaminski, shame on Koep, glory to you, man!! NJVC!!

I was actually able to fully enjoy this movie for the first time. Still the worst of the series, but now deserves it's place alongside the others in my collection. I no longer even mind Mutt as a character, with his obnoxiousness toned down. Quite a feat.

The Raiders score works very well. It feels more like a true Indy film. The cringeworthy moments are gone. Well done!

this has got to be the best version yet. i thought the flow was fantastic and the overall editing superb!