Raiders of the Lost Skull

Impressive work. A big improvement on the theatrical, but I can't help but feel too much was cut. Been a while since I've seen the original, but the film lacked humour and generally came across as pretty bland, which is the opposite problem that the original cut has (being too silly).

The ROTLA soundtrack sporadically works, but as another reviewer has mentioned, it's more distracting than anything. The editor has clearly put a lot of work into integrating the soundtrack, but sadly it still feels out of place. Not due to bad editing, but just because it doesn't suit the tone of the film IMO.
Some of the added sound effects were also noticeable (either that or the original film has REALLY bad punch sound effects). Not great, but not horrendous. There's also a dip in volume with the ant scene - but another reviewer has gone into that.

Narrative is generally fine, except for Indi suddenly appearing in the government office without explanation - and of course, things that can't be fixed, like the interdimensional aliens with magnetic crystal skulls that for some reason decide to rule over a small portion of a single country. And they're psychic. And melt people's brains. And drag people into interdimensional space, despite being crystal corpses. Motives unclear.

Visually, there were some fade transitions which felt a bit rushed and awkward, but for the most part, and particularly after looking at the cut list, the editing is pretty damn seamless.

Enjoyment is low because enjoyment was low. It's higher than it would be for the theatrical, but although it's an improvement it's still an average movie. Kind of feels like a remake of Raiders (particularly now, with the alt. soundtrack), only instead the Nazis are Russians and the Ark is a crystal skull.

Overall? It's a good edit of a terrible movie, now made watchable. Worth a look.

I can only reiterate what others have said about the score replacement: Great, great work! The opening has an entirely different feel and sets the tone well. Together with the heavy cuts it aids in making the film slightly better and more enjoyable. More or less a flawless edit, both audio and video. Minute things as others have mentioned, but will go unnoticed if one is not looking for them.

Recommended, and definitely one of the Crystal Skull-edits that replaces the original.

After watching Pulp Empire, I had a good feeling that this edit would be of the same caliber, at least in the sense of Audio. NJVC masterfully splices in the Raiders soundtrack into this mess of a movie, and the audio seems pretty professionally cut. Nice Work!

My issues come with the edit itself. There were a few cuts too many, and some scenes ended too abruptly. As I have edited films before, I understand that NJVC was working with an obviously limited amount of footage, so some odd cuts are bound to occur. What stood out to me were some dissolves from scene to scene: The shot of Indy over the Nuke-town fading into the FBI scene was jarring, and the quicksand to driving scene fade was noticeable. Like I said, with such a small amount of footage, not everything can be perfect, but I think a hard cut or a wipe of some kind might have fit more.

Like I said, the soundtrack is great. The original movie itself is bogged down with issues, which is the reason I only marked my enjoyment of this cut at 7. That being said, this version of the film is a perfect replacement for the original cut. I haven't seen any of the other major edits yet (TMBTM's, TM2YC's, or Q2's), so I'll check those out too.

This is the third edit of Indy 4 I've watched, and while they all have their pluses and minuses, I think this might be my favorite due to the new score alone. I'm not an expert on movie soundtracks, but this just *felt* more like an Indy film with the music choices that the editor made, and the integration was really well done. Reading some of the reviews, I was very concerned about the audio, but the new music and sound fx were very well balanced with the existing dialogue. I'm assuming the reviewer comments about poor audio levels were made based on v1, as opposed to the v2 I watched.

The other new and exciting thing the editor did was the use of additional footage during the crystal skull spell sequence, including some very clever usage of Doom Town. By far my favorite editing of this scene!

Beyond that, there was the usual mix of editing choices that I both agreed and disagreed with. There were a few things that I have seen done better, but by and large the editing choices were well done.

A/V quality and editing were generally excellent. I only watched the DVD9 for now, but I look forward to adding the AVCHD to my collection if I'm able to obtain it.

8.5/10

Really good job on the editing and the inclusion of the original Indiana music from Raiders, though sometimes with the added music the Sound FX would die away, and all you could hear was the music.
Most of what you removed was not missed, but and to no fault of your own, the movie is more or less just Indy and his son finding clues with little action, so the middle of the film is a little slow.
Overall this is probably the best the movie can get.
The opening edit and getting rid of the whole race scene with Elvis music and ground hogs, as well as the ending are the best part's. Doing away with the UFO and the wedding was great, good spot to end the film.
Overall enjoyable and well worth a watch.