Review Detail

Thematically, the fountain intro is perfect. That said, it is too dark to really see anything but thats a problem with The Fountain and not the TMBTM. It fits perfectly to see Orellana infighting with his men but the whole sequence leading up to the top of the pyramid drags pretty hard. And the native in the headdress offering his throat to slit, I don't really see what this adds to the film. It is never payed off later in the rest of the film and really only exists to be unnecessarily mysterious for no reason I can discern. Overlaying Oxley's slow motion Mayan dialog also serves to be more distracting and narratively confusing as well.

I like Orellana getting to the top and looking up at the "interdimensional portal" and I like the idea of your transition from that moment to the modern day of 1957. That said, it is pulled off a little oddly. It goes from the portal in the sky to a start/point in space, which pans down through the darkness and into a bright and beautiful day at the entrance to the Hangar 51 base. Again, not a bad idea and not horribly achieved. I do think that if there was more of a gradient between the black of space and the blue sky, it would have been more of a smoother transition.

At the base, Indy is pulled out first, then Mac. I'm neutral to the order in which they are removed from the car. Continuity error fixed!

We then get to the dialog swaps. Spalko: "Where do you think I'm from?" Indy: "Mars". Might have worked if Ford's line delivery was more appropriate to its new placement, but it stands out pretty hard. Then you get Spalko saying: "No last words Dr. Jones?" to which Indy responds: "You got it pal" (then drops gun) which does not work at all.

I did enjoy how you made Indy's miscalculation of his whip swing onto Spalko's jeep and his crashing into the truck behind him, result in knocking out the passenger of the truck rather than Indy punching him out.

Great repurposing of the line "you are of great interest to the bureau" to a different Indy reaction and then leading into him getting fired to packing to leave to getting on the train. Very lean, very efficient. Exactly what needed to be retained for moving the plot forward logically.

Cutting the KGB car chase was a bit of a loss due to just how much of this film is exposition delivered in boring two shots with nothing to really break up all the info dumping. But Iove the edit of indy receiving Oxley's letter in the diner and then cutting from one letter close up to the next letter close up at Indy's house. Simple, invisible, and visually symmetric. Worse than death, the scenes in between were never alive!

From the plane arriving in Peru and cutting straight to the graverobbing after Indy and Mutt's market conversation felt a little rushed. I'm not sad to see the film transition in this way, but it felt like they knew exactly where to go. Like they knew something we didn't and assumed we did. Because up until this point we have learned about the unfolding plot simultaneously with the characters. I also love how the reverse shot of the graveyard works just as well.

The sanitorium dialog was used really well at the arrival to the cemetery though. Its dark and the new dialog fits pretty spot on. It did sound like it was recorded in a different room though, and needs a little more reverb applied to make it fit.

Once we get to the Soviet jungle encampment, having Marion be threatened right off the bat is probably the most intelligent idea made in this cut. Now rather than Indy just doing what he is told and staring into the skull, his reason for doing so is Marion. Way better.

Indy's staring contest with the skull: this all looked great. But I couldn't help but be pulled out of the scene with the very obvious slowed down "return....return" line that was inserted here. It was just a little too on the nose for me. I think you could even keep this in the film if you just lowered the volume/tweaked it a little more so as to not stand out so much.

Something I REALLY loved was Indy + the gang getting chased by the natives in the cave entrance to the pyramid crater and how the noise of the commotion made it out of the waterfall entrance for Spalko and her cronies to hear and have their attention drawn up towards the cave entrance. Great idea and great implementation.

Nips and tucks in the jungle chase were appreciated. Spalko landing on the ant hill before Indy is way more plausable. No driving the jeep into the tree. Love it. As well as the fx shot of the jeep falling through where the tree used to be. Angels do exist.

Nips and tucks in the pyramid crater. Love how you reversed the wide shot of the crater to match the next shot where they reach the top.

Spalko's lines about "turning you into us" coming back to haunt her as she was killed/transported was a nice touch. Again I think it was a little clunky in implementation, but it worked really well regardless.

Interdimensional portal transition to Indy and the Gang being jetisoned out of the pyramid was great too.

Then we get the Avenger's beam and portal opening in the sky. Great idea and pulled off really nicely. Parts of it do come off pretty abrupt when you cut from the pyramid debris starting to rise to giant boulders floating around and then dropping back down again. I feel like you already showed the top of the saucer so having a quick shot of the inbetween elevation to make the difference between the shots a little more feasable, wouldn't be too horrendous.

Then we get to Mutt's last line of dialog on the mountain top. No matter how much I wish that was the actual dialog he spoke in the theatrical cut, it's poor implementation wrenches you out of the smoothly going experience. Ending on the freeze frame was also a little off putting.

Conclusion: This a short but sweet cut and if anyone is looking for the least painful way to watch Indy 4 but also know what was cut, and therefore remember the context of certain scenes, this one provides a remixed and quick to the point ride. This is definitely better than the theatrical cut, in fact aside from a few spots here and there, I think this is one of the best cuts out there.