Riddles of the Lost Gods

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.

This was a really fun take on Indy 4 - Highly original, as is the way of TMBTM, and in parts, extremely effective. It's an alternate universe take on the film, full of 'what if's and interesting alternatives to the original film.

Some of the great highlights include:
- The opening from the Fountain. Great to see this long discussed idea finally realised. Some wonderful audio replacement work with the soundtrack from Raiders in this opening scene.
- Spell of the Skull - Very understated and clever editing, utilising footage from The Fountain again, and making it clearer why Indy reacts the way he does. Also clever rearranging of Marion's introduction. Worked well!
- As usual, I loved the added special effects. They were really fun, and often added to the story. The transition from the aliens teleporting to Indy and co ascending the well was wonderfully realised, and the way in which the footage from Avengers was utilised was great too.

Story wise, I wasn't as happy (but this is why I did my own Indy4 edit, to get rid of all the particulars that irked me! It's personal taste, and I accept this is Mask's happy version). There were some bold narrative changes, and I applaud the audacity ;) but I didn't really feel that some of the overdubbing to help create these story changes was very effective, notably in the graveyard scene, and the very last line of the film.

But overall, this is a fun edit full of surprises, offering a fresh take on a very stale movie. TMBTM, you've done it again :)

Tough to say really how much I liked this. Mask's editing is excellent and the bullshit is at an all-time low in this version. But to answer the big question, "Is this movie good?" No. But it's probably the best it could be.

The biggest problem here is the narrative. Act I is the strongest part. The new opening sequence is just excellent. And the way it's tied in to the finale was perfect. But everything that happens in Act II and the start of Act III is still terrible. Narratively this has the same issue that most SW prequel edits have; things happen too fast. Sadly that's kind of unavoidable. There's so much garbage cut out that the film doesn't have time to breathe. Before I knew it Indy and Mutt had been captured by the Russians and I said to myself, "Wait, wasn't there more film here?" The second half is really great, moving at a brisk pace but taking time to let the audience in on what they need to know.

I've seen 4 out of the 5 other Indy 4 edits (only Q2's edit remains to be viewed) and this is just about on par with njvc's Raiders of the Lost Skull, but I'd give this the edge due to the opening sequence.

I cannot stress enough how awesome the first 5 minutes are. This type of opening is exactly what this film needed. And major kudos for cutting the wedding without it feeling like an awkward end.

[The only issue with editing was Mutt's final line. It was a nice touch but was too obviously overdubbed. Everything else was expertly done.]

Recommend? If you haven't found your favorite Indy 4 fanedit yet, watch this. If you're a fan of TMBTM, watch this. If you've never seen an Indy 4 edit, watch this first.

A/V Quality - 10
Editing - 10 visual, 9 audio
Narrative - 8 (Extra points due to Orellana opening)
Enjoyment - 8 (Ditto)

Recommended drink: Kah Tequila

A different take on editing Indy 4.
Inspired? Yes, adding Orellana's backstory shifts the focus from Indy to the aliens. History, almost, repeats itself: Indy is simply one more explorer to go down this path. This fleshes out the worship and protection of these gods / aliens. In the original it feels to me that these gods are from a forgotten past, but if so the presence of warriors protecting them makes no sense. For that the worship needs to exist in the present and not only in the past. TMBTM shows us that worship continued into the recent past, making it an easy step to assume it continues into the present. This also clarifies who wrapped Orellana and his men and why (they couldn't have wrapped themselves after all, at least not the last man).
Do I prefer this over the other available edits? No. I feel the focal shift to improve the alien story and extensive cuts reduce Indy's story too much. In all, an impressive thinking-outside-the-box edit that adds a good backstory. Perhaps the backstory would feel better proportioned in a 3-hour extended edit?

I watched a 720p MKV, which I believe is the highest quality available at this point. Source is SD.

Visual editing was generally very good, though I did feel that the opening didn't really match up well with the look of the rest of the film and maybe could have had a bit more done to accomodate that. The opening does feel more in keeping with the look of an Indiana Jones film, but it's also very dark, whereas what follows is bright and orange. The transition from that footage into the actual film though was really well done.

If I'm being honest, there were several bits of audio editing that I noticed. In the opening the sound in general was often either quite brittle or absent, I assume from trying to remove the original score, and would have been better off having sound FX rebuilt. There were also scenes in the movie where it was obvious dialogue had been cut short because all ambience would drop out and the score would suddenly swell. Lines have been tweaked or changed throughout and often go by unnoticed, but some are obvious because of the tone of Indie's voice, or the lip syncing being off or the volume being inconsistent. The most jarring instance of this is Mutt at the end: "you're not my dad". Not sure it's worth being taken out of the edit for the sake of that line, personally. The editor has acknowledged on his IFDB page that not all of the dialogue-swapping is perfect.

(edit spoilers follow)

The narrative worked to a point, but after seeing the opening I was expecting there to be a more dramatic change to the ending - chalk that up to false expectations, I guess. But considering we're still left with Aliens/interdimensional beings, the opening feels a bit superfluous and more of a mood setter than anything. I wasn't 100% on what TMBTM was going for with Blanchet's character at the end... was she meant to have been sucked into this other dimension with the aliens, rather than being burned up? Because we still see her being burned up. The voice-over harkening back to what she said to Indiana is also quite loud, and stands out as not being part of the original mix. I wasn't a fan of the freeze-frame ending either. Felt like an odd choice.

Enjoyment: I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a bit disappointed, but some of that is me expecting something different. It has been a while since I've seen the film, so it was nice to see a tighter take with an alternative spin. I guess i just wish it had gone a bit more mental with plot alterations. This isn't the first Crystal Skull edit I've seen, and I think I've also just come to a point where I realise it's a bad film and it can't be fixed. You take away what's offensive, and you get something that's quite bland and uninspiring. It's hard to believe this was directed by the same man who gave us the original trilogy. Crystal Skull is just entirely unremarkable and there's nothing to salvage that hits above middle-of-the-road entertainment.

Thanks again to TMBTM, who is a very talented and creative editor. I'm sorry I can't be more positive about this one.