yes because having the arc of the covenant open up the heavens and releasing spirits that suck out your soul if you look at it as an ancient biblical weapon or a cup that can grant eternal life if you drink from it and cure bullet wounds by pouring simple water from it over the wounds that is guarded by a several thousand year old ghost and if you drink from the wrong cup you instantly die or if you remove the cup past a certain invisible line the hidden temple will self destruct or perhaps a bunch of rocks that possess the power to take over the world by simply putting them together are much more realistic story lines.

the idea of aliens is suitable for the time period in which it is set, and went along with the true essence of Indy which is to take a huge mythical idea and to explore it from an adventurous, archaeological (btw no archaeologist actually has such adventures) standpoint and puts a unique twist on the actual meaning of the myth

and the idea of knowledge being the truest treasure in this world is nothing new at all

not to mention that the idea for this movie isnt a new idea, spurred on by modern era theories of little green men, this film has been in development since 1989, immediately after the Last Crusade. Did you know that even M. Night Shyamalan was to write a script for this? And that it took this entire time for Spielberg, Lucas and Ford to agree on a script? Think of how many movies we could've had in the mean time; actually there were suppose to be 5 films lol. The only major difference between this one and the first 3 was the genre in which it emulated. The first 3 being set in the 30's they were an homage to the action heros of Republic Picture's serials and this one being set in the 50s was made to be more of a 1950s B-movie and Lucas' favorite film of the era was "Forbidden Planet." Considering they moved it to be set in the 50s (which also worked well with Ford's age) all the mythology was pretty accurate. The Roswell crash, Area 51, the Russians and the cold war, even the crystal skulls...there is folklore suggesting that actual crystal skulls found in Mexico around the turn of the 20th century were actually made by aliens and/or inhabitants of Atlantis or the Hollowed Earth (of which both the McCoy Indy books and the Disney ride in Japan: Temple of the Crystal Skull are both based on and serve for the basis of this plot), are all relevant to the time period and the Indy series.

and lastly on the whip usage...Ive never counted but I dont recall him using the whip very much in any of the films.

 

Right on man. I've been trying to say all of the exact same things to all of my friends that got pissed off "because of that **** UFO" and they just dont get that this film and its mythology fit the series just as well as the Arc, or the Grail or the Sacred Hindu stones.

The premise of the movie fits EVEN MORE once you take into account the fact that this movie is set in the 1950s. Then don't forget about all the south american mythology and legend that went into this story. It's not just some dumb "HEY LOOK!!! ALEINS!!!" movie.

Some people* just aren't openminded enough...

*note: that last comment was more directed to the people I've been dealing with personally, and not any forum member or person in particular. i

 

I have a friend who is a die hard Indy fan, and he thought the inclusion of aliens was just ridiculous, as did I. I wouldn't have minded some mention or reference that there might be some extraterrestrial connection, but actually showing a living alien and a flying saucer flying off from under an ancient temple was too much for me.

I didn't think Shia Leboeuf was nearly as bad as many feared he'd be, but I can't see him filling Harrison Ford's shoes.


I liked the movie overall but could've done without the last 30 minutes or so.

 

I thought the movie was good, but i really didn't like the part with the refridgerator.

other then that i thought it was very good.

 

FYI ... the title of this thread indicated NO SPOILERS ... so much for that ...

Oh ... and I thought the alien thing was ludicrous .. very un-Indiana Jones ...

 

Sorry, this just wasn't what I was looking for. Ghosts and spirits and stuff of that sort are a different kind of sci-fi than Area-51 aliens stuff. I just felt like it didn't really fit in with the series in the same way that the others did.

 

That was my absolute favorite part of the whole movie.

 

I'm taking mimi me & friends tonight I can't wait to see it ! it'll be good .
I should give my son 3-D glass's and take a whip when he asks what the glass's are for I'll tell him to enhance the 3-D effect he'll feel ! (I'm kidding)

 

Whoops, sorry about the spoilers. I could've sworn it had already been spoiled...

 

I guess at this point its a little on the moot side, but i decided to be safe. No harm no foul

 

Saw it Tuesday....AWESOME! It was very entertaining and freaking hilarious! The only two parts i thought were a little "yeah, right" was the monkeys and the waterfalls......oh yeah and the last quote..."their treasure was thier knowledge"...That made me want to puke...but other than that...best movie i have seen in a long time.

oh yeah...As He was looking for a place to hide...I yelled out loud..."THE REFRIDGERATOR!!"...and he listened....I saved Indiana Jone's life!..lolol

 

Nice job Cody :P

 

No, some people just like a better crafted story.

I actually didn't mind the whole Indiana Jones and the Close Encounter of the Third Kind angle, but I didn't feel as though they really did a whole lot with it, leastwise anything too interesting. The big alien reveal at the end was disappointing, and didn't make a whole lot of sense to me.

I also thought Karen Allen as the comic relief was intensely annoying. Her presence felt forced and awkward and just didn't seem to work this time.

I thought Shia was actually pretty terrific in the film. Talented actor, and he and Harrison played off of one another well. I also got a kick out of Spielberg's homage to Brando in On the Waterfront when we first see Mutt on the bike.

'Course, Spielberg did a lot of homages in this film. How many people noticed that Cate Blanchett's Soviet agent, Irina Spalko, was intentionally patterned after Rosa Klebb (Lotte Lenya) in From Russia with Love?

Yeah, I wasn't buying that at all. Just because the lead lining is radiation proof doesn't mean the refrigerator is bomb proof - especially not nuclear bomb proof at such close range. Refrigerators ain't armor plated and it ought to have been vaporized along with everything else. That was kinda silly.

In some respects it felt like they were trying to hard, in others, not hard enough. Not a bad film overall - mostly a fun romp - but it lacked the magic of Raiders, IMHO. But then again, I didn't much care for Temple of Doom, either.

 

Temple of Doom is definately the weakest of the original three movies.