For fans of the archaeologist played by Harrison Ford, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull – 78% is the worst movie in the Lucasfilm franchise. Well, with the release of the fifth and final installment, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Fate – 63%, opinions were divided. At the time, the fourth adventure of this movie figure was completely destroyed by the fans and although the critics were not very protective, they gave it one of its worst ratings, which does not transmit the same feeling to the viewers when watching it.
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In 2008 it was already believed that this was the last time that Ford would be seen playing this role, even with Steven Spielberg once again directing. However, despite drawing on certain familiar elements from the film series, it was considered a terrible “send-off” for the character. For many it was a waste that they could not avoid, but we can say the same about its sequel, announced as the last of the actor, which divided critics and the public since for some it is a decent farewell and for others it is not. At least this movie hasn’t been as controversial as the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull movie, which features scenes that put Indy in moments that didn’t make sense and that fans don’t forget to this day.
The truth is that the fourth Indiana Jones film could have been the best of all, and perhaps the last (although that was believed with the premiere of Indiana Jones and the last crusade – 88%), but in the process it ended up evolving, or rather going back and getting rid of a lot of great stuff that would have raised its quality and of course the proposed adventure, rather than what it became by the time it hit theaters. The film is often criticized because it strays from the themes covered in the previous stories, its script is weak, and it had a greater reliance on special effects. The original concept was superior and was developed by a screenwriter who was in contact with Steven Spielbergbut this was never produced and was reworked to become what we know as Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (Source: Little White Lies)
What is Indiana Jones and the City of Gods?
There was an early version of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull that it already had a very similar configuration because it included some of its most relevant characters, the respective macguffin and other details; some of these elements were identical to what made it to the big screen while others went through various changes. That script had as title Indiana Jones and the City of Gods (the city of the gods in its textual translation) and was written by Frank Darabont, known for his work on Dreams of Freedom, Unexpected Miracles and The Mist, who also earned two Oscar nominations for screenplay and direction. It should be noted that before his success in the cinema, he already took care of Indiana Jones when he wrote a couple of episodes of The Young Indiana Jones Chroniclesa series created by George Lucas that was canceled and ended with four made-for-television movies.
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Indiana Jones and the City of Gods It was going to be the sequel, and it started to take shape in the ’90s when Lucas used his time away from Star Wars to come up with ideas that could be made into a movie. He was always accompanied by various writers to develop the new material, but he felt that he had already exhausted the concept of taking Indy to the 30s, in addition to the fact that the main actor was already getting older, so he decided to do something different. According to ScriptShadow, Indiana Jones goes in search of the famous “lost city of the gods”, which is supposed to contain within it all the knowledge of the universe. The site mentions that 7 or 8 writers went through the project and Darabont was one of them before Spielberg settled on David Koepp. It is also revealed that Darabont was disappointed that both the director and George Lucas they were “very distracted” and he found it impossible to please both of them. Spielberg was happy with his script but Lucas was not.
The script included alien life in ancient civilizations and the Russians
Although this particular theme was not to everyone’s liking, it was in the original script. The reason why George Lucas decides to explore it is because he thought he had exhausted the concept of adventure in the 1930s and decided to make a story in another era. So he took the character back to the 1950s and borrowed a popular theme at the time: paranoid sci-fi movies that featured alien villains. So, to the writers he contacted, he gave his ideas, which boil down to Indiana Jones fighting the Russians and discovering evidence of alien life in ancient civilizations. In 1995, the script was titled Indiana Jones and the Saucer Men (Indiana Jones and the Saucer Men) that already included scenes like the one in which Indiana survives a nuclear bomb explosion by hiding inside a refrigerator. The difference is that the story was more focused on flying saucers and combat against aliens, but the release of Independence Day – 60% put the project on hold.
The income of Frank Darabont took place at the turn of the new millennium, where he spent an entire year honing the story and working closely with Steven Spielberg (via The Force). There she said that he strove to give the filmmaker a script he could love. Although it didn’t end well for him, drafts of the script can be found online where you can see that it retains many key elements from Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skullbut he knows how to use his resources in a better way and therefore it is a more attractive story.
The City of Gods did not include Irina Spalko or Mutt
Cate Blanchett plays Irina Spalko, the main villain, and despite being a good actress in the film, she didn’t convince with her exaggerated Russian accent, plus her wardrobe and hairstyle didn’t make her look so serious. This character does not appear in said script, which has several villains. The most striking of them is the president of Peru, who tries to use the protagonist to find the city and get the credit. Removing Spalko’s story makes the movie less silly as it doesn’t possess the same threat level of others that have gone through the franchise. Another who does not appear is Mutt (Shia LaBeouf), the young man who gets Indiana to look for his mother in Peru; here it turns out that Marion is the mother and our protagonist is the father. Darabont’s script leaves out this drama because Mutt doesn’t exist in it and instead Indiana goes in search of the Russians who have tried to deceive people by saying that he is a traitorous communist and the only way to clear his name is to find the artifact or place that you are looking for so much. This change also means that both Indiana and Marion flirt again when they meet, which adds more fun to the story.
Several surprising and meaningful cameos
The script adds a significant appearance by Sean Connery as Indiana Jones’ father, and Sallah (John Rhys-Davies) also returns. These characters were not in the fourth installment, although it was reported that Connery had been asked to return but he turned it down. Although they can be considered as fan service, the report of ScriptShadow He mentions that they became a great contribution since they contribute an endearing and familiar quota to the story.
The ending is more illuminating and shocking
Anyone who has seen the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull knows that in the end they find the lost city in Peru and that they make contact with aliens who end the life of the villain. Darabont’s script has a very similar structure, with the difference that it allows the viewer to learn more about the aliens by giving them lines of dialogue that provide more background about their presence. The creatures offer to fulfill their wishes, which of course ends the ambitious lives of the Russians, while Indy thinks about it but in the end realizes that what he longs for most is Marion’s love. In this way, the wedding has a deeper meaning than in the movie that hit theaters.
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2023-08-27 15:54:45
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