We Watched Indiana Jones 5, Were The Rumors True?

William and Jason from Cinematic Fantastic give their unedited thoughts on this divisive final Indiana Jones film starring Harrison Ford as the famous adventurer and directed by Logan director James Mangold, discussing how it is better than the previous movie in some aspects and way worse in others, with added visual commentary! Make sure to pause to read them if you wish!

POST COMMENTARY (READ AFTER WATCHING):
After recording this review and taking time to formulate and solidify my opinion of this film, I do not hold it as high as I did the day of watching. There is general dumbing down on Disney's part (23:27) feeling like something Disney would dump onto streaming (41:13) and looking cartoony despite being "one of the most expensive" in film history. It feels cheap because of the overuse of closeups (11:34) where the Spielberg movies had way more wide shots and establishing shots.
This film has barely any 'adventuring' as the plot is overall very scant and simple, which hurts the pacing a lot especially when the ending was horribly rushed and sudden, as if the movie should have gone on for longer, resolved it's plot, or should've even meant something as a whole. At the time I did not take this as serious an issue as I do now as I was optimistic on it's better elements.

Also the stakes are not set up THAT high (high in concept but not in execution 24:54) as we do not see how much the finding of the Dial matters to our characters.

This movie butchered the late 60's feel that it potentially could've pulled off really well (11:00) in comparison to the previous movie. They do not mention or bring as a theme the Cold War at all, which would've been great if they had actually done, nor even the Space Race specifically as it relates to it, except for the line "Ooh, look, the Astronauts!" which was only as means to say Indy's old archeology talk is outdated in comparison to the new.

Generally, script quality was overall a very lacking element, as the dialogue is stilted and the plot flawed, simple, and cliché. Therefore I ultimately hold this movie lower than Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Ignore that I said that movie is inferior.

Lastly I would like to bring up the Steven Soderbergh cut of Raiders of the Lost Ark. This cut desaturates the movie to be black and white and removes all audio, to show how the staging of this movie's cinematography is expertly crafted and calculated. This shows how amazing this movie is, how the shots are spectacular and full of ingenuity, and how good the lighting is as well, this movie looks AMAZING black and white. Raiders of the Lost Ark is a classic movie that can never be dethroned even by Disney.

--Timestamps--
Before Movie: 00:00
After Movie: 09:25
SPOILER ZONE: 26:46
The Future of Indiana Jones: 36:03

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