Was that an actual complaint people had about Kingdom of the Crystal Skull? That it used the Soviets as bad guys?
Because, that's the one criticism I do not agree with if that is the case.
Everything else, the Atomic Bombs, the bizarre casting like Shia Le Beouf as Indiana's Son, Indiana's son in general, the awful write offs of Marcus, Sallah and Henry Jones Sr, the CGI monkeys, the overuse of CGI, the aliens.... I get all of that and hate most of those things. But the Soviets were not on my radar of dislikes.
I discover my own destiny as I command the winds of life!I mean the Soviets are the logical enemies for Indy after the Nazis were crushed. Being a rival superpower, of course they would want artifacts of doom to get an edge over the United States. Plus they have all those cool equipments and weapons. Why wouldn't you want Indy to fight some Soviets?
And surviving Nazis are not a bad idea as well. It's just that Voller, being a Nazi who hates Adolf Hitler for losing the war, would have benefited from modernizing his Nazi faction to be more akin to HYDRA. Him wearing his old uniform and riding on an old WWII plane really distracts from his unique take on Nazism. Maybe that's the point, but there's a reason why Dial of Destiny feels more like nostalgia bait than something building upon where Crystal Skull left off in terms of era.
It's because of that "Force Awakens/Live Action Disney Remake" style of nostalgia baiting that I never saw the dial of destiny when it came out. And unfortunately I won't really wanna watch it anyway.
I probably will at some point because I should force myself to see it, but I have to be in the right mood.
Also, the title still sounds stupid to me. It sounds like a knock off suicide hotline.
I discover my own destiny as I command the winds of life!From what I heard, the main reason they went with Soviets in Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (aside from the fact the film was shot about 20 years after the original trilogy) was that Spielberg didn't feel comfortable depicting Nazis as over-the-top cartoonish bad guys after he directed Schindler's List. After making a serious drama about the horrors of the Holocaust, it was kind of hard for him to get back in the pulpy mindset again when came to depicting them as villains.
Dial of Destiny felt more akin to the original trilogy to me and that helped it build a lot of good-will. I also get the sense though that they went through the motions in other areas too however. With Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, you had Spielberg still leading the way and that in many ways helped.
That's not to say James Mangold wasn't a great choice. He definitely was. It felt like he wasn't the one in charge though, much like Chris Columbus directing Pixels and yet it still didn't feel like one of his movies.
DVD was ordered yesterday. Should arrive in the mail tomorrow.
Honestly the thing that bothers me about Crystal Skull isn't something I hear listed in criticism all that often: it's weirdly bloodless.
Now there's lots of action scenes I absolutely love in that film; the fight on the rocket sled, the fight in the army ants, heck the whole fight on the ticks in the jungle was a great sequence in terms of action and slapstick, but aside from the guy eaten by ants all lot of that slapstick felt like it lacked weight, ESPECIALLY at the conclusion where Cate Blanchett's demise feels disappointingly nothing despite being the big conclusion. Actually the third act all together feels really bad for it.
I think the theme for the fourth film; Indi is out of his home era and dealing with something new is an excellent idea, but was mistimed for what was a return to the franchise after two decades. If there had been a film released in the 90s that depicted Indi in world war 2 in his fifties (not necessarily fighting Nazis, you could have taken him to any of the theatres of war) the premise likely would have been far more welcome.
Raiders, Temple, and Crusade all had one really shocking moment of blood or gore.
- Raiders: the scene with the Ark being opened and Toht's face getting melted off.
- Temple: the scene where a man gets his heart ripped out.
- Crusade: the scene with Donovan rapidly aging and decaying into dust.
Crystal Skull had a couple moments that could qualify: that one guy being eaten alive and carried off by army ants, and the Big Bad getting disintegrated by the alien knowledge forcefully downloaded into her brain. But neither really felt as shocking as the ones from the first three movies.
I don't know if Dial has any scenes like that. I haven't watched it, nor do I plan to watch it.
Edited by M84 on Dec 30th 2023 at 4:27:52 AM
Disgusted, but not surprisedThe giant guy's death in Dial of Destiny is utterly free of gore but for me is horribly gruesome, with him being trapped under water and drowned, drowned by the kid of all people.
The conclusion doesn't really have any stand out deaths for the remaining bad guys but is so delightfully chaotic with them all panicking I don't mind at all.
Edit:
I always thought people getting torn apart and eaten by crocodiles was the bloodiest part of Temple.
Edited by Whowho on Dec 29th 2023 at 12:34:52 PM
Watched Dial of Destiny yesterday.
Honestly not impressed.
Among other things I really dislike the Happy Ending Override.
Edited by jawal on Dec 30th 2023 at 9:15:56 PM
Every Hero has his own way of eating yogurtI vaguely recall some people were mad that Crystal Skull didn't use the Nazis again. Ignoring how Temple of Doom didn't use the Nazis either (albeit I have *MANY* complaints about Temple of Doom's orientalism) and Spielberg's well-documented experiences with Schindler's List leaving him VERY emotionally drained from using the Nazis as generic bad guys (if Schindler's List is a harrowing experience to watch, imagine MAKING it), the Soviets were used as bad guys for reasons that really make a lot of sense. Taking advantage of Ford's age is one thing, but the homage to Cold War-era sci-fi pulp naturally lends itself to Soviet villains.
Even if Dial of Destiny wasn't gory, it had an impressive/oppressive bodycount certainly. It wasn't shy about that. Klaber was killing people left and right, not to mention Voller personally pulling the trigger on Renaldo being particularly savage—as well as his overall plan to basically go back and win WWII as well.
DVD came yesterday. Definitely interested to see how it holds up on a rewatch at some point soon.
Edited by futuremoviewriter on Dec 30th 2023 at 11:48:42 AM
Seen the other four many times, but don't want to rewatch Dial of Destiny even if it's on D+ since December began. The good moments, specially the opening in WWII, are just not enough, particularly as seeing Indy as a miserable old man is just too melancholic to experience again.
The movie did make me push Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine up my game list, and made me think if the franchise could be kept alive through cartoons adapting the expanded universe (games, books, and comics), if only to make larger audiences discover those stories.
There's a game that I haven't played in a long time! (I ended up selling my copy some years ago.)
I remember enjoying it. ^_^
My Games and Asset Packs
The old expanded universe was regarded as little more than official fanfiction. Probably because old serial's tended to have Negative Continuity anyway.

I think Dial of Destiny is liked more than Kingdom of the Crystal Skull it seems. Would that be about right?
The DVD for Dial of Destiny is gonna be part of the DVD Christmas Haul I do after Christmas every year. Have to wait until the end of the week this year though because certain payments need to go through first.
Edited by futuremoviewriter on Dec 26th 2023 at 10:03:17 AM