they tried convincing me that it had the most heart and was closest to Spielberg's intentions. it's not my least-favorite Indy movie (Temple still ranks there, and i haven't seen Dial yet), but the other Spielberg ones are right there, and they're fantastic and earnest in a way that Crystal Skull just isn't, imo.
the nicest thing I can say about Crystal Skull is that when I went back and watched it a little while ago with my son, it wasn't quite as awful as I remember thinking it was in theaters. It is still pretty bad though. The digital look and over-reliance on CGI simply cannot hold a candle to Douglas Slocombe's masterful and gorgeous visuals. Everything else aside, I really do wish they had toned down the digital color correction, and tried to avoid CGI like they originally said they were going to.
yeah, i definitely remember having fun when i saw it in theaters back when it first released, but i'd never call it a "good" movie, especially with the CGI. Spielberg has always had a particular look and feel to most of his films that just doesn't need excessive CGI (one of many reasons i hated Ready Player One). and if CGI is involved to a large degree, at least make it look convincing.
Crystal Skull is not that bad, and it looks like it will be the last time we will get George Lucas' weirdness.
It really suffers from the divide between Spielberg not really wanting to do it and George Lucas pushing it. It definitely is not as good as Raiders of the Lost Ark or The Last Crusade but I would much rather rewatch it than the fifth movie.
The Disney acquisition of Lucasfilm, the Jurassic World series, Alien Romulus, and the Marvel films have created an interesting divide between bad films that have some unique qualities and films that might be "better" but are so tightly controlled and lifeless that there is little to remember.
I still can't objectively judge Dial of Destiny, because it's the first movie my son and I watched in theaters that we both genuinely wanted to see, the first time I wasn't just taking him to a kids movie, and my dad had taken me to see Last Crusade when I was basically the same age as my son was when we saw DoD. we have a picture of us up on the wall where my wife printed out a selfie I took of us two at the theater.
i haven't actively avoided Dial, and have had a passing interest in it for Phoebe (and because it's the only one i haven't seen), but it definitely didn't feel like this high-priority release, so it's just sat lower in my queue for a bit. i will probably get around to it soon though because a) i've been wanting to show my partner Raiders forever, and b) i picked up the Switch 2 port of the Great Circle last month, and since that slots in between Raiders and Last Crusade, i figure i might just rewatch everything.
maybe he should charm his way into some better humor (and also to not promote AI short films, the same ones that AMC customers complained about to the point where they pulled out of exhibiting them - idk if Marcus ever did)
The best recent old franchise revival play was definitely Prey, then I think it kinda reverted back to the tropes of the other franchises you mentioned with Badlands.
Universal's always had the Jurassic Park rights, correct? think they just felt like rebooting it over a decade ago
Is Spielberg starting a trend where directors are in the trailer? I want the Odyssey trailer feat. Nolan