Mutt continues to swing through the trees like Cheetah, then does one last leap from the vine (like his dad in the first Indy film when he swings on that vine into the river) and lands back in the jeep with his monkey gang who commence to beating on Spalko.

I did like Stuart's script, and hope to read Koepp's script at some point. I liked the final film, but I have problems with the script as presented on screen.

Oh really? You fucking idiot. Try taking a look at your useless posts on this site and get back to me.

1) Indy is apparently unafraid of snakes in this script. What?

2) The implication is that these aliens (who are mean in this script) are why people have believed in God for thousands of years. Didn't the first movie deal with the Ark of the Covenent (which contained the 10 commandments) and the third deal with the Holy grail? Wouldn't that completely contradict those two movies?

Having aliens in the movie don't mean anything in and of itself, but using them to suggest that people falsely believe in God is a MAJOR plothole.

David Koepp smeared cum on my neck.

Thanks for listening.

I'm proud to say that unlike you morons, I have not given Lucas a single penny of my money since Attack Of The Clones. And even then I'm kicking myself that I didn't bow out after TPM.

Having said that, I WOULD have gone to see CITY OF THE GODS. It's not perfect - but it's not as terrible as CRYSTAL SKULL seems to be. Of course, there is one unsurmountable problem with the Darabont script and it's on the very first page: STORY BY GEORGE LUCAS.

I TOLD YOU SOOOOOOOOO!!!! VALIDATE MEEEEEEEE!

Seriously, though, this news item literally killed pdfscreenplays for good. Go and see.

What'd I think of the finished movie? I enjoyed it while watching it. Much of dialogue has that tinny cheese Lucas/"Titanic" Cameron quality. I'm glad I knew about the alien/saucer ending going in. The reason I knew is because someone blurted out it in the lobby before I entered the theatre. By knowing, I figured I was saved some groaning. What I liked best was simply seeing Indy back in action, the simple presence of Indiana Jones onscreen. Ultimately though, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is pretty forgettable. I haven't thought about it much since the one time I saw it. I doubt I'll bother with the DVD.

Having read the takbacks over the last few weeks and reading / listening to various reviews, I went in fully expecting to be disappointed...and I have to say, I came out pretty fucking satisfied.

I agree 100% that Lucas should (a) never be allowed behind the camera (b) never be allowed to write dialoge and (C) should only be allowed a total of 3 CGI shots in a film......all of which were elements that dragged the film down (except for the first one - at least Spielberg was directing....and it was worth the ticket price alone to see the mushroom cloud and Indy silhoutte.

Yes, the film had problem - Marion's an afterthought, John Hurt is criminally underused and Shia is.......well, he just is.

But people, it WAS fun. The IJ saga is firmly in mold of the Flash Gordon / Rocketeer serials of the 40's and 50's and they're simply not meant to be anything other than fun.

And whilst I have the utmost respect for FD, that script was way too top heavy with unnecessary characters and set pieces....although I really enjoyed the return of snake phobia.

Chill out, enjoy KOTCK for what it is.

I want to read IT, not read about someone talking about IT

so it would seem this film was destined to fail YEARS ago and NO amount of rewrites were EVER going to save it!

personally I had no problem with the Alien premise. Chariots of the Gods. Stargate. I GET IT. It was just so meh...

meh...

if EVERY SINGLE plot point on Indy4 wasn't made so goddamm OBVIOUS for Joe I'M STUPID Public maybe just maybe I would have actually enjoyed this film but I just find it difficult to be entertained when my intelligence is being insulted

Quality.

Do n't reveal your email like that.

But I still couldn't believe how bad the movie was.

I genuinely couldn't understand how professional filmmakers with years of experience could concoct such a shambolic mess that systematically destroys everything that was good about the franchise. I mean, if they had INTENDED to kill off the franchise, they couldnt have done a better job.

And then it occured to me.

They DID intend to kill the Indy franchise.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull has been DELIBERATELY designed to be abysmal. Just think about it:

Gophers; Nuking the fridge; promising there'll be no CGI and then drowning the movie in CGI; the fan-baiting Shia Leboeuf; interminable meaningless exposition; carrying around an unimpressive "crystal" skull made of tin foil and cling film that lazily gets them out of tight spots; falling off THREE waterfalls; Mutt swinging with the monkeys; bad ideas borrowed from the Mummy Returns; the flying saucer; bringing back Karen Allen but NOT bringing back marion Ravenwood; ending with a cheesy wedding; that final "passing the hat" scene.....

Guys, Indy 4 is THE BIGGEST PRACTICAL JOKE EVER PLAYED ON THE MOVIE-GOING PUBLIC.

Every last detail of KOTCS has been DELIBERATELY designed for MAXIMUM annoyance to the fans. It's blindingly obvious. This is George Lucas' revenge for the reception we've given the Star Wars prequels and the constant hatred directed at him. I guarantee, I GUARANTEE that Lucas bet Spielberg that the he could make the shittiest possible movie and that it would STILL be a huge box office smash. He set out to prove that we would swallow anything, no matter how stupid - and he's been proven right.

So there you have it, folks. The biggest practical joke ever pulled -and the joke's on us. You've just gotta laugh.

The one thing the script (and movie) is missing is an opening scene that is action-packed with an item unrelated to the rest of the film. Raiders had the temple/idol, Doom had the club/urn, Crusade had the train/Cross of Coronado. This script/movie needed the same introduction to Indy. KOTCS doesn't count because Indy was introduced coming out of a trunk and the warehouse scene was poorly done what with magnetic gunpowder and the sporadic magnetic qualities of the skull.

I can't believe this is the Darabont script I was jonesing to read the last couple years. Frank really created some dreadful dialogue and action sequences here. Like someone said above, it feels more like fanfic.

So, the hosting company has taken the site offline because the Darabont draft of Indy IV

"was found to be consuming an inordinate amount of processor time, to the point of degrading overall system performance".

But here's the good news:

"In addition to the technical issues surrounding the site causing high load, there is the legal issues around redistributing other peoples work. Screenplays are a form of expression and protected by copyright law. Fanfiction is a fairly clear area - while it is a copyright violation, most copyright holders do not care to enforce their copyrights regarding fan-fiction. However, for the actual screenplays for major Hollywood movies that have been produced, the story differs considerably. Even without a complaint, we can't allow you to host or link to unauthorized copies of such works.

I'm aware that this information is freely available on the internet, but I can also easily download the movies that these scripts are for from other sites on the internet. This does not affect the legality of the situation.

I'm sorry, but we won't be able to continue hosting the pdfscreenplays.net."

Oh, by good, I actually meant what the fuck. What about all of those other script sites? Hmm... I guess that's what happens when you try to be visionary. I can assure you this isn't the end.

“Keep on beginning and failing. Each time you fail, start all over again, and you will grow stronger until you have accomplished a purpose - not the one you began with perhaps, but one you'll be glad to remember.” - Anne Sullivan

In the meantime, you guys know how to find me. I'm the least hardest person to find on the internet.

Thanks, Sheridan Cleland

UPDATE: Here's what really happened in one of those moments of, "Gee, what could have caused that traffic spike?": http://www.aintitcool.com/node /37049

I'd like to know how much of this was ideas fed to Frank from George. Regardless, 80% of this script is crap.

2) Most of you who read it probably had a movie version of it running in your head -- a movie version of the script as if directed by the Spielberg of 1981-1984. I know I did. However, if the Spielberg who directed KOTCS had directed Darabont's script, it would in all liklihood still have been a feeble flick. Good Indy movies are always a combination of a great script and wonderful execution so that when one aspect falters a bit, the other can back it up. In KOTCS, the ideas were good, but the script AND the execution were below par.

What makes KOTCS ultimately so frustrating is how Karen Allen was utilized. As a talkbacker mentioned earlier, Karen Allen returned, but Marion Ravenwood did NOT. If they had just gotten the chemistry to work between Allen and Ford and made their reunion more believable, the other stuff would have been forgivable. Nuked fridges, CGI prairie dogs and lots of the other things that seem to make other talkbackers' balls itch didn't bug me one bit, but how they handled the Marion-Indy relationship did.

On a side note, not only is Mac a totally useless character, but the more I think about it the more it seems like he's moving through the film BACKWARDS. It's the funniest goddamn thing. His "big" reveals and actions are ludicrously out of place for the duration of the movie but would make much more sense and have a greater impact if they had been shuffled around a bit. Mac is like some guy who bumbled into the wrong movie and is trying to fit in. The biggest reveal, that he's double-crossed Indy happens in the first five minutes, when we have literally no interest in the character and thus no sense of betrayal when he turns the gun on Indy. It's like: "So?"

While I man-love Vern dearly, his review of KOTCS is way off.

This drop dead drunk one moment, sober enough to fight the next crap that Hollywood thrusts upon us got old a long time ago. Seriously, who thinks that nonsensical sewage is entertaining.

Too much dialog relying on the past movies hurts the script. If what was said above (about Koepp not wanting to put previous film dialog into KOTCS because it reads like fanfic), then I damn well applaud Koepp for it.

I'd have to agree - why hire the likes of Koepp only to have him 'punch up' a completed screenplay? He's not the kind of guy you hire for that. It would be like offering a massive contract to Boeing to put together your Estes model rocket for you.

Would you guys have preferred the Lucas and co. continued to make Indy movies through the 90s, even if one or two of them turned out to be duds?

Unlike STAR WARS, which is a long-running story, the serial nature of Indy pretty much allows for shifts in tone and premise from one movie to the next.

Everyone involved with this project was out of their f-ing minds.

Finally read the MiraJeff stuff on the Capone "Zohan" review TB. I think I've pieced the whole debacle together. Interesting to say the least. What I find intriguing is that AICN refuses to cover anything by Uwe Boll but fawns over steaming shitpiles of stuff like "Gone" and abortions like "Rise of the Silver Surfer." I'm not making excuses for Boll, I think he needs to crawl under a rock and stay there, but to paint him as the only guy in Hollywood producing trash is ludicrous. MiraJeff might have been a douche, but he has no less credibility than someone who thought Lady in the Water was cinematic gold.

Anyway, I'm getting off the subject here. Reading this script just riles up my anger over people who continue to give movies like "Crystal Skull" and "Spider Man 3" a pass while crapping on everything else. And leaves me dumbfounded how the filmmakers can look at these movies and not think they just squeezed out a corn-filled turd.

And guess what, it did. Check out the "Sons": http://www.theindyexperience.c om/films/indy_4_fan_scripts.ph p It does have a mini-Shia in it, but it's not bad for a fan script whose author tried to fake being Jeffrey Boam and got Lucasarts lawyers barking at him. It's better than Koepp's and definitely better than Darabont's, that's for sure.

I like the way he whinged because he got in trouble for turning up to do a review stoned. If this is a job for him, then he should have been fired on the spot.

As he wasn't getting paid, damn right they shouldn't accept anything with such obviously tainted judgement.

MiraJeff boxing Boll was indeed a dumbarse stunt. From the back and forth between MJ and Mori, it sounded like AICN refused to have anything to do with Boll, but now that you mention it, I do remember reading a review of Dungeon Siege (or whatever it was called) on this site.

Reading this script has ruined my day. A glass of scotch and a Celtics win tonight might redeem it, but this bitter taste isn't going away anytime soon.

Really though, I want to see the crib notes from Lucas that stated exactly what Darabont had to include.

The refrigerator flies through the air, blown away by the bomb's blast, and lands a safe distance away with a roll and tumble intact upon the desert floor, amid scorched earth and burning sage brush. And in typical Indy fashion, the refrigerator door opens, and our hero emerges unscathed and unharmed from the household appliance, and into AICN talkback history.

WTF??? Which are "cats"? Is that a dog? A cat? A cow?

I guess this is really Rapidshare's way of saying, "Forget it buddy, you ain't getting this file unless you pony up for paid access!"

FUCK. THEM.

And by the way, if anyone is even for a second thinking of sending me all kinds of junk and porno trash to my private email...

G'head! I trust TBers, especially warciples, proven heroes of the faith!

The HAT, on the other hand...

Still, as I've said above, It's clear that Lucas deliberately played a practical joke on fans by putting in so many elements designed to cause us maximum disappointment and annoyance. So, credit where it's due: the man definitely succeeded in what he set out to do.

but I think someone told me this is how you do it

How many times does it have to be said on these TBs. The Ark, the Grail, those were SUPERNATURAL elements so when they are unleashed, you regard them from a different perspective.

Jumping into a lead lined fridge and bouncing several miles and surviving atomic shockwaves and extreme heat is not supernatural, it's just idiotic.

90% of Americans believe in angels but less than 0.00001% believe I'm presenting banging Megan Fox, so we're ready to suspend disbelief when it comes to the supernatural, but turn our nose up at things that, based in reality, appear retarded.

It ain't the money. It ain't revisiting old times (because you'd think they'd at least REWATCH THE PREVIOUS FUCKING MOVIES). It ain't because there was an adventure that needed to be told. The Beards made this to show us that if they wanted to fuck with the franchises we loved, they could and would. It was to punish us for hating the STAR WARS prequels, which sucked. That's the only explanation that makes sense. I don't know what the fuck else would drive them all to make such a fucking "MEH" movie. God, was I bored during KOTCS...

All the supernatural / occult elements in the series, I process mentally in a different way, because Spielberg clearly presents them for what they are--religious objects or occurrences that exist in the realm of super-reality. A little preposterous, to be sure (like the ripping out of hearts and exploding of Nazi skulls), but so long as Spiel-Cas plays by those rules, it's okay. I can go along with that. If something weird or paranormal occurs in the movie, I can process it and accept it as long as it arises from that context.

But Indy is a hu-MAN. He bleeds. He gets tired. He is noble and has values, yet he is completely vulnerable to uppercuts and bullets like any other person. That's why we identity with him and his cause, and root for him along the way. We quietly rejoice in our little kiddy hearts inside when he escapes the hovitos temple, because we saw the risks he took, and he overcame them. Thrilling! The fundamental problem with the "nuclear fridge" stunt is that, although the peril is obvious, we all know from both history and SCIENCE that there is no container you can hide inside at ground zero of an atomic blast that will render you safe from the heat, shock, and radiation. EVEN if he survives the 3000 degree heat (or whatever), the jolt from the blast, the g-forces from the flight, and the impact from crash landing would shatter his bones and turn his insides to jelly. And it would be irradiated jelly. Instead of giving us a situation where Indy thwarts death against 1000/1 odds, Spielcas gives us a situation where Indy thwarts death, PERIOD, when we all know, as cool as it might look onscreen, NO ONE in his position could possibly survived. There WERE no odds to overcome; it was a pure cheat on the part of the moviemakers.

"...NO ONE in his position could possibly survived".

No shit. But then again, I didn't go to Indy 4 looking for anything even remotely resembling reality. I went to see cool shit up on the screen. And that's what I got. And that's why I wasn't disappointed. Or feel cheated in any way.

I ALMOST feel bad for you guys. You DID get cheated. And you WERE disappointed. Sucks to be you.

Magnetic gunpowder? Ummm, try stupid shit.

If I wanna see cool shit up on the screen, I'll freeze a turd and then fling it. I went in expecting entertaining shit.

Sounds like you didn't get what you were expecting. Like I said, sucks to be you.

Also, if you freeze your turd it won't stick to the screen when you fling it. It will just fall to the ground like an ice cube would. Simple physics, really. You shoulda stayed in high school.

My turds have a nasty habit of sticking to everything no matter the state of their molecules. Scientific North American did an article about it. Called the condition "turdus krazy glueus."

In the end, City of the Gods feels like an Indy fan film to me. Too many call-backs to earlier films (TWO times Yuri references the TAG-LINE from 'Doom'!, the idol/sand bag swap, etc.). The first two acts seemed like Darabont was just interested in winking at the audience rather than telling a story.

Until the climax. Once they get to the Ciudad de los Dios, I'm TOTALLY with the script. Indy shooting the skull between the eyes has to be the most awesome thing ever. I think I prefer this climax to that of any of the other films, including Raiders.

Still, Yuri was a weak character, the fifty villains were awful, especially compared to Blanchett's amazing Spalko. And I really missed Shia's Mutt, especially for the long stretch of the film where Indy is wandering around by HIMSELF.

And there were a ton of things stylistically wrong, such as subtitled dialog, and scenes which Indy wasn't there to witness. You almost wonder if Darabont had ever seen an Indy film before in his life, until he references 'Temple' again on the next page.

But in all, I think this script could have made a better film than the one we ended up, which for the record I do like. Darabont, given the following notes, could have written another draft that would be phenomenal.

1. Indy needs a sidekick. Maybe a son?

2. Reduce the villains. Give us a single interesting one that we can cast as name as.

3. Maybe have Indy visit the hanger from 'Raiders' at the beginning?

4. Rewrite Yuri as less annoying.

5. Lessen the fantastical bits, such as Oxley swinging from ropes and Indy being eaten by a snake (and keep Indy afraid of snakes, it's part of his character).

6. Keep references to the earlier films down to one or two. Remember that the audience is there to see THIS film, not the earlier ones.

http://tinyurl.com/3grxcq

http://media.movies.ign.com/me dia/382/382367/vids_1.html

So will this nuke the fridge? Or did the first one already do that?

He has Indiana get drunk and steal(!) the idol (from Raiders) in a parody/callback of the scene from Raiders. He has Indy not scared of snakes and then get eaten alive(!) by a giant one. He doesn't have Indy's son in it, so Indy himself gets to swing on vines (twice) and have a monkey poop on his chest (really). He has Indy and Marion recreate almost word for word far too many of their lines from Raiders. He doesn't have Spalko and instead has an almost excessive number of bad guys that seem more or less interchangeable.

He has the rocket sled sequence, he has the fridge sequence, and he has the waterfall sequence (only instead of surviving three waterfalls in a vehicle designed to be a boat they survive four waterfalls in a truck.) He has the UFO ending. He has red ants (but they're giant!) and a tree that catches the vehicle as it drives off the cliff and then springs back to wipeout pursuing bad guys. In fact he has so much that made it into the movie I feel like he should get a screen credit (and thus residual payments). Of course Jeb Stuart's draft has several of these things too (the ants, the fridge, the rocket sled) so who knows.

To be fair I did like the way he wrote Marion, the Crystal Skull itself (a visual indication of what happens when you look into its eyes), the Sallah cameo and the first (but not the second - why must both Henry Joneses get drunk?) scene with Indy's father... but Sean Connery retired so that would have had to be re-written even if they had gone with this script.

Totally different.

Which is fucking criminal considering it's an Indy film. Lucas should fist himself.

Now, someone send me free passes to Hulk and Panda.

Terrible show Beards, terrible. The worst thing is Diggers was right- it was a complete let down. Not Phantom Menarse bad, but still.

At least I'm right about Alien v Aliens. I can console myself with that.

With that in mind, this whole idea of Indy 4 being a joke doesn’t seem that far off the mark. Personally, I was expecting KOTCS to be more in line with the previous films, but as soon as I saw the Paramount logo dissolve into a gopher hill, a big smile came across my face. Plainly this was not going to be anything like the previous films. In fact, the very phrase, "Fuck you, fanboys," popped into my head. Lucas warned of this some time ago in an article (I don't know where it appeared, my friend told me about it). He said that Indy 4 was going to be like TPM. He was letting the fans know up front that this would not be what they expected, that in fact, they might very well be disappointed.

It makes sense as you watch KOTCS unfold. So much of it was out of the norm for Indy (e.g. him running through a mock suburban neighborhood was just plain abstract), it was just laughable through and through. Had the movie been done in the early '90's, we may have seen something more in line with the first three films (though I believe the macguffin, or at least the alien angle, still would have been the same from what I gather). But things as they are, and the principles, as old as they are, taking a more lax attitude toward the project, we’ve got an Indy that could not possibly have been taken seriously from the start. The idea of a 60+ Indy in action must have been a bit of a joke in Lucas’s mind for some years now, and so why not let it be just that, and get a little comeuppance against all the pissy fanboys who fail to see the true intentions behind his work (side note: is it just me, or is Anakin Skywalker in AOTC a perfect reflection of those very fanboys?).

I enjoyed KOTCS if for nothing more than the thought that indeed Lucas and Spielberg had pulled a fast one on the fanboy crowd, while at the same time delivering a summer movie that would certainly please casual moviegoers and make a ton of cash for their production companies. Personally, I was hoping for something else. KOTCS certainly was not what an Indy movie should be, IMO, but yeah, what could I really expect? Why be angry at the Beards? They’re trying to keep up production companies that are not cheap, and this was easy money, no doubt. If you feel they’ve treaded on something sacred, I’d check that egocentric sense of nostalgia and say, in the immortal words of Gold Leader, “Loosen up!” Sit back and have a big jolly gut laugh at what happened and understand we’ll never have the likes of Raiders again. Or perhaps it’s just time for the next great filmmakers to step up and deliver.

There, my treatise on KOTCS for what it’s worth, and my will imposed upon ye of too much faith (in Indy and Star Wars at any rate).

That said, I do recall the Lucas quote about people being disappointed just they way they were with TPM, but I think the context of that quote was truly in relation to "you can't please everyone" and that those Indyfans who had been clamoring for another Indyfan would hate it the same way so many SW fans clamoring for the prequels hated them.

Now, maybe Lucas knew that no matter what, this film woul dmake good bank domestically and overseas and that itself made it a cash cow worth producing. And Lucas and crew knew that he could essentially do it all "his way" and still get away with a buncdle of cash, Thus he can put all the gopher shots and stumbling from nuked fridges, and Shia-loving monkeys he wanted in there and not really have to give a shit about whining "fans" because he and his crew would still laugh all the way to the bank.

Maybe that supports the "fuck you, fanboys" argument, i dunno...but it was very much a "Diet Indy" Indiana Jones movie.

Hooded- when I read your first post, it immediately struck a cord, for as I said, I previously posted on the “fuck you, fanboys” premise myself, which is in line with your idea of it all being a big joke. I guess my argument falls somewhere inbetween what you and Finky089 have to say.

When I first saw KOTCS, the flip of the finger idea was in the back of my head the entire time, which as a fanboy foil actually helped me to enjoy the film. I was indeed laughing through it all. I left the theater feeling I'd seen one of the strangest movies I'd ever seen. Not a bad movie per se, just strange. It certainly wasn't what I expected. I had it in mind that KOTCS was going to tie back into Raiders, that Lucas was (as he did in TPM) going to push the idea that there is a scientific explanation for everything and the holy artifacts from the previous films, or at least the ark, were put here by aliens. The ark was an alien transmitter, and all the mystical happenings could be explained as some otherworldly manisfestation. That's more of what I was hoping for, but once I saw the gopher hill, I pretty much had to toss all expectation out the window. It was, however, still biting at me that it wasn't the Indy film I was hoping for and I saw KOTCS again the following night putting all pretense asiede, and watched it with a far more relaxed frame-of-mind. I got the vibe of the crowd and was able to enjoy a very fun movie, just as any casual moviegoer would. There was no intention on GL and SS’s part to deliver anything more than a fun-filled summer action movie. It could not have been anything on par with the previous films for they are simply older and have a different frame-of-mind themselves these days.

I do think Lucas hates the hater fanboys. Does he beat himself up for creating the monsters? I doubt it. After all, if they truly understood what his work is about, they'd find it in themselves to stop whining (as Luke does in ANH), take on that sense of self-responsibility (as Luke does in ROTJ) and become something truly great themselves. Or as I like to put it, there's no excuse for being bitter, only every reason to be better. Corny to be sure, but as I also like to say, the truth is often corny (or the last thing you want to hear).

I don't think so!

It's true that an intelligent person can convincingly argue that black is indeed white, but with all respect to your powers of persuasion, I don't think you'll have many converts on this issue! Because no matter how cleverly you explain and defend the prequels you can't get around the fact that they're just terrible movies. But as you say, that's a discussion for another day!

Now I've read the Darabont draft (for draft it is) for Indy 4. Although it has its share of problems and moments of silliness, it is STILL unquestionably better than the version that made it to the screen. Here's why:

1. It's entertaining. It's fun. I was far more intrigued and entertained whilst READING THE SCRIPT than I was in my entire time WATCHING the Crystal Skull movie - which bored and irritated me in equal measure. And that by itself is completely damning

2. No matter how weak or silly individual moments were, no matter how questionable the overall premise may be, at least the Darabont draft had a consistent theme and structure. It had a beginning, a middle and an end. And everything logically led to the ending. In that way it fulfilled the basic requirements of a story. By contrast, the Crystal skull movie was a confusing mess - a hodge-podge of unrelated, half-baked scenes that clearly made no sense EVEN TO THE FILMMAKERS. But at least the story made sense in the Darabont draft because every plot element was linked together and given the necessary time to develop. This is basic story-telling we're talking about; it was absent in the Crystal Skull movie.

3.In Darabont's script, Indiana Jones IS Indiana Jones. Marion Ravenwood IS Marion Ravenwood. Moments of silliness aside, their characters have been kept reasonably consistent with regard to how they were established in Raiders Of The Lost Ark. AND that great chemistry they had in ROTLA is front and centre in Darabont's draft. It's the right choice and it gives the story some much-needed emotional heft. Compare this to the weak, watered-down Indy and the non-existant Marion in Crystal Skull. An utter disgrace and a missed opportunity - especially in the case of Marion. She's NOT Marion at all. She's Karen Allen who has bizarrely walked onto the set and is just hanging out. The marriage at the end of City Of The Gods MAKES PERFECT SENSE and fits in - as opposed to how it was handled in Crystal Skull, where it was tacked-on and absurd.

4. Finally, you can feel a real affection for and understanding of the Indy saga in Darabont's script - which is a far cry from Crystal Skull which feels like Lucas is deliberately trying to destroy the franchise.

Cheers!