re: Report: Kathleen Kennedy keen on replacing Indiana Jones with a female

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But the problems with Crystal Skull weren't because of Harrison Ford, were they?

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Nope.

To me the two biggest issues were the overall story line was a mess and Spielberg lying his arse off about going back to practical effects when there was a ton of bad CGI that as the movie worse on became more and more distracting.

Story wise the Ox and Mac characters should have been either/or both of Short Round and Sallah. Indy's motivation to save Ox rang hollow b/c he was supposed to be this really important figure in his life yet he'd never been mentioned before. Mac's entire thread would have easily gone from being mega predictable to surprising had he been a previously established character instead of a random person that we were supposed to believe had worked with Indy for decades.

As for the CG, right off the bat in the opening sequence the lighting for the outdoor scenes was so awful that it was obviously shot on green/blue screen. Shia Tarzaning w/the monkeys, the infamous nuking the fridge, and the ending scene w/the crystal skulls were also large offenders. I think if the lighting hadn't been so piss poor, the monkeys/nuked fridge been removed or toned way down, and the finale used practical effects it would have done the movie a TON of good. Especially w/the ending part. It blows my mind they went with an almost entirely CG end sequence when the movie was supposed to be somewhat of an homage to 50s sci fi.

It's really sad too b/c I think there's a good movie in there had they just eschewed some of the CG and leaned harder into fan service by bring back more old characters instead of making up new ones.